Use of “Jikos - Kenyan wood/charcoal cook stoves” as an alternative energy supply for mobile phone and battery charging in rural areas

Introduction

As the rural electrification rate in Kenya is very low, access to electricity to most rural households is a dream. This therefore means that accessing services such as mobile phone or battery charging which is of significant importance to the rural people is challenging. This is because of the difficulty in logistics for instance travelling for long distance in search of these services. In addition, these services are expensive to the rural folks whose income is less than a dollar per day (for example Kshs. 20 for charging a cell phone).

Despite these challenges, a number of players have introduced several technologies to provide these services to the rural folks in a reliable and cheap manner. These include the use of bicycles dynamo to charge phones, introduction of solar home systems in the rural areas and use of diesel electricity generators. However, access to these technologies is still very low and costly to most rural people (especially the solar home systems and diesel generators).

Case to consider

In rural Kenya, biomass accounts for about 90% of the primary energy needs primarily for cooking and heating. The biomass energy is mainly from firewood or charcoal through the use of traditional cooking stoves (three stone fire) or improved cook stoves (for example the Kenya Ceramic Jiko). The traditional cook stoves are however inefficient hence dissemination of efficient improved cook stoves should be up scaled in rural areas.

The improved cook stoves can also be enhanced through addition of low cost thermoelectric generators for generation of power (although small scale). The thermoelectric generators operate by converting the heat energy in the cook stove (during cooking) into electricity which could be used to charge mobile phones as well as batteries for lighting or powering radios/television sets (see illustration below).

The thermoelectric generator is a thermopile comprising a set of several units of semiconductors connected in parallel. Each semiconductor is made of two different materials similar to a thermocouple.  It operates on the principle of Thermoelectric effect (Seeback Effect) where temperature differences within the materials of the semiconductor results to electric voltage. The temperature differences in this case are created during the operation of the cook stove.  The power generated by the generator depends on the size of the thermopile i.e. the number of units making the thermopile and so is the cost.

 

The initial cost of an improved stove integrated with a thermoelectric generator will definitely be high for the rural folks. However, if compared to the current costs of mobile phone and battery charging as well as lighting, this technology is way cheaper in the long run. In addition, there are a number of benefits such as efficient utilization of fuel, reduced indoor pollution and reliable electricity supply for phone and battery charging and lighting.

Furthermore, due to fuel efficiency and providing alternative electricity in rural areas, this technology is effective for reduction of greenhouse gases hence an attractive technology for the clean development mechanism (CDM).