AGreatE, in partnership with the University of Liverpool, secured funding from MECS (Modern Energy Cooking Services) under their STARRS Challenge Fund Competition to launch its new off-grid solar ecosystem that addresses barriers to electric cooking (eCooking) adoption in underserved communities. Under the award a pilot study will be led by Professor Daniel Pope from the University of Liverpool to test the ecosystem (solar panels, 5KWh battery, 9L electric pressure cooker and DC induction hob with compatible cookware) with rural homes in MBalmayo, Central Cameroon. The project is supported by CLEAN-Air(Africa) including its Cameroon principal investigator, Professor Bertrand MBatchou from Douala General Hospital.
(@danpope – CLEAN-Air(Africa).
Rural households across sub-Saharan Africa, including Cameroon, currently face limited or no access to on-grid electricity for cooking due to high costs and frequent power outages. Accordingly, most households rely on biomass fuels such as wood to provide the energy needed for daily cooking, heating water, and lighting. Burning biomass fuels leads to very high levels of household air pollution (including respirable particulate matter 2.5 (PM2.5)), causally associated with respiratory and cardiovascular disease and responsible for 742,000 deaths each year in sub-Saharan Africa. In addition, reliance on these fuels also impacts the surrounding ecology due to deforestation, harming the community’s wildlife and biodiversity. The AGreatE eCooking system aims to provide households with a reliable source of solar electricity to meet the everyday energy demands for households having positive impacts on health, the environment and climate in addition to reducing fuel costs and cooking times and creating opportunities for local entrepreneurship. The MECS STARRS pilot supports AGreatE’s mission to make renewable energy accessible to everyone, while also exploring adaptable payment systems to ensure our solutions are affordable.
This Cameroon study will introduce a new eCooking ecosystem to replace traditional cooking with polluting fuels for 10–15 households in Mbalmayo evaluated over a three month period. As well as assessing the practicalities of this major energy transition to households, the pilot will explore impacts on air quality, cooking experiences and behaviours and wider potential benefits from the AGreatE ecosystem.
Using a mixed-methods approach, Prof Pope (an expert in global public health and household air pollution) and colleagues will conduct research using new air quality monitors (PM2.5) developed by the University of Liverpool, indepth qualitative methods (interviews, focus group discussions and a visual participatory approach) surveys, cooking diaries, and community interviews.
Prof MBatchou will oversee and coordinate fieldwork for the pilot. His team have been working in the community of MBalmayo for 10 years under the CLEAN-Air(Africa) programme and have conducted pioneering research on barriers and enablers to clean cooking in the region, including recently elucidating how household air pollution impacts respiratory and cardiovascular health.
Representing AGreatE is its Business Development Director, Ken Paton, who is serving as a liaison and business developer for the MECS STARRS Cameroon pilot. His efforts to explore effective deployment of battery systems in Africa, combined with insights from the pilot study on the health impacts of clean cooking, will help demonstrate the value of eCooking systems to inform strategies for introducing and marketing AGreatE products in the wider sub-Saharan African region.
Overcoming Barriers to eCooking in Rural Communities
Previous MECS funded research conducted by the University of Liverpool identified key challenges for households in Cameroon to adopt ongrid eCooking, including high electricity costs, frequent power outages, and limited government investment in infrastructure. Additional barriers to adoption of eCooking and its sustainability included upfront electrical costs, distrust of unreliable power sources, concerns about electrical safety, and limited cookware availability to meet the cooking requirements for typical Cameroonian families.
AGreatE’s DC ecosystem addresses many of the challenges of eCooking by providing an independent electric power source instead of relying on a centralized grid. The DC battery operates at lower voltages to enhance electrical safety, while the solar panel removes ongoing costs from electricity access. Combined with a variety of DC appliances, the ecosystem can improve energy access, enhance cooking efficiency, and support long-term adoption of eCooking for households, particularly for those invulnerable contexts (e.g. rural).
Community Engagement and Product Adaptation
In January this year, AGreatE and partners from Liverpool University and Douala General Hospital visited MBalmayo to test and demonstrate its proposed eCooking ecosystem with a view to optimising the system prior to launch of the pilot. This formative research, including input from professional cooks from Douala and Yaounde, identified important modifications to the ecosystem that AGreatE have since incorporated into its solar solution (e.g. induction stove, larger battery and electric pressure cooker). The pilot project is now ready for an official launch in July this year where training of field teams will take place. Research will be conducted in close partnership with communities using an established community engagement and involvement (CEI) approach with regular visits to homes using AGreatE equipment to monitor eCooking (and other) usage, collection of data on energy consumption and cooking times, and to gather user feedback. AGreatE is maintaining an active engagement in this initiative including partaking in CEI activities, cooking events and stakeholder engagement.
Meeting United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG7) by 2030 and beyond
AGreatE is one of a number of emerging companies investigating how solar energy can be harnessed to provide clean, renewable and cost effective energy to households in sub-Saharan Africa to help meet the SDG7 goal of “universal access to affordable, reliable and sustainable clean energy services”. AGreatE is leading the way in the development of state-of-the-art lithium iron phosphate batteries for commercial and domestic energy. They have the potential to become the market leader with rapid scaling once proof of concept research, including the MECS STARRS pilot, has proved the efficacy of adoption of the solar ecosystem. This includes both meeting the energy demands for the majority of households in addition to securing effective funding modalities to ensure accessibility for all.
AGreatE is excited to be at the start of this journey and, in partnership with our academic, clinical and research partners from the University of Liverpool and CLEAN-Air(Africa), looks forward to equitable scaling of its solar eCooking solution for African homes. Stay informed with the progress of this pilot by following us on LinkedIn.
(@danpope – CLEAN-Air(Africa).