The big picture:
Biogas is a renewable, clean source of energy, which can help us reduce our reliance on fossil fuels. Domestic biodigesters save people, often women, from the sometimes dangerous job of collecting firewood or buying expensive fossil fuels. Cooking on biogas is fast and smokeless. It improves family health, especially for women and children. 4.3 million people a year die prematurely from illnesses attributable to household air pollution caused by the inefficient use of solid fuels for cooking. Leftover slurry from the biogas process is an excellent organic fertiliser that improves crop yields and as such income.
How it works:
Biodigestors capture methane instead of letting it dissipate into the atmosphere where it is very harmful. The process of bio-digestion is natural, organic and renewable. Manure, food scraps, and crop residue are materials that are available, making biogas highly sustainable. (methane stats)
The Project:
The Kenya biogas programme provides biodigesters to individual households. The programme is part of the Africa Biogas Partnership Programme (ABPP). ABPP is a partnership between the Dutch government, Hivos and SNV Netherlands Development Organisation, in support of national programmes in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia and BurkinaFaso.
The overall objective is to develop a commercially viable biogas sector that supports the use of domestic biogas as a local, sustainable energy source.
ABPP targets to facilitate the construction of about 70,500 biogas plants in the six participating countries, providing about half a million people access to a sustainable source of energy and bio-slurry fertilizer for increased agricultural productivity. Entrepreneurship is encouraged and over 100 masons have started their own businesses, helping to build local economies.
To reduce entry costs for families, the programme does credit partnerships with financial institutions, working with rural micro finance institutions and saving cooperatives.
The big picture:
Biogas is a renewable, clean source of energy, which can help us reduce our reliance on fossil fuels. Domestic biodigesters save people, often women, from the sometimes dangerous job of collecting firewood or buying expensive fossil fuels. Cooking on biogas is fast and smokeless. It improves family health, especially for women and children. 4.3 million people a year die prematurely from illnesses attributable to household air pollution caused by the inefficient use of solid fuels for cooking. Leftover slurry from the biogas process is an excellent organic fertiliser that improves crop yields and as such income.
How it works:
Biodigestors capture methane instead of letting it dissipate into the atmosphere where it is very harmful. The process of bio-digestion is natural, organic and renewable. Manure, food scraps, and crop residue are materials that are available, making biogas highly sustainable. (methane stats)
The Project:
The Kenya biogas programme provides biodigesters to individual households. The programme is part of the Africa Biogas Partnership Programme (ABPP). ABPP is a partnership between the Dutch government, Hivos and SNV Netherlands Development Organisation, in support of national programmes in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia and BurkinaFaso.
The overall objective is to develop a commercially viable biogas sector that supports the use of domestic biogas as a local, sustainable energy source.
ABPP targets to facilitate the construction of about 70,500 biogas plants in the six participating countries, providing about half a million people access to a sustainable source of energy and bio-slurry fertilizer for increased agricultural productivity. Entrepreneurship is encouraged and over 100 masons have started their own businesses, helping to build local economies.
To reduce entry costs for families, the programme does credit partnerships with financial institutions, working with rural micro finance institutions and saving cooperatives.
