social
acceptance of solar stoves in south africa
international workshop on solar cooking � 22 to 24 october 2001, johannesburg, south africa
introduction
firewood is the
traditional energy source for cooking in the majority of countries of the
developing world. the fao estimates that 2 billion people worldwide, experience
serious problems with their cooking fuel supply.� high population density,
deforestation and soil erosion cause severe environmental degradation.� the use
of fossil fuels for cooking also aggravates poverty and impacts negatively on
local economies.� solar cooking as an environmentally friendly
technology could contribute to the solution � provided that the technology is
accepted by end-users and that the solar stoves are both appropriate and
affordable.
user acceptance of solar stoves in developing countries has frequently
been insufficient or totally lacking. a few years ago, no comparative
information on the user acceptance of different solar stove models was
available and it was unclear what type of solar stove is accepted best in any
given situation. the successful dissemination of solar stoves, from
production to household, is a complex undertaking, which involves many
actors with various tasks. in a joint german-south african solar cooker pilot
program, dme and gtz set out to study the acceptance of 7 selected types of
solar stoves by a variety of end-users in south africa.
.�
the dme/gtz solar stove field test
solar
stoves to be used in the field test were selected based on the results of
technical tests carried out in almeria, spain.� the test was held in 1994. it
concerned 25 different stove models from 10 different countries. amongst
others, performance parameters such as heat-up-time of water, cool-down-time,
maximum temperature in oil, tracking frequency, pot access and pot capacity
were recorded.�
technical
tests alone cannot predict the adaptation of a given stove model to a real-life
user situation, the adaptation of the test stoves to the south african climate
and user situation was verified at the first monitor training session prior to
the stove placement in the field.� the results showed that all selected stoves
allowed the preparation of all tested dishes, including the baking of bread.
a
baseline study, targeting the dry north western region of south africa, scanned five potential areas by interviewing
200 households.� the locality of the study areas is illustrated in figure 1.
figure
1: ��������� baseline study
areas
based
on cooking profiles (weather conditions, fuel availability and prices,
household size, availability of appropriate sunny space, cooking techniques and
schedule) as well as socio-economic characteristics, three test areas
were selected:� onseepkans, representative of small rural villages, where
collected wood is the primary source of fuel.� pniel, though also a small rural
village, is located 8 km from the nearest town; there is a fuel mix with wood
and paraffin used in almost equal proportions.� huhudi, an urban township, has
access to electricity, has a high reliance on paraffin for cooking and a
comparatively low use of wood.
a total of 100 families made
up the test sample, 70 user families (with cookers) and 30 control families
without cookers.� the test also included 14 institutions, in all cases
education centers and in most cases pre-schools.� seven different cooker types
were placed with the user-families in a yearlong study.� the yearlong placement
is the first interesting component of the study, which allowed the research
team to evaluate the solar cooking habits in detail, and it also allowed for
seasonal use to be analysed.� this was a unique approach � a world first for
two reasons:
�
the field test was designed to be a comparative test of the
various solar cooking technologies and real-life conditions
�
families used a different cooker every two months in a �round
robin� test to ensure that users get to know all the different stove models.
results:� household acceptance
end-user acceptance
use rates of the stoves
have been used as one indicator of end-user acceptance.� before the solar
stoves were placed with families, wood collected from the environment to be
used in an open fire or wood stove was the primary energy source for cooking.�
families used wood and wood-fueled appliances for approximately 50% of all
meals.� gas, paraffin and electrical appliances were used to a lesser degree,
in that order.� after solar stoves were placed with user-families, the cookers
joined wood and wood stoves as the most used appliances, each now being used
just over one third of the time.�
solar stoves were reported to be used to cook 35% of
meals, or looking at it from another set of questionnaires, they were used at
least once on 37% of all days.� the remaining third of all cooked meals was
prepared on gas, paraffin and electric appliances in that order.� it should be
noted that only one of the study areas is electrified and this would reduce the
number of times an electric appliance was used.� users also reported good
results for 93% of all solar cooking attempts.
solar stoves, along with wood (open fires, wood-stoves and coal-stoves
fuelled with wood combined), are the most used cooking appliances
amongst test user families, followed by stoves fueled with gas, paraffin, and
electricity (note that electricity use appears very low since only one out of
three study areas is grid connected). in 7% of the cases, non-solar stoves were
used but the fuel type was not specified. on 2% of all days, no cooking took
place.� these results indicate acceptance of solar stoves by family test
users ("acceptance" of solar stoves being defined here as "solar
stoves are used as much as or more than other cooking options in the
household"). it should be noted that acceptance does not imply that all
other cooking options are replaced by solar stoves. rural households,
just like households in cities, traditionally use a variety of cooking
options (on the average 2.5). this is not likely to change by the
introduction of a new technology, as the example of the microwave oven shows.
figure 2: ��������� �daily use frequency
of different cooking appliances
solar stoves were used mostly in
the hottest hours of the day, between 10 am and 3 pm.� they were therefore used
to prepare lunch and supper.� supper could be prepared early and left in the
cooker as several of the different types of cookers converted to a warming box
when a blanket was placed on top.� surprisingly, 21% of solar stove use was for
breakfast.� this was higher than had been anticipated.� however, as the test
areas can reach high temperatures by 8 o�clock in the morning, cooking the
morning porridge was a common practice, particularly on the fast cookers.�
water was also routinely boiled in the solar stoves for washing purposes or the
morning cup of tea.� another interesting use for the solar stoves was for
ironing.� families placed their cast irons in the stoves to heat rather than
the open fire, which dirties the iron.
the reasons for the intensive use
by the families are time savings, as less wood was now collected. monetary
savings as less fuel was now purchased and a positive impact on the social
networks, which form a crucial part of the survival strategies of poor rural
women.
impacts on household fuel
consumption and expenditure
households in the three study
areas spent between r31 and r66 on energy each month.� the variation is largely
due to the amount of collected wood that families utilize, as families with a
very low income often collect wood to reduce costs.� despite this strategy, the
poorest families in the study were spending up to 26% of their monthly income
on fuel.� using solar stoves represented a considerable saving for these
families.� on average across the three study areas, paraffin use dropped by
33%, gas by 57% and wood by 36%.� these figures were calculated using actual
measurements before solar stoves were introduced, in winter 1996 and 1997 and
summer 1997 for both users and the control group).� this amounts to an average
fuel saving of 38%.� this translates to savings of between r12 and r26 per
month, depending on the area.� users indicated that these savings were
significant and promoted the continued use of solar stoves.
the reduction in fuel consumption is comparable to the
reported solar stove use.� this suggests that the questionnaires were completed
accurately by users and field workers and that the reduction in fuel
consumption was largely a result of the use of solar stoves.
the purchase of solar stoves
the purchase of solar stoves by those in the study
was taken as another indicator of end-user acceptance.� as with the use
figures, the number of cookers purchased indicated strong end-user acceptance.
all families involved in the
study, both users and non-users, were given the opportunity to purchase a solar
stove at the end of the 12-month study period.� they were asked to pay only the
costs of the materials, as the cooker would be second-hand.� the �cost-price�
(about equal to the price of materials for a mass produced stove), at which the
cookers were made available, was also considered to be a way of thanking the
participating families for their time and effort.�
sales
by stove type indicated strong regional preferences: onseepkans users have
bought mostly ulog and rem15, pniel users ulog, rem5 and sk12, huhudi users
rem5 and sk12.� overall, the most sold stove for small families is rem5,
followed by ulog. for large families, the most sold stove is sk12, followed by
rem15.
in
total, 51 solar stoves were bought by user families at the end of the
field-test period.� a limited number of stoves were available � only 20 of each
type were used in the field test.� the stoves were sold at the following prices
to families who participated in the test:
�
sunstove:� r43
�
ulog:� r113
�
rem 5:� r130
�
sk12:� r257
�
rem 15:� r474
�
schwarzer 1:� r2 090
�
schwarzer 2:� r2 536
figure
3: solar stove rem 15 (for institutions) tested in the field during phase 1
figure 4: solar stoves schwarzer i and ii (for institutions)
tested in the field
�� during phase 1
affordability of solar stoves
household affordability is described here in terms of
the payback period, namely the amount of
time it takes for the cumulative
savings in fuel expenses per household to offset the cost of purchasing a solar
stove. the results, based on the cost of the solar stoves during phase 1 (for
all but the two most expensive models)
are presented in figure 5.
figure 5:���������� � payback periods for solar stoves in the three test
areas
the payback periods, based on phase 1
cost of the stoves, range from 8 months to 5 years� (2 years on the average),
depending on study area and stove type.� the payback period analysis does not
take into account the non-monetary gains associated with solar cooking,
and these can be quite substantial. safety, convenience, time savings and
social status which are derived from using solar stoves may all have high value
to potential purchasers, and may in fact be more important than the direct
monetary savings associated with a reduction in other fuel use.
during
phase 2 of the pilot
program, a significant reduction in the manufacturing cost of the solar stoves
was achieved.� as a result, solar stoves could be offered to the market at much
lower prices than in phase 1.� based on phase 2 retail prices (price paid by
the customer), the payback periods became significantly shorter.
figure 6:������������ payback periods per
stove type and per area (in months, phase 2 retail prices)
as
illustrated in figure 6, payback periods in onseepkans are longer due to the
fact that less commercial fuels are used, resulting in a lower monetary
expenditure on energy carriers.� because the area relies on collected fuel wood
as their main energy source, non-monetary gains, in terms of time savings for
example, would be important to consider.�
based
on the same fuel savings achieved during the field test, but phase 2 prices,
the average payback period of a solar stove decreased to 19 months.� average
pay back periods, based on phase 2 prices, per stove type are illustrated in
figure 7.
figure 7:� �������� average payback
period (month) per stove type
families were also asked how much they would be willing
to pay for solar stoves in monthly installments.� the responses varied between
r20 and r30 and for the larger cookers up to r50.� with the exception of the
most expensive of the large family cookers, the size of these installments
would allow families to pay off the solar stoves in under the normal two-year
period considered reasonable for similar household appliances.� the most
expensive family cooker would require a monthly installment of r56.� using this
method of inquiry, it would appear that families place more value to the
ownership of these cookers than actual monthly savings they facilitate.
results:� institutions
on
a different level, the acceptance of solar stoves (schools, kindergartens) was
studied. taking into consideration the collapse of the state feeding scheme,
school holidays and the selection of additional institutions for monitoring,�
original institutions where interest was observed together with the new
institutions, then (excluding holidays)� solar stoves were observed to
be used on over 50 % of all occasions when visited by the monitors or
supervisors.
important
reasons for using solar stoves are:
�
the overriding
incentives for solar stove use are serving a midday
meal (at 88% of all interested institutions), cooks that are highly motivated
(75% of interested institutions), and a management incentive to reduce fuel
expenditure (75%).
�
most institutions in
the study served a meal at midday but this, alone, is not an important
enough reason to use the stoves as over 80% of the �disinterested� institutions
did so. it is therefore considered to be a necessary pre-requisite.
�
how many people are
fed at the institution is not as important as the motivation of the cooks and
managerial incentives to use the stoves.
the
most important reasons for not using the solar stoves are
-
a lack of budget
control by the cooks (found to be the case at all institutions that are
disinterested in using solar stoves),
-
a lack of incentives
for the cooks (100%), and
-
a disabling
management style, i.e. top-down decision-making (83%).
furthermore
-
an insecure budget
for cooking, a lack of storage space for the stoves and catering for a large
number are not found to be significant reasons for institutions not being
interested in using the solar stoves.
-
the pot size and
numbers fed are problematic in using solar stoves at the large institutions
(>50 fed), which does not preclude institutions from being interested in
using them.� this could be because of the high possibility of achieving
monetary savings as well as the possibility to use more than one solar stove,
thereby increasing cooking capacity.
�����������
lessons learned
the
key messages from phase 1 of the solar cooker pilot program regarding solar
stoves for households are:
�
solar energy is a
promising option capable of being one of the leading energy sources for
cooking;
�
the high use rate of
solar cookers, at par with wood and above other fuels, indicates acceptance of
solar cooking by families;
�
each type of cooker
has its own supporters.� an obvious, universal, single choice did not emerge.�
however, clear user preference for certain cooker types is evident and thus
provides a sound basis for the selection of solar cookers to be promoted
during phase 2 of the project;
�
considerable fuel and
time saved by the use of solar stoves generate reasonable pay-back periods,
except for the most expensive stoves.� with price reduction achieved due to
mass production, pay-back periods will be reduced even further;
�
the willingness to
buy test stoves suggests a viable market for solar stoves, confirmed by an
independent market study;
�
while causing shift
in cooking times and reorganization of household labor, the use of solar stoves
does not disrupt social relationships;
�
macro-economic
impacts are positive;
�
the questionnaire
methodology concerning family use has proven sound.� for institutional use,
direct observation by the project staff was used;
�
all test cookers
needed technical improvements and have undergone adaptations.� the adapted
cookers will serve as a basis for local production;
�
the open
methodological approach where users can express their judgment of a technology
in general, and preferences concerning different appliances in particular, has
proven valid.
in
terms of institutional solar stove use, it can be concluded that the original
institutions involved the pilot program did not maximize the use of the stoves
available to them.� from the research, seven issues were identified which make
up the management environment and which influence the potential use of solar
stoves in institutions:
�
human resources;
�
financial resources;
�
communication
channels and methods;
�
attitudes to work;
�
decision-making
structures,
�
wealth of the
institution;
�
institutional support
networks.
|