Technologies changing the face of energy: biogas projects in Asia and Africa

(pic: cooking on biogas in Nepal)

In the first of a new series, Carla Jones highlights some impressive biogas projects in Asia and Africa.

The way biogas works is quite simple: take an airtight container (usually a brick chamber under the ground), fill it with some organic matter (manure, human waste or kitchen waste are the most common), and let the bacteria break it down. What comes out is biogas, that can be burned for cooking. The residue is a nutrient-rich fertilizer for crops.

Typically, a single fixed-dome biogas system is made from brick and sits underground. Many of our winners, though, have taken this design further. VK-NARDEP has developed a small bamboo-framed model, ARTI has designed a ‘balcony’ digester for apartments, and KIST in Rwanda has built a system of five interlocking chambers.

(KIST installing a large biogas system at a Rwandan prison)

Biogas has great potential in many settings. Schools, prisons, homes and farms can all benefit.


(Eating lunch cooked on biogas, Tania School, Kenya)

The chamber is fed from readily available organic components, from toilet sewage and livestock manure to kitchen waste.


(Portable household biogas plant in Kerala, India)

Imagine saving two hours a day of collecting firewood, avoiding the dangerous smoke from your kitchen, and ridding your community from the stench and danger of animal waste. For 100,000 pig-farming households in Vietnam, biogas is achieving just that. Elsewhere it is achieving even more. In Shaanxi Province, China, families have an extra $380 a year from saved fuelwood and the income from extra crops. Urban users of compact biogas systems in India save half of their LPG use. In Karnataka, India, SKG Sangha has ensured the residue from biogas increases its value through vermicomposting, which brings extra income.

And biogas helps the surrounding environment. In Shaanxi Province, China, each biogas digester saves 4.5 tonnes of fuelwood per year, avoiding deforestation in a region that suffers soil erosion and dust storms. In Rwanda, the KIST programme saves 1,000 tonnes of CO2 a year.

The most successful projects engage the end-user and wider community over the longer term. They employ and train local technicians to install the system and to provide after-sale service. The programme operated by the Vietnamese Ministry for Agriculture and Rural Development in partnership with the Dutch organisation SNV employs 1,800 masons who now, as a result of the success of the scheme, install as many systems as self-employed masons as they do within the government programme. The support from the Biogas Sector Partnership (BSP) in Nepal has helped to ensure there are 11,000 long-term jobs within the biogas sector. Their success is reflected in the regional development of technical capacity and demand in the sector as a whole.

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Best Ashden Moments 2010: Jo picks seeing the installation of a biogas plant in India

For the seventh in our end-of-year series, where members of the Ashden team choose favourite moments from the year, Jo Walton, head of communications, picks her trip to India and seeing the installation of a biogas plant at SKG Sangha.

For me it was visiting India and seeing some of our winners' work in action. After five years at the Ashden Awards, to actually see this work on the ground really making a difference, was incredibly inspiring.

It was wonderful to be there when they were the building a biogas plant at SKG Sangha! But I also saw SELCO's solar home systems lighting up people's homes and TIDE's solar greenhouses providing fresh food and an income for women and children. The trip was a great privilege.

See also:
Simon picks the publication of Power to Our Neigbourhoods
Carla picks the moment AIDFI won BBC World Challenge
Jane picks the moment the finalists arrived in London

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Putting the D into the CDM: Acquiring Carbon Finance for Development Projects

This post is to publicise a workshop that Gold Standard Project Developer CarbonAided, the Hedon Household Energy Network and Imperial College are holding on 15th June 2009

CarbonAided is helping Ashden Award winner SKG Sangha to access carbon finance to build bio-digesters to supply the cooking needs of 20,000 families in rural India

Later this year a landmark UN meeting will be held in Copenhagen to determine how the World will continue to combat global warming when the current regulatory period, under the Kyoto Protocol, ends in 2012. Many features of global carbon policy after 2012 have yet to be finalised, however policy makers in both the industrialised and developing world are emphasising that the Clean Development Mechanism will continue but must be improved to genuinely promote investment in projects that have real sustainable development benefits for the world’s poor.

The sentiments of UN policy makers and existing EU climate regulations have created a significant growth in demand and premium prices for credits created by projects with real social benefits, such as Gold Standard projects. Both the voluntary and compliance carbon markets have seen a growth in carbon finance available for development projects, as buyers demonstrate a preference for credits created by projects with identifiable positive social impacts.

CarbonAided and The HEDON Household Energy Network a project of Eco Ltd and Ch4nge have been working with companies, NGOs, charities, project developers and policy makers over the past few years helping them to participate in carbon markets and to increase the number of development projects that are able to access carbon finance. We have found that there is lack of understanding of the potential for carbon finance. We have also discovered a number of myths surrounding the process of developing projects and obtaining finance from carbon credits to implement them.

We will draw from our expertise to deliver an intensive one day workshop that will enable entities thinking about participating in carbon projects with social benefits to understand:

• The project cycle for carbon credit based projects
• How carbon markets work
• Carbon regulations, voluntary carbon markets and regulatory issues after 2012
• Whether or not carbon markets represent a viable source of funding for their activities
• The different carbon accreditation standards and those that should be sought
• Choosing between CDM and voluntary carbon accreditation
• Choosing between programmatic and non-programmatic approaches
• How carbon funding can be accessed - the processes, timelines and costs involved
• The risks and hurdles that project developers will face and how these can be overcome
• Sources of technical assistance and upfront funding

The workshop will be of benefit to:

• Companies, charities and NGOs that are interested to use carbon finance for their activities
• Low carbon technology providers that are looking to export their technologies to the developing world
• Sustainable investors
• Policy makers

Cost
Businesses: £740
Public sector and NGOs: £592
Students: £296
Developing country attendees: £148

The workshop will be held in London, UK, on 15th June. Spaces for this workshop will be limited to 30 so please indicate your interest in attending by completing the form as soon as possible. Please note that places will only be guaranteed on receipt of payment. Register your interest now and qualify for a 10% early bird DISCOUNT when it comes to booking your place!!!

Click here for more info

Click here to register your interest

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Financing domestic biogas plants

In October 2008 there was an international workshop on this topic, held in Bangkok and sponsored by the Netherlands Development Organisation (SNV).

Several past Ashden Award winners were at the workshop, including:

• Grameen Shakti
• SKG Sangha
• BSP Nepal
  

The proceedings, hosted by the HEDON website, are now available, click here to download them.

The conclusion notes that the provision of transparent and direct financial incentives to rural farmers is a key factor in the uptake of biogas plants in SNV projects, where the finance is only available for plants that meet the required quality standards. The provision of subsidies and/or credit specifically for biogas plants is needed because they don't offer a way of earning income, but instead offer the user a chance to reduce costs, so allowing them to afford to repay the money loaned.

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SKG Sangha wins competition

SKG Sangha, who won an Ashden Award in 2007 for their work with biogas plants that also produced good quality compost, recently won $5000 in a Case Study Competition, run by the Bordeaux Energy Colloquium - see their page on Facebook for details.

Mr Sagar, of SKG Sangha, said:

If we use this money for our projects, your contribution will not be reflected anywhere. Whereas, you are giving us this money as a token of appreciation which we want to be in a memorable shape. Hence, we shall use the money as part finance for our proposed training centre planned to train our beneficiaries, staff, students etc. We shall write your name as part funders for this training centre by that the contribution given by you will be visible for the years to come.

As part of our work we have to train each and every beneficiary on the running, maintenance of our units provided to the beneficiaries. We also can use the same facility to train the students who are coming to us for training from various Indian and foreign Universities as part of their Engineering/agricultural/s

ocial work. We also can use this facility for training our staff as well as staff from Government or other Institutions. The estimation for the training centre is about $40000. Last year we received £10,000 as prize money from Ashden Awards, London.

We have kept aside this amount also for our training centre. Now we have some Engineering Students from France who have come for practical training as part of their engineering course. Tomorrow we are getting two more students for training from France who are studying Agricultural Engineering. This training centre will help students from many countries apart from India. So, far the major beneficiaries are students from France. I believe education is the major tool for achieving socio-economic growth and to instil peace all over the world. I appreciate your support to a great cause.

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New SKG Sangha website

SKG Sangha has launched a new website, which can be viewed here:

www.skgsangha.org

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SKG Sangha wins Mother Theresa Excellence Award

SKG Sangha has been awarded the 'Mother Teresa Excellence Award'. The award was presented by Mr. M V Rajasekharan, a former minister in Government of India at a function in Bangalore on 24 May 2008.

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More news from SKG Sangha

SKS Sangha writes:

SKG Sangha has been approached by M/s KRISH COW FARMS & DAIRY PRODUCTS LTD, Mauritius recently to explore whether we can work for their projects in Mauritius. The team of 4 directors from Krish Farm has visited the office of Sangha at Kolar. They visited some of the installations by SKG Sangha. Now the team from Mauritius has offered us to take up work in Mauritius. We are preparing to send a team from SKG Sangha to Mauritius to take up work of installations and impart the technical knowhow to M/S. KRISH COW FARMS & DAIRY PRODUCTS LTD, Mauritius.

I trust that this is news for Ashden awards family as an Ashden Winner is taking up work in a foreign country.
Read more about SKG Sangha on the Ashden Awards website.

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