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Q&A: Africa’s $40B Market for Cooking Fuel Is Being Cleaned Up
KOKO Networks is stepping into Africa’s $40 billion market for household cooking fuel with its non-polluting bioethanol cooking technology that undercuts the cost of using charcoal by as much as 40%, Greg Murray, chief executive and co-founder of the Nairobi-based company, told BloombergNEF in an interview.
- Categories
- Energy
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Clean vs. ‘Clean Enough’: How the Clean Cooking Industry Can Overcome its Struggles to Scale
Access to clean cookstoves and fuels has only increased by 0.5% per year, well below all global development goals. To turn this trajectory around, Jessica Alderman at Envirofit International argues that the industry needs to resolve a high-stakes debate: Should it focus only on the cleanest solutions that have the greatest health and environmental impacts? Or should it fund and promote technologies that have lesser impacts - but that are more affordable and likelier to reach the people who need them most?
- Categories
- Energy, Health Care, Technology
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Smart Gas Cooking Seeks to Break African Cities’ Dirty Charcoal Habit
So far, efforts to introduce cleaner stoves that burn less fuel have been led mainly by aid agencies working in rural parts of Africa and Asia - and have had limited success. But a new push by businesses targeting urban areas aims to shift the dial.
- Categories
- Energy
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Press Release: BBOXX Unveils New Initiative to Help Tackle the Global Clean Cooking Crisis
Mansoor Hamayun, CEO and Co-founder, BBOXX, said: “The BBOXX Cook initiative in Rwanda is an exciting step for us as a next generation utility. We are showing that our model works: the technology that we have used to provide access to clean, reliable and affordable electricity is being expanded to include clean cooking solutions and we have big ambitions to deliver other utilities and products in new markets.”
- Source
- Press Release
- Categories
- Energy
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Bringing Biogas to Billions: Why PAYGO Could be the Key to Scaling the Industry
Small scale biogas digesters (biodigesters) convert animal manure into biogas for clean cooking and high-quality organic fertilizer. The technology is hardly new – in fact, it's been around for 150 years. But for farmers to benefit on a mass scale, companies will need to lean on new technology and innovative business models, writes Ben Jeffreys, CEO of ATEC* Biodigesters International. That means learning the lessons of the off-grid solar industry and devising new pay-as-you-go models to enable the inclusion of low-income customers.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Energy
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Courage, Optimism, Defiance: Impact Investment Exchange Founder Durreen Shahnaz Discusses her Journey of Empowerment
Growing up in Bangladesh, Impact Investment Exchange (IIX) Founder Durreen Shahnaz tended to rebel against tradition, preferring boys’ clothes to saris, and exploring the streets on her bike rather than staying indoors. Yet she never rebelled against her family's core focus on charity. Her long and distinguished career in social business and investing has been defined both by her maverick spirit and by her humanitarian values. NextBillion caught up with Shahnaz to discuss her inspiring story and IIX's ongoing work, as the company celebrates its tenth anniversary.
- Categories
- Investing
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Press release: BBOXX Unveils Its Vision for the “Community of the Future” for the Developing World
Tomorrow’s Connected Community is being rolled out in the rural village of Sikpé Afidégnon in Togo, following its inauguration by the H.E. President Faure Gnassingbé, President of the Republic of Togo. The entire village comprised of 300 houses and 4,000 people in the south of the country is to be powered by solar electricity including, streetlights, households, schools and small shops.
- Categories
- Energy
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Adapt or Die: Accelerating Growth Amid a Rapidly Changing Energy Landscape
The clean cooking sector has made incredible strides in the past decade, with bilateral organizations and the development community working together to create standardized environmental impact goals. Now the industry is facing a new set of scaling challenges, say Jessica Alderman and Ron Bills of Envirofit International. The two share advice for enterprises seeking to level up, including how to avoid mission creep.
- Categories
- Energy, Social Enterprise
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