SOLAR COOK STOVES IN PERU - CARBON OFFSET
To provide Peruvian families with solar cookstoves in order to ensure their energy needs for food cooking and water boiling. The aim is to replace the traditional use of wood, gas or fuel.
CONTEXT
In Peru, cooking is mainly done with wood fire or gas. But for most poor families, wood fire is the main option, because gas is expensive. This generates a significant amount of land clearing. In addition, the use of wood fire has significant health repercussions due to the lack of ventilation in the houses. Each year, indoor air pollution causes 1.6 million deaths.
In the areas of Puno and Arequipa where the project is being developed, the use of solar energy aims to address these problems.
This project has two major objectives:
1. Improve the quality of life for rural populations by reducing the time spent collecting wood and by improving the health conditions within the homes.
2. Help fight climate change by reducing deforestation and the use of fossil fuels.
PROJECT
A solar cookstove is a piece of equipment used to capture sun’s rays in order to produce the heat required to cook food. It can reach a temperature of 150 to 200°C and provides a uniform and risk-free cooking, even without monitoring. Twenty minutes of sunlight per hour are enough to ensure its proper operation, which means it can be used in various geographical areas and at all seasons.
The project aims to distribute this equipment in the rural areas and urban peripheries of the Bolivian Andes.
The first step consists in training a group of at least 20 voluntary beneficiaries to organize training workshops. These 4-day workshops will help participants (mostly women) to build their own solar cookstove from local materials (wood, lama wool, etc.). During the workshop, the Inti Illimani teams train the future users on the construction and maintenance of the cookstove in order to make them autonomous. Following these workshops, regular and annual follow-ups are carried out to ensure the proper use of the cookstove and to identify any issues or obstacles related to their use. Such follow-ups are crucial to the continuous improvement of the training given by Bolivia Inti teams.
ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS
- Fight against climate change through a reduced use of fossil fuels
- Protect biodiversity by using less wood and reducing deforestation.
- Protect soil and prevent erosion.
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BENEFITS
- Reduction of health hazards for women.
- Improvement of education and the schooling of children.
- Creation of jobs and reduction in poverty through contributing know-how.
BOLIVIA INTI - SUD SOLEIL
The French NGO Bolivia Inti - Sud Soleil (BISS) is responsible for carrying out the project on the local level through teams of trainers in the La Paz region.
BISS has been working for the past 10 years on the theme of solar and ecological cooking by “putting the sun at the service of development”. Since 1999, BISS has made the construction of almost 10,000 solar cookstoves possible in the Andes (Bolivia, Peru, Chili, Argentina). Its action also involves raising awareness in the developed countries about the problem of energy access in the developing countries, and about reducing our ecological footprint.
BEGINNING OF PROJECT IN 2007
Cooking thanks to the sun - that is the idea launched by the NGO Bolivia Inti in 1999. That is also the commitment of one man, Robert Chiron, who returned from a trip in South America with a hopeful idea: free villagers from their dependence on wood and gas by using the infinite and free energy of the sun.
Since 2007, more than 1,700 solar cookstoves have been built, which brings over 10,000 the number of beneficiaries of this project.
PENDING GOLD STANDARD
The project is currently undergoing its Gold Standard validation, an internationally recognized label that guarantees the quality of carbon compensation projects (GS814).
The emission reductions are assessed at approx. 0.5 tCO2e per year per oven.
PROJECT NEWS
In Peru, 872 additional cookstoves were built in 2010. Their distribution was made possible by the setting up of 35 workshops in urban and rural communities.
The project is currently undergoing its Gold Standard validation, an internationally recognized label that guarantees the quality of carbon compensation projects (GS814).
One specific issue with this project was the determination of the NRB rate (non-renewability of biomass). A joint project with ENEA Consulting made it possible to determine that Peru has a NRB rate of 53%. This means the saving 2,200 tons of wood per year thanks to the project is equivalent to 1,166 ton of non-renewable wood, i.e. the avoidance of 2,000 tons of CO2e.
GOLD STANDARD METHODOLOGY
The project uses a methodology developed by Gold Standard: Indicative Program Baseline and Monitoring Methodology for Improved Cook-Stoves and Kitchen Regimes - v.02
In addition to the project eligibility criteria to be demonstrated in the PDD (Project Design Document), the methodology indicates the method for calculating the estimated emissions reductions. This method is based on comparing baseline and project scenarios, while adopting statistical correction factors to ensure conservative results. One source of greenhouse gas emissions is studied: the fuels used by the beneficiary family.
Finally, the methodology contains the monitoring plan required to ensure that the effective emission reduction calculation parameters are properly tracked throughout the project.
The project is registered with Gold Standard and validation is pending.
Gold Standard registration pending as a micro-scale project: GS814
