CLEAN COOKING SUB-SECTOR 

The National Energy Policy and Strategy recognizes the use of clean cooking technologies as having serious hazardous environmental implications when not properly managed. In this regard, it is imperative that forests and woodlots be more productively managed, and charcoal more efficiently reduced with the use of clean cooking technologies.

The current national cooking technologies balance statistics show that methods deployed (mostly wood fuel) account for about 83% of the total cooking energy consumption, followed by petroleum at 9.7%, electricity at 1.3%, and others at about less than 0.5%. In rural areas, the reliance on biomass is over 90%. Most Rwandans live in rural areas where traditional biomass, mainly wood fuel has remained the leading source of energy for cooking. The average household uses around 1.8 tons of firewood each year to satisfy its cooking needs with a traditional stove. The average monthly consumption per household on fuelwood is RWF 1,930. 

Private sector-led efforts are distributing cookstoves that are up to three times more efficient than the traditional 3-stone stove and can reduce biomass consumption by anywhere between 68-94%. If effectively applied, this will free up the time spent by women and children in collecting firewood, giving them more time to study and undertake more productive commercial activities.

Improved cooking stove (ICS)

An improved cooking stove (ICS) is a stove that needs far less biomass than a traditional stove to cook the same amount of food and consequently also produces far less smoke than a traditional stove.  This reduction in smoke is made by either having far better combustion or by having an excess of air, or with a combination of both.  It can save up to 75% of fuelwood compared to the traditional stoves.  It is cheap and easy to operate, there is no need to blow the fire. ICSs save on fuel and improve hygiene in the kitchen and provide direct benefits to the women and girl children by reducing the time and drudgery related to procuring firewood.  

In Rwanda, ICS has now become a government policy whereby efforts are being made so that it can be widely used in rural communities. EPD has 9 operational member companies who have managed to manufacture and distribute 394,239 ICSs since 2016 up to now.

Biogas

Since 2008, the Government of Rwanda announced a policy to introduce biogas digesters in all schools (estimated at around 600), large health centers, and institutions with canteens. Through this Institutional biogas program, 86 Institutional biogas digesters were constructed in secondary schools and prisons. Since the beginning of the program, 10,200 domestic biogas digesters have been installed in households.

EPD has 2 operational members companies in the Biogas business who installed 8,677 domestic biogas digesters to households and public institutions and monthly expenditure is estimated at RWF 9,024. From 2016 up to now, the biogas systems installed in the schools and prisons have reduced firewood consumption by close to 60% and 40% respectively, along with significantly improved hygienic conditions and cost savings.

Pellets and briquettes

The promotion of pellets and briquettes is another proposed intervention of biomass dependence reduction strategy to move from 83% to 42% by 2024 and this would be done through:

  • Providing technical support to pellets and briquettes producers and carrying out extensive decentralized awareness campaigns.
  • Attracting the private sector to develop pellet and briquette-making factories and training producers to make quality products.
  • Facilitating factories to access raw materials (e.g providing forest concessions to pellets makers)

EPD has 4 active company members producing pellets and briquettes. Boarding schools, prisons, and refugee camps consume the biggest share of their production. The household monthly expenditure of pellets and briquettes is estimated around RWF 9,277.

Funding programs

To support the implementation of Rwanda’s Biomass Energy Strategy, the Government of Rwanda is collaborating with the World Bank for a clean cooking program under the Rwanda Energy Access and Quality Improvement Project (EAQIP), through the Development Bank of Rwanda Plc (BRD) in partnership with Energy Development Corporation Ltd (EDCL) in 2021 launched a Clean Cooking Results-based Financing (CC-RBF) subsidy scheme.

The objective of the scheme is to provide new or improved access to clean cooking solutions to 500,000 households by 2026 (of which 25% are supposed to be female-headed households) gaining access to clean cooking technologies and will benefit 2.15 million people.

The program will also set up results-based financing (RBF) window to provide cash incentives to the private sector players to deliver qualified clean cooking solutions to eligible households and address the affordability of clean cooking technologies through the reduction of system prices at varying amounts allocated for Ubudehe 1, 2, and 3 categories, and aiming to reach up to the lowest income population in Rwanda.

Expected results of clean cooking

Switching to the application of clean cooking technologies is very important for Rwanda because it will help in the reduction of firewood needed for cooking, reduce deforestation, mitigate climate change, and reduce health hazards to users. In addition, clean cooking solutions will reduce smoke emissions from cooking, decrease the burden of disease associated with household air pollution, and improves the well-being of Rwandans. It also saves households time and money associated with firewood collection and buying hence accelerating social-economic development.

Some of the Key Players in the clean cooking sub-sector