Improved Cooking Technology
“Improved cookstoves can cost-effectively reduce emissions, save households up to $85 per year in charcoal expenditures, and reduce peak cooking emissions by 40%.”
- Kleinman Center for Energy Policy
Why Improved cooking?
Only 31%
of Ghanaians have access to clean cooking.
1 gigaton
of carbon dioxide equivalent is produced every year from burning woodfuels.
28,000
Ghanaians die every year from illnesses associated with air pollution.
90%
of the Ghanaians we surveyed are willing to try improved cooking technologies if made accessible.
Why are Improved Cooking Technologies so Important?
Most people in Ghana cook using biomass fuel on a traditional stove or an open fire. This cooking practice causes high levels of indoor air pollution, especially harmful PM25. It is widely understood that indoor air pollution in Ghana is causing a high prevalence of respiratory illnesses, particularly among women and children. Additionally, traditional cooking methods are expensive and carbon intensive. Several ‘improved cookstoves’ are available which are far more efficient and produce far lower levels of emissions. However, uptake of these stoves remains relatively low.
Our Cookstove Research and Advocacy Project
The project was set up to find out why uptake has been slow, and to determine how best Dream Renewables can support the drive towards cleaner safer cooking in Ghana.
The project ran for 18 months and:
reached over 1000 people with unbiased information on the improved cookstoves available in Ghana.
collected survey data on the cooking behaviours and attitudes to clean cooking over 5 households across Ghana.
ran over 80 real-world trials with several different improved cookstoves to understand which cookstoves have the most potential and why.
We are currently reviewing the project findings and deciding on the next steps we will take to increase the adoption of improved cookstoves.
Find out what else we do
We have over 5 years experience delivering training, education and community-centred renewable energy projects in Ghana. We run practical and hands-on training programmes in solar energy, energy efficiency and clean cooking across Ghana.
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We deliver training programmes in solar power and clean cooking for people across Ghana, including rural and remote areas, schools and universities.
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In Ghana, over 500 CHPs Compounds (rural health clinics) are not connected to the electricity grid. We provide lifesaving solar power systems to improve health care at the clinics.
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Along with an ex-trainee Bright Mensah, we installed a solar powered IT lab for Bomigo Basic School, a school in an off-grid island community in the Volta Region.
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The majority of people in Ghana cook with solid biomass based fuel in inefficient stoves. This is expensive, polluting and most of all damaging to respiratory health. We educate and inform people about the options available, and run trials and research.
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We work with farmers to provide solar powered irrigation systems aiming to increase yields and reduce costs.