Archive for February, 2010

Helping Bawjiase Orphanage

Thursday, February 11th, 2010

Earlier today energy4everyone returned to Bawjiase Orphanage and donated various cooking and lighting energy technology and started improving the orphanage’s access to modern energy.  Importantly, all of the technologies donated were affordable and sustainable for the orphanage.  In total, energy4everyone donated four energy efficient charcoal cook stoves, two solar lanterns and twenty crank-powered torches.

All of the staff and children at the orphanage were extremely thankful for the donation of equipment and were looking forward to using the equipment.  In particular, they were very excited about having improved access to light and some of them busily set about turning levers to charge the torches.  The prize: readily available light!  Certainly, seeing the smiles on their faces was very satisfying and reiterated the value of our work and what energy4everyone is striving to achieve.

The donation of four efficient cook stoves for cooking enabled the orphanage to switch from using fire wood to charcoal.  The efficient nature of the cook stoves, due to the ceramic liner, means that they retain heat far better than firewood stoves or traditional charcoal cook stoves.  Consequently, the orphanage will be able to save money on its cooking energy costs.  The orphanage estimates that the cost of a three week supply of firewood is approximately GHc 300 (Ghanaian Cede), which is approximately USD 200.  This is in contrast to their estimate of approximately GHc 90 for a three week supply of charcoal; potentially, a huge saving.  In addition, the efficient cook stoves produce little or no smoke and will therefore reduce the health risks to the people preparing the food.

The other area that energy4everyone was able to assist the orphanage was lighting.  Very few of the buildings at the orphanage have lighting and there is no lighting in any of the twelve classrooms.  As a result, the children cannot study in the evening, and walking around the orphanage grounds is dangerous because of snakes, which cannot be seen in the dark.  By providing the two solar lanterns, the orphanage now has light in an outside communal area and the twenty crank-powered torches, which are charged by physically turning a lever, can be shared among the children when they walk from building to building.

Over the coming months we will monitor the effectiveness of the energy technology donated, as well as research and discuss the appropriateness of alternative energy technologies with the orphanage.  This will ensure that energy4everyone continues to make best use of its physical efforts and financial resources, as it improves the lives of the children at Bawjiase Orphanage.

To view photographs of the orphanage and the energy technology donated to the orphanage, go to our Flickr pages at www.flickr.com/energy4everyone.

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Efficient Cook Stove Project Launch

Tuesday, February 9th, 2010

Yesterday, energy4everyone, together with its local partner Innovative Finance (www.myinnovativefinance.com), launched the energy efficient cook stove project at Adabraka Fish Market in Accra – and it was a huge success.

The efficient cook stoves, which Ghanaians call coal pots, burn 40% less charcoal than traditional cook stoves.  As a result, the beneficiaries save money as they don’t need to buy as much charcoal.  The cook stoves are more efficient because they have a ceramic liner that retains the heat.  In addition, the efficient cook stoves produce less smoke and, indirectly, decrease deforestation because less charcoal is used.

This first phase of the Adabraka project had identified between 100 and 150 vendors that wanted efficient cook stoves.  Originally, we had scheduled two days to distribute the stoves at the market.  However, the stoves were so popular that all of them had been assigned and distributed in four and half hours!  Not only that but we also have a new list of vendors who expressed an interest in obtaining an efficient cook stove if, or hopefully when, there is a second phase to the project.

The Adabraka Fish Market energy efficient cook stove project utilizes a subsidized micro-finance model.  To achieve this structure, energy4everyone partnered with Innovative Finance, a local Ghanaian micro-finance institution that has the network and expertise in providing micro-finance in Accra.  energy4everyone funded the purchase of the efficient cook stoves in advance and, along with Innovative Finance, distributed them to the vendors, once they had passed the appropriate credit checks.  The vendors will then repay the amount of the efficient cook stove over a period of two or three months.  Without this ‘loan’ the vendors either could not afford an efficient cook stove or the interest rate charged by lending institutions would make the purchase far more expensive.

Both energy4everyone and Innovative Finance will monitor the project and the repayment profiles over the next few months to see what beneficial revisions need to be made to the structure and process for any future project phases.

You can view the photographs of the project launch at Flickr www.flickr.com/energy4everyone.

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“Energy Crisis Looms”

Sunday, February 7th, 2010

Let me be clear – this is not my prediction for or comment on Ghana.  Rather it is the front page headline that ran in Thursday’s Daily Graphic, one of Ghana’s most popular and country-wide newspapers.

According to the Daily Graphic article, the ability of the Volta River Authority (“VRA”) to generate hydro-electricity is in “serious crisis” because of a failure by a number of companies and ministries, departments and agencies to pay the VRA what they owe it.  In addition, the VRA says that the cost of producing the hydro-electricity is greater than the revenues it obtains from selling it, and so they’re seeking a tariff adjustment.  A spokesperson for the VRA estimated the loss to be 50% of its production cost.  Other contributing factors to the problem were inflation and rising crude oil prices.  However, the fact that a spokesperson for the VRA was willing to go on the record does provide, I think, some indication of how seriously the VRA views the situation.  Only time will tell.

Anecdotally, I had been told that power rationing often occurs at this time of year, and has been occurring, and I have experienced it first-hand on my visit.  I was visiting a friend, here in Accra, when the power was rationed to that neighbourhood.  The solution: a large diesel generator to power all the air conditioning units, fridges, freezers and lighting until the grid came back online in that neighbourhood.  And these generators are powerful – 20 KVa.  To those of you that are technically minded that will mean a lot more to you than me!  However, these units come at a cost, which can run into the thousands of U.S. dollars, and probably the equivalent to a family saloon car.  For those that can’t afford such luxuries, torches, solar lanterns, candles and kerosene lamps are used as alternative lighting sources.  So regular are such events, that households can actually have special lights, connected to the grid line that runs outside their homes, to indicate when the grid power is on or off, regardless of the time of day.

While the grid is used by households to power electrical appliances and lighting, people typically use liquefied petroleum gas (“LPG”) for cooking.  Electric ovens are available, and are used, but because of the relative high cost of electricity, it is seldom the first choice of cooking energy.  When LPG cannot be sourced, or if people cannot afford to purchase it, charcoal cookstoves are often used (LPG is usually the same or lower cost, but charcoal can be bought in small quantities if required, whereas LPG is bought in canisters of various sizes, typical to the ones North Americans use for barbeques).  Unfortunately, the supply of LPG has been an issue over the last six months when I’ve visited Ghana, with many distribution stations out altogether, leading to a lengthy search process for people trying to fill up their canisters.

Such issues likely take a toll on the Ghanaian economy.  However, the one energy that Ghana will never run out of is the human kind.  Regardless of what issues they face, the people, some of whom I’m fortunate to call my friends, continue with their everyday tasks throughout, employing the necessary contingencies available to them to mitigate such rationing.

Remember, you can continue to keep updated on what energy4everyone is doing by following us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/energy4everyone or by viewing our photos on Flickr at www.flickr.com/energy4everyone and on our website Project pages at www.energy4everyone.com.

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Thankful for What I’ve Got

Thursday, February 4th, 2010

Earlier today I had the opportunity to visit the Bawjiase Orphanage, approximately 1.5 hours drive outside of Accra – and I certainly felt thankful for what I’ve got after visiting.  This was my second visit to an orphanage since I started working for energy4everyone, the first visit being to an orphanage in Tanzania, last September.  While not as desperate or small as the orphanage in Tanzania, Bawjiase Orphanage still has many fundamental needs.

And these basic needs are multiplied when you account for the approximately 120 children, ranging in age from two months old up to their late teens, along with approximately 10 adults based at the orphanage who help look after them.  To give you some context, to feed meat to all 130 occupants at the orphanage for one meal, they need 15 ducks or 20 chickens – no wonder then that most of their meals consist of beans, other vegetables or fruit.

In fact, the quantity of food needed at each meal time is so large that the orphanage requires two outdoor kitchen areas, both with two huge firewood cooking stoves.  Unfortunately, because all of the cooking stoves only use firewood there is a huge amount of smoke during the cooking process.  This thick soot has blackened the walls of the kitchen areas – and you can only imagine what the long term effect of this is on the inside of people’s lungs.

And the financial cost of such large quantities of firewood is also a heavy one.  The orphanage spends approximately GHc 300 (Ghanaian Cede), which is approximately USD 200, for three weeks supply of firewood.  Now I don’t have my home energy bills to hand (as exciting a read as they are!), but I would estimate my monthly energy bills for all the utilities and energy I use would be at or only marginally more than this amount.  Yet, if you were look at the per capita income levels in Ghana and Canada you would note that they are quite different.  So again you can see the increased financial burden that communities in need suffer in terms of their energy usage: more difficult to source the energy and more costly to purchase it, regardless of the energy type.

In addition to cooking energy issues, the orphanage also has lighting needs, the overarching one being that it has almost no lighting!  Some of the buildings are connected to the grid.  However, most of the buildings that are connected do not have working electricity because of wiring issues.  But most of the buildings do not have lighting of any sort, including all of the on-site classrooms, so none of the children can study or do homework after dark.  But not only does the lack of lighting lead to a slower pace of education, there’s a safety issue at play.  Because of the geographic location of the orphanage and because they try and grow some of their own food crops, there are snakes in and around the orphanage.  So even walking from the communal social area to the buildings where the bedrooms are located can pose some serious safety risks.

I certainly hope that energy4everyone can help Bawjiase Orphanage, even if it is just small measures at first – as the head of the orphanage said to me today “even a journey of a thousand miles starts with one small step”.

If you’d like to see some pictures of Bawjiase Orphanage, please go to energy4everyone’s Flickr site at http://www.flickr.com/energy4everyone and look at the folder titled Ghana – Bawjiase Orphanage 2010/02.

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