| Project type | Stoves |
| Project partner | text |
| Location | India |
| Standard | text |
| Status | text |
| Portfolio | text |
In the Punjab, schools cook their food on expensive liquid petroleum gas (LPG), a fossil fuel.
A lower emission alternative exists in biomass briquettes but producers are struggling to make a living; the existing stoves are not adapted for the use of briquettes and there is consequently little demand for the fuel. At the same time farmers are burning their crop wastes in the fields, losing a valuable energy resource.
Enter Ramesh Nibhoria (below in the stripy shirt) a local engineer and entrepreneur who solved three problems at once. He has developed the Sanja Chulha - literally 'combined cookstove' - which is specially designed to run on briquettes made from crop waste left over from the harvest.
Ramesh builds the stoves and sells them to schools on a "hire purchase" basis. As the cookstoves are half the price of the existing LPG stoves, schools are able to pay Ramesh back from their savings over an 18 month period. Ramesh can then fund new stoves elsewhere. But due to the long repayment period, operations are limited to only 3 stoves a year. To help Ramesh overcome this problem, Climate Care has provided a capital sum as a 'revolving fund', enabling an expansion to 50 units a year.
Environmental and social benefits
As the crop waste is a renewable source of energy, replacing a fossil fuel, the new stoves cut CO2 emissions whilst reducing schools' fuel bills. Local farmers, who can now sell their waste to the briquette makers, also benefit from a new source of income. And the stove has proved popular with the pupils themselves, who think the chapattis taste better!
1 biofuel school stove = 39 tonnes CO2 saved per year
Progress and Monitoring
ClimateCare has commissioned MITCON Consultancy Services Ltd. to write an independent report to monitor the emissions reductions achieved.