A stove that can trigger a fuel revolution

IN SEARCH OF CLEAN ENERGY: PART III

Jatropha oil and solar stoves for cooking? Many environmentalists see cooking as the right use for jatropha oil and other bio-fuels which are now being used only for running vehicles.

The reason is that 80 per cent of the renewable energy now in use is in the form of twigs and cow dung that the rural woman uses for cooking. Jatropha oil and solar stoves could help continue using a green fuel even when she leapfrogs into affluence.

Says environment activist Sunita Narain: This woman is cutting more CO2 emissions than the big companies which have been running windmills, because her stoves outnumber the windmills. She is too poor to afford a kerosene stove or a gas stove or a microwave. Women like her form 80 per cent of the entire gamut of renewable energy, while wind, solar power and other forms comprise just a fraction of 0.4 per cent. Her chulha (oven) forms 39 per cent of India's primary energy use. The need of the hour is to find an alternative for women like her. That would provide a beginning towards a low carbon economy."

The energy advisor in Greenpeace India says the idea does not make economic sense as the jatropha grower would prefer to sell the oil to a company like Reliance, for say Rs 30 a litre, and buy kerosene for Rs 2.

However, Subrato Mandal, a bio-fuel expert and an economist at the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP), says the economy of fuels is skewed as subsidies are determining the prices of fuels. The environmental viability of fuels should also be taken into account. He says there are scattered instances of jatropha and similar plant oils being used for cooking purposes. But it has not been documented.

He says it can definitely be a medium for cooking as it can be directly put in the stove and the wicks burn like they do in an oil lamp. It can definitely be a good alternative for a petroleum product.

He says that the clean development mechanism (CDM) should be used to make the prices affordable for the poor.

If the CDM is used to fund jatropha use for cooking oil, it should translate into carbon emission reductions (CERs) and earn in euros to the grower and if it is being sold to an auto fuel company then the CERs should be denied to it, says Mandal.

Currently, a CER earns 21 euros "" double of what it earned a year ago. So CDMs should be exploited to make such green projects like solar stoves and bio-fuels viable and profitable, adds Mandal.

The bio-fuel expert says solar stoves can supplement other cooking medium in cities and villages. He says if a solar stove can help a housewife cut LPG use from 14 cylinders a year to four a year, then why not?

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Renewable Energy has no project for green cooking fuels. It has 4 million family-size biogas plants, about 1.4 million solar photovoltaic systems for lighting and other applications.

It is, however, supporting deployment of renewable energy systems by providing fiscal and financial support to reduce the capital costs of these systems.

It is left to communities to exploit the green opportunities, says the ministry.