4. Ethiopia: Energy Efficiency

          
Project Objective
The project aims to disseminate and install fuel-efficient stoves in Ethiopia and, to support the development of a sustainable business model for promotion of energy efficient stoves.

Description
Cooking in social and commercial institutions in Ethiopia is mostly done over open fire using large volumes of wood. The project aims to improve the institutional cooking efficiency within the social institutions. During the project 250 energy efficient institutional Rocket biomass stoves will be installed in 100 schools and several universities and correctional facilities in Ethiopia. The impacts of the Rocket stoves include reduced fuel wood consumption and as a result reduced deforestation. It will also lead to GHG mitigation, creation of new businesses for production and installation of the efficient stoves as well as reduced fuel expenditure for social institutions. The project will also have health and social benefits as the exposure to indoor air pollutants will be reduced and the use of child labour for fuel collection will diminish. The project aims to develop a carbon finance strategy to finance continued operation of the stoves, their replacement and to expand benefits to more schools and other social institutions..

Relevance for Climate Change
The project will have measurable results in climate change mitigation. The Rocket stoves will cut fuel wood consumption up to 70%. Since fuel wood harvesting and use in the project area is not sustainable any reduction of fuel wood demand translates into net reduction in CO2 emissions. Initial estimations suggest that the project has the potential to prevent approximately 5800 tCO2eq per year from being emitted. In addition, reduced deforestation will enhance natural CO2 sequestration.

Innovation and Knowledge Transfer
The project is innovative since it is the only project in Ethiopia that promotes biomass energy efficiency in the social sector. Furthermore, there are currently no CO2 mitigation projects in Ethiopia that benefit from carbon finance, through CDM or the voluntary market. During the project a carbon finance study will be prepared to find out possibilities for including carbon financing in similar projects in the future. The study will help to train Ethiopian experts in the development of small scale CDM projects. In addition, the project will transfer carbon finance know-how to local stakeholders working in the energy sector in Ethiopia as well as stove technology to commercial stove producers to expand the stove market throughout the country.

Implementation status as of November 2012 

• Project completed as planned with a key result of 256 institutional cook stove, out of 250 planned, distributed in Ethiopia.
• Environmental awareness booklets completed and distributed.
  Carbon finance assessment completed
• Final report submitted

For more information

Gaia Consulting Oy

Ethio Resource Group