Spotlight Renewable Energy Powering progress: the biogas revolution It seems almost too simple to be true. Water, manure and letting nature take its course. But over the last 20 years this simple recipe has brought clean energy to millions of people, improving health, preserving local environments and changing lives. It’s the kind of change that is desperately needed. Around the world, some 2.7 billion people in developing countries lack access to clean energy for cooking and rely on traditional fuels like wood, agricultural residue and dried manure. This situation forces women and children to spend hours every day gathering fuel, while burning these fuels also generates in-house fumes that pose serious health risks. From humble beginnings in Nepal in 1992, the SNV biogas programme has grown to span 14 countries and has supported the construction of more than 500,000 biodigesters. As a result, some 2.9 million people across Asia and Africa are now benefiting from clean cooking energy and smokefree kitchens. Workloads have been reduced and household health has been improved – especially for women and children. The biodigesters also produce bioslurry – a potent organic fertiliser, which is boosting agricultural production, helping to increase incomes and ensure food security. With more than 20 years of experience tailoring biogas technology to local contexts, SNV’s approach has been refined to ensure maximum viability of local programmes. Working in close collaboration with local partners, SNV builds on organisational and institutional capacities already available in the country to promote 14 CONNECT #2 JULY 2013 “The benefits are very real. I will never forget the smile on a farmer’s face when she first lights her biogas-powered cooking stove.” Nguyen Xuan Dung, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Vietnam international award won by SNV’s biogas programmes, with the World Energy Forum’s Humanitarian Award going to SNV and the Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development for their ground-breaking partnership in the ongoing Biogas Program for the Animal Husbandry Sector. biogas technology, train local biogas experts and kickstart commercially viable biogas sectors. It’s an approach that’s won recognition worldwide, with donors like the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the German Development Bank (KfW), World Wildlife Fund, the Netherlands Development Finance Company (FMO), Asian Development Bank, the World Bank, Hivos and the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) all investing in SNV programmes. And it’s not just the development community that sees the benefits – 2012 marked the sixth But innovation is the name of the game, and along with piloting new applications and undertaking research – from studies on the optimal use of bioslurry to randomised control group trials on the effect of subsidy in rolling out new programmes – SNV is working to harness the environmental benefits of the sector to make it even more sustainable. Accessing the global carbon market is the next frontier for SNV and its partners. And with the Vietnamese biogas programme (which already reduces carbon emissions by over 350,000 tonnes C02 equivalent per year) opening the way to sales of its carbon credits by gaining Gold Standard certification in 2012, the future looks very bright indeed. For more on our work in Renewable Energy, visit www.snvworld.org/RE. Pagina 13
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