Community-based energy services

This Technology Transfer Advances Viet Nam's

• Nationally Determined Contribution to reduce GHG emissions by 8% by 2030 compared to the Business as Usual scenario (BAU); an amount that could be increased up to 25% with international support.

Context

This Technology Transfer Advances Iran's

• Nationally Determined Contribution to achieve emission reduction through measures such as combined cycle power plants and renewable energies.

Context 

This webinar will discuss the concept of energy poverty and explore some of the main challenges in addressing energy poverty within developing countries that are themselves facing growing climate change risks.

With the surge in bio-based activities around the globe, a new concept called bio-refining starts to emerge. IEA Bioenergy Task 42 on Biorefineries defines biorefining as “the sustainable processing of biomass into a spectrum of marketable products and energy”. A bio-refinery combines/integrates a series of biomass conversion technologies to produce a range of products and (base-)materials, such as food, feed, chemicals, materials, oil, gas, heat and/or electricity. The concept is similar to a conventional oil-refinery where multiple petroleum products and fuels are produced.

Co-generation is the combined production of useful thermal energy and electricity (Combined Heat and Power, CHP) from the same primary fuel. CHP can take on many forms and encompasses a range of technologies, but will always be based upon an efficient, integrated system that combines electricity production and heat recovery. By using the heat output from the electricity production for heating or industrial applications, CHP plants generally convert 75-80% of the fuel source into useful energy, while the most modern CHP plants reach efficiencies of 90% or more (IPCC, 2007).

Under the anaerobic (oxygen free) conditions of landfill sites, organic waste is broken down by micro-organisms, leading to the formation of landfill gas (LFG). LFG is a gaseous mixture which consists mostly of methane and carbon dioxide, but also of a small amount of hydrogen and occasionally trace levels of hydrogen sulphide.

Practical Action Consulting (PAC) is the consulting arm of Practical Action, an international non-governmental organisation that uses technology to challenge poverty in developing countries. Through technology PAC enables poor communities to build on their skills and knowledge to produce sustainable and practical solutions - transforming their lives forever and protecting the world around them. Every year PAC uses technology to help over 1 million people out of poverty.

GRID-Arendal is a Norwegian foundation that supports the United Nations Environment Programme.  It is a centre of excellence for the scientific analysis of environmental issues in many areas including environmental assessments, ocean issues and polar regions.

The Global Environment Centre Foundation (GEC) is an entity that supports the UNEP’s International Environmental Technology Centre (IETC), based in Japan. GEC is dedicated to the transfer of environmentally sound technologies, in both developing countries and countries with economies in transition. The foundation aims to contribute to Japan’s international efforts on the environment, sharing project collaborations as well as promoting Japan’s rich conservation knowledge and experience in developing nations.

This paper shows that the quantity of energy required by the poor to fulfil their needs is generally very small. In Sub-Saharan African, most countries with less access to modern energy services are not on-track to meet the MDGs.