EarthSpark International

In addition to efficient charcoal stoves like the “recho mirak” and the clay-insulated stove being made in Port-au-Prince, Haitian entrepreneurs are making liquid fuel stoves. Our stove test included footage of the kerosene stove made by Ecole Atelier in Camp Perrin.

I took that stove with me to Terrier Rouge on the opposite side of the country to test it with Biodiesel made at Jatropha Pepinye. It performed beautifully. I also got a chance to use another kerosene stove that is actually being produced in Terrier Rouge. See more pictures on Picasa.

It is estimated that Haiti is now left with less than half of its wood stock relative to 1982. If the status quo with respect to the state of energy use is maintained, it is not unreasonable to forecast the complete depletion of that resource in the very near future. Not many groups of people have successfully destroyed an entire resource, particularly one as valuable as trees, but it’s happened before, as recounted in my previous post on Easter Island.

While the cultures of Haiti and Easter Island are obviously different in many ways, the reasons for their environmental crises are strikingly similar. Both shared unsustainable agriculture and a devotion to wood as the chosen resource for a commonplace ritual – be it transporting stone statues or cooking meals.

Haiti must reduce its appetite for charcoal, which is currently used in ninety percent of households. This can be achieved by either switching to more efficient stoves, or by switching to stoves fueled by alternatives to wood charcoal.

The tragedy of these circumstances is that such stoves are inexpensive and are even being manufactured in small quantities by non- and for-profit ventures around the country. I have personally seen or used no fewer than five locally produced efficient or alternative fuel stove designs.

One of my favorites is made by a business owned by four brothers in Port-au-Prince. My affinity for their business extends past their mission and stove design. What I am most enthused about is their business model, which contrasts sharply with the way clean stove dissemination has been practiced in Haiti. Many NGOs and institutional programs have tried to increase the penetration of clean stoves through hyper-local micro-manufacturing. These programs do not have a good track record for sustainability. They collapse because they lack both the incentives and the resources to grow. To encourage adoption of clean stoves, we should adop business models engineered for success, not failure. Few manufacturers sell directly to the end-users of their products. Instead, they centralize their production facilities to achieve economies of scale and sell in bulk to distributors. This is precisely the approach being taken by the manufacturer in Port-au-Prince, and the one EarthSpark seeks to encourage by providing them with distribution channels.

Check out pictures of efficient stove manufacturing in Port-au-Prince.

Let me tell you a story. It is one that is known to few, but to those who know it, has had a lasting impact on the way they think about society and the environment. It is the story of a long-forgotten civilization, which at its pinnacle was never known to the outside world. It is the story of the people of Easter Island – the Rapanui – who named their island Te Pito Te Henua – “the navel of the world.” That name implies a deep connection to life. It speaks to the lushness and diversity of the flora and fauna that the mythical first king, Hotu Matua, and his subjects discovered, like some providential land out of a dream.

The first Rapanui were blessed with abundant natural resources – porpoise, fish, birds and rat were primary foodstuffs, and some 21 species of now vanished plants and trees were used for canoes, rafts, rope, cloth, harpoons, firewood and construction. But Easter Island is not famous for its trees. It is known throughout the world for its monolithic statues, called moai, and the numinous intelligence they seem to project.

We know now that the moai were a manifestation of religious beliefs and peaceful competition amongst clans on the island, whose chiefs strove to outdo the grandeur of each other’s moai and ceremonies. While they realized that the resources of one clan were vital to the survival of the others (for example, one clan claimed the two best harbors in its territory, while another’s domain included the best stone quarry), they failed to appreciate the fragility of the island they called home.

Throughout much of the island, trees had been cleared for garden plots, which lead to less than ideal conditions for trees to re-grow. The trees were then being used for the transport of moai, and to cremate the bodies of the dead, a sacred tradition that had been practiced for centuries, and which consumed massive amounts of wood. As it became all to clear that their once bountiful island was moving inexorably towards desolation, the Rapanui urgently invoked their ancestors by devoting more and more resources to erect ever-larger moai.

Without the diverse and abundant source of trees and native plants they once enjoyed, the Rapanui were no longer able to make robust canoes and rafts capable of taking them far out into the ocean to hunt tuna and porpoise. Instead, they were forced to turn to small crustaceans and a limited population of birds. In a few generations, these food supplies dwindled as well, hurling the Rapanui into a civil war that overthrew the reigning chiefs and saw the tearing down of every last moai on the island.

The Easter Islanders had nowhere to go after it had become all too painfully obvious they had ruined themselves. Their descent into cannibalism shortly before the outbreak of civil war is a stark reminder of the vital connection between the environment and our humanity.

A few days ago, I met with a businessman here in Port-au-Prince who, in addition to having a seasonal fruit export business, is a distributor of solar panels, inverters and batteries. For the past few years he has tried, and failed, to sell Solar Home Systems in a part of Haiti with very little access to public electricity. There are many reasons why the systems did not sell well - the retailer had insufficient technical expertise, there was no after sales service, the price was very high, and there was no end-user financing. When I told him about EarthSpark’s model, he was flabbergasted that we were trying to develop supply chains for such small solar technologies. He didn’t seem to understand that while, yes, there is a market for the $300 - $800 systems he tried to sell (and intends to import more to try again), that market is much smaller than the market for $160 systems and even smaller compared to the one for $20 solar lamps. He also seemed to fail to understand the reasons why people would want to buy these smaller technologies. His objection was that people want to watch TV, and that anything less expensive than $300 would not be of good quality. In fact, while his large systems are of very high quality, you can easily find small, high-quality solar technology made by companies like Barefoot Power and SunTransfer. And while many households do aspire to own a TV, this is not their top priority; our 2008 survey showed that of many possible end uses for electricity, lighting was by far the most desired.

The demand for these technologies should be no surprise, and a recent blog post by Mathias Craig, CEO of blueEnergy, provides us with some clues for why these small, affordable technologies are so important. The above graph, which Mathias used in his post, shows the relationship between the Human Development Index (HDI), a quantitative measure of well-being which combines measures of infant mortality, life expectancy, literacy and other indicators, and per capita electricity consumption. This graph is very interesting because it shows that this relationship is characterized by diminishing marginal returns. That is, for every additional kWh of electricity consumed, the amount by which HDI grows decreases. An easy way to visualize this is by observing that if we draw an imaginary line following the general shape of the points on the graph, when we go from 0 to 2,500 kWh there is a change in HDI of 0.8 - 0.3 = 0.5. But when we increase kWh by the same amount again, and go from 2,500 to 5,000 kWh, HDI changes by just 0.9 - 0.8 = 0.1.

This very clearly shows that the first few kWh of electricity have the biggest impact on quality of life. So for a country like Haiti, which sits between Pakistan and Zambia on the graph, a small solar light or system may not seem like much, but it can improve lives drastically - far more for each kWh they use (or dollars they cost) than big, expensive solar home systems.

A thoughtful interview of Asit Biswas, president of the Third World Centre for Water Management and winner of the 2006 Stockholm Water Prize, on Boing Boing illustrates the striking similarities between the water and energy crises. In it, he makes the excellent point that people always have access to some form of water, though it may not be clean and they may pay a hefty price for it. What he describes as being the essential problem is not a global shortage of clean water. The problem is the lack of access to clean water, the underlying cause of which is the lack of both human and physical infrastructure. One could call the lack of access to clean water and the resulting effects “water poverty.”

Similarly, all humans on earth have access to energy, but 1.6 billion have no electricity and 2.5 billion rely on biomass fuels like dung and charcoal for heating and cooking. The use of kerosene for lighting and these dirty biomass fuels results in health problems - just like drinking dirty water - and are extremely expensive to use compared to clean energy technologies. Again, the problem is not that high-quality, inexpensive clean energy technologies don’t exist, but rather that these people do not have access to them. We call the circumstances created by this this lack of access “energy poverty,” and that is precisely what EarthSpark intends to stamp out.

The similarities do not end there. Biswas recounts the story of the Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority circa 1993, a corrupt, poorly managed government water utility with system losses as high as 72%. The Water Supply Authority charged extremely high prices for its unreliable service and depended on government subsidies just to get by. In Haiti today, the government electricity utility, Electricite d’Haiti (EDH), runs one of the most inefficient grids in the world, providing power in most places for just a few hours a day. EDH’s system losses, thought to be in the staggering range of 46.02% to 53.59%, eclipse losses in other developing countries: Nigeria 32%, India 27%, Togo 27%, Kenya 22%, Cameroon 21%. The current electricity rate is a shocking US$0.30/kWh.

Kerosene, central battery charging stations and charcoal are not cheap either. Switching to the clean energy technologies for which we advocate would result in household savings of 50% or better, and would have dramatic impacts on health, the environment and productivity.

EarthSpark International and members of our implementing partner, the local Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) COREA, perform a water boiling test with four commonly available stoves in Haiti. Three of these stoves use charcoal fuel and one is a kerosene gravity pressure stove. While by no means scientific, we wanted to answer three questions:

1. Which charcoal stove consumes the least amount of charcoal?
2. Which stove is the least expensive to operate?
3. Which stove has the shortest cooking time?

These are important questions to ask for a place like Haiti, especially the rural areas. The most popular stoves are the steel or aluminum stoves shown in the video. They essentially resemble a colander with legs. These stoves are very inefficient. There is no insulation, so heat is radiated out through the sides of the container, and most of the heat in the charcoal is transferred to the pot through conduction rather than through forced, heated air (convection). Either stove costs approximately five US dollars.

You can find more efficient stoves in Haiti. I bought a “recho miracle” or “miracle stove” in the city of Les Cayes for five dollars. Many people in urban areas use these stoves - uninsulated and using conduction, but augmented with a convection chamber - but I was curious whether they were really that much better than the steel and aluminum stoves.

Each stove started with one kilogram of charcoal in its basket. The stoves were tested one after the other so that the same pot could be used. We also used the same amount of water for each stove. We measured the amount of time each stove took to bring the pot of water to just boiling, and then weighed the amount of charcoal left to calculate how much had been consumed. The same process was used for the kerosene stove.

I was very surprised by the results, particularly by how much more efficient the miracle stove was than the other two charcoal stoves. The results are summarized below.

Steel stove:
Fuel consumed: 0.5 kg charcoal
Fuel cost: US$0.08
Time to reach a boil: 15m 16s

Aluminum stove
Fuel consumed: 0.6 kg charcoal
Fuel cost: US$0.10
Time to reach a boil: 20m 37s

Miracle stove
Fuel consumed: 0.3 kg charcoal
Fuel cost: US$0.05
Time to reach a boil: 14m 05s

Kerosene stove
Fuel consumed: 0.13 L kerosene
Fuel cost: US$0.14
Time to reach a boil: 12m 00s

While this test was not scientific, it demonstrates the great differences between the cooking technologies available in most of Haiti. There are several companies around the world manufacturing efficient stoves, and EarthSpark International is working to bring them and other clean energy technologies to the Haitian market. We will also work with domestic suppliers, like the small businesses making miracle stoves in Les Cayes, and Ecole Atelier, which made the kersoene stove, to fabricate efficient stoves here in Haiti. We are hoping to perform a statistically valid experiment with several different stove designs next year to determine which of these stove designs perform the best and which are preferred by consumers.

Our pilot project - a store in the rural town of Les Anglais, Haiti - is looking to be up and running before the end of the year. We’re very pleased with the quality of the construction, and to hear that COREA, the local NGO which owns the store, plans to self-finance a second floor on top of the store. That floor will provide a meeting space for the group and for a variety of private training sessions and public seminars related to clean energy.

In our next update on the store, we’ll hopefully be able to report on what clean energy technologies are for sale and what the consumer response has been.

In a recent post, you were introduced to Madame Nothude and her organization promoting and innovating the use of “charbon alternatif.” In the discussion that followed a demonstration of how their product is made, we talked about the feedback they’ve received and the details of their engagement with local farmers. What they have done so far is impressive – over 60 groups of 10-20 farmers now have their own “charbon alternatif” production technology and skills. But, as they told me, this is a far cry from “commercialization,” which they see as being vital to making a dent in Haiti’s wood charcoal use.

In the course of our discussion, an ACAPE employee began to articulate one of EarthSpark’s core functions, which I happened to be thinking about just as he opened his mouth. He started to say, “We need partnerships…” In my excitement – I knew exactly where he was going – I asked him to stop so I could take out my camera and record his words.

He explained, “We need some partnerships because we have many people in this country who are really interested in this activity. We have some areas or zones which are waiting for us to give them training. We have Port Salut, St. Jean, and some other areas where people are waiting for training…but we do not have enough money or capacity to spread it in this country, mostly in the south part here. That’s why it [partnership] is very important.”

I find these words both somber and inspiring. Across the country I have seen so much being done to mitigate energy poverty and so much potential for growth; I have been told by countless people their eagerness to buy clean and efficient energy technologies and to receive technical training; I have heard appreciation and thankfulness for a single solar lamp received as a gift from an organization or family member. But without a model for scale, Haiti will maintain a perpetual limbo, unable to gain the necessary traction to escape from energy poverty.

This is where EarthSpark International fits into the picture. Our model enables this traction by quickly creating retail business franchises. These franchises help to support suppliers of products and services alike – such as ACAPE’s charbon alternatif seminars and the efficient stoves and charcoal presses built by local fabricators. These suppliers of training and technology are just that – suppliers. It is not within their domain of expertise to perform retail functions – marketing, customer service, and end-user financing.

In addition to providing a sales channel for suppliers, the retail franchises demonstrate the demand for clean energy technology and services in financial terms - sales, revenue, profit; whatever you want to call it. Upon demonstrating this demand, EarthSpark International can present a compelling opportunity to businesses capable of becoming large scale distributors, transporters or importers (for foreign clean energy technology).

ACAPE and the small metal fabricators are hardly unique in their predicament of being unable to scale their much-needed and valuable goods and services. There are Jatropha Pepinyes, Ecole Ateliers, and countless local community groups and entrepreneurs around the country – all which have extraordinary skills, technology and potential.

I would not have imagined that the potential to fabricate top-notch water turbines or seed oil expellers would exist in rural Haiti. But this is what local craftsmen at Ecole Atelier (meaning “Fabricator School”), located 25km outside the city of Les Cayes in Camp Perrin, can do. Though I had the chance to meet with the school’s world-weary Belgian director, the quality of my French comprehension was insufficient to get the full history of the operation. But I’m just as happy to take it as a given that a massive, sophisticated metal and cement fabrication complex exists for pretty much anyone to use.

The school gives young people (mostly men) the chance to learn a potentially valuable technical trade. With that knowledge, they are free to use the school’s facilities to produce a product. In this way, the school also functions as a co-op. Some craftsmen have their own mini-businesses and a team of employees. In a country where the low per-capita income makes it nearly impossible to secure capital and start your own business, the Ecole Atelier offers enterprising spirits a chance.

On my first trip to the Ecole, I met two local craftsmen, Osmane and Exilio. Osmane has his own kerosene cooking stove fabrication business, and Exilio is a skilled worker with cement and metal. I bought one of Osmane’s stoves, but was told by the Belgian director that he only sells about one a month. Exilio made me a charcoal-burning metal stove with an insulating layer of clay. I wanted to test their products against the staggeringly inefficient charcoal stoves which are found in most of Haiti. When I return to the Jatropha Pepinye project, I’ll also test Osmane’s kerosene stove with Biodiesel.

Craftsmen like Osmane and Exilio are in a position similar to Nothude and her organization devoted to alternative charcoal production. As suppliers of a useful good or service, they may not be the best people to actually sell it. This is exactly what EarthSpark International’s Clean Energy Store franchises are meant to do. Our franchisees receive, amongst other financial and non-financial support, inventory loans, which they can use to contract with local suppliers of clean energy technology. They can also use that loan to purchase inventory from distributors of other technologies. Since there are presently no distributors of high-quality solar lamps and solar home systems, EarthSpark International is acting as a temporary distributor of these technologies while we work to develop businesses to do this as well.

See more pictures of Ecole Atelier.

The other day I visited Nothude Tilus, Director of the Association des Cadres pour la Protection de l’Environment (ACAPE) at her office in Les Cayes. ACAPE is pioneering the demonstration of “charbon alternatif” by producing Haiti’s cooking fuel of choice, charcoal, from alternative sources like sugarcane husks, coconut shells and cassava’s (“majnoc” in Haitian Creole) toxic juice. The organization receives training from MIT’s Amy Smith and her students. Together, they have also taught local metal fabricators to build their innovative charcoal briquette presses.

ACAPE’s staff has passed on their knowledge and technology by giving free seminars to groups of 10-20 farmers, who also receive all the necessary tools and equipment for charbon alternatif production. These groups become teams, producing charcoal in a way that will not exacerbate Haiti’s raging deforestation.

In just two years, this small organization has given over 60 seminars, enabling as many groups. Follow-up with the groups has solicited positive feedback, with team members using, giving away or selling the charcoal they produce.

ACAPE very much hopes to see its vision of a Haiti independent of wood-based charcoal, but, as they told me, they lack a clear way forward. What is lacking is a model for achieving scale, but more about this problem in a future post.

Take a look at pictures of ACAPE in action.