WISIONS Newsletter
Issue no. 4 / 2020
Content
1. Thinking outside the box for SDG72. RedBioLAC Virtual Encuentro 20203. Wind Empowerment Online Conference 20204. Solar power for a 'community fridge' in Nepal 5. Gender equality, sustainable development and energy access6. End of year reflectionDear Subscriber,
The year 2020 has been eventful, to say the least. The COVID-19 pandemic and its ensuing economic impact have affected efforts to meet the goals for energy access and sustainable development in the Global South. Despite the challenges, WISIONS and our partner networks have been very active and have worked hard to adapt to the circumstances. In this newsletter, we look at what innovation can mean in the context of energy access and present recent activities (many of which were virtual), project news and publications. The newsletter concludes by reflecting on 2020. If you have any questions about specific content, please feel free to contact us at info@wisions.net.
We hope you enjoy the holiday season and wish you a good start to 2021.
With best regards
Your WISIONS Team
1. Thinking outside the box for SDG7
The latest data on progress towards SDG7 revealed that the number of people across the world who lack access to electricity fell to 789 million in 2018. However, the global population without access to clean cooking solutions remained unchanged at 2.8 billion. The increase in the share of renewables in the global energy mix showed signs of slowing down and energy efficiency gains still failed to reach their potential. We have also recently learnt that finance for energy access remains far below the investment needed to achieve SDG7 by 2030 and that this gap is likely to widen as a result of the pandemic.With less than a decade left to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, thinking “outside the box” with regards to sustainable energy in the Global South is crucial. It is widely accepted that innovation can help to overcome technological and financial barriers. Specifically, adapting to local needs is at the core of innovation efforts in energy access.
But what does this look like in practice? Many of our partners have developed tools to facilitate innovation in the context of WISIONS-supported initiatives. For instance, the MHP (Micro Hydropower) Toolkit by the Hydro Empowerment Network facilitates access to technical blueprints, Do-It-Yourself instructions, simulation tools, databases and much more. This provides local MHP practitioners with the opportunity and know-how to become innovators for off-grid energy solutions.
RedBioLAC also pursues bottom-up approaches to innovation. Central to this network’s vision is the use of innovation to develop biodigester designs and implementation concepts that better respond to local needs across Latin America and the Caribbean. For example, a biodigester blueprint from Costa Rica might not fit the specific environmental conditions in Colombia. A WISIONS-supported webinar gave insights into technological advances that were particularly important over the last decade (such as the design of low-cost tubular digesters and the adaptation of designs to suit cold climates). RedBioLAC has also produced a biogas wiki library to support innovation in biodigester technology.
Lastly, financial innovations also bring us closer to achieving SDG7. The Finance Solutions Map by Nexus for Development has created a rich and publicly available database on a range of innovative finance instruments and case-studies geared towards local energy access practitioners in South and Southeast Asia.
To sum up, innovation in energy access does not only mean more sophisticated technology. It is also about tailoring solutions to meet diverse needs and adapting them to local conditions. Sharing knowledge and experiences also lies at the heart of innovative thinking and contributes to the empowerment of local energy practitioners across the Global South.
2. RedBioLAC Virtual Encuentro 2020
RedBioLAC’s annual network meeting, or Encuentro, took place from 6-8 October 2020. This year, because of travel restrictions due to the pandemic, it adopted an interactive format to bring the numerous biogas practitioners in Latin America and the Caribbean together. The first day focused on how the diffusion of biodigesters can be advanced effectively in the diverse contexts of Latin America and the Caribbean. The speakers presented and discussed insights from practical experiences of applying the technology in Nicaragua, Peru, Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador and Bolivia. Some of the main lessons learnt included the need for coordination at state level: different agencies and institutions are involved in the design and execution of national programmes aimed at promoting the technology. The discussion indicated that “give-away” schemes – where biodigesters are distributed for free – were one of the major causes of abandonment of biodigesters. Insufficient resources allocated to support new adopters of the technology to learn how to properly operate and maintain the biodigesters, as well as how to integrate them into their routines, were a further cause of project failure.
The second day of the “Encuentro” focused on the role that biodigesters can play in strengthening family farming and rural development. Panellists from Colombia, Nicaragua and Peru highlighted the crucial role played in their countries by farming families, who are the most important suppliers of food for the internal markets – even though the rural population has been in decline in these countries over the last 50 years. They also highlighted the multi-functionality that biodigesters can offer to family farmers: to treat organic residue and wastewater, to produce fertiliser and to supply energy.
Three presenters shared insights into (a) the value of the effluent as a fertiliser for the production of maize; (b) the performance of biogas filters with activated carbon and silica gel substrates; and (c) experiences promoting the diffusion of biodigesters among family farmers in the state of Ceará in Brazil.
The third and final day revolved around the concept of the circular economy. Panellists highlighted the challenge of overcoming the “linear” logic along which the economy and, more generally, daily practices of production and consumption are organised. Linked to this linearity is a tendency for policy and decision makers to focus on what to do with residues (e.g. to send them to landfill, incinerate or recycle them) rather than to consider how those residues could be managed (e.g. by efforts to reduce and avoid waste). This asymmetrical attention is also evident when looking at strategies for change. Strategies involving changes in technology, infrastructure and large investments receive most of the attention, while those that focus on changing lifestyles, values and practices tend to be under-represented in debates about the circular economy. The panellists highlighted the importance of advancing both types of strategies.
You can find more information and resources on the RedBioLAC 2020 Encuentro here and we look forward to the 2021 Encuentro – this time hopefully in person!
3. Wind Empowerment Online Conference 2020
WISIONS partner network Wind Empowerment held their annual conference virtually over two separate weekends (21-22 and 28-29 November). The event brought the Wind Empowerment community together by providing a platform to exchange experiences in small wind energy over the last year and succeeded in delivering a convivial gathering instead of a formal scientific conference. The programme included webinar sessions on different topics for the attendees to participate in: Education, Technology, Market Assessment, Delivery Models and Measurement. In an effort to increase the interactive and participatory nature of the conference, the format included hackathons and virtual coffee meetings. The hackathon approach was particularly interesting and created a collaborative space to brainstorm the future of the network.
Recordings of the sessions, including the webinars and presentations, can be accessed here.
4. Solar power for a 'community fridge' in Nepal
With support from WISIONS, the People, Energy and Environment Development Association (PEEDA) built a solar-powered mobile cold storage unit for smallholders in the Dolakha region of Nepal. The project, which is the first of its kind in the country, has had a substantial impact on the community and its economy. The concept of the “community fridge” follows a simple but effective approach. The small-scale farmers amass the vegetables produced on their farms in the highlands of Nepal in the cold storage facility. After putting aside sufficient vegetables for their own consumption, the remaining vegetables can be stored and processed for commercial sale at the next local market. Before the installation of the “community fridge”, the farmers were forced to sell their produce immediately after harvest as they did not have the means to keep it fresh, which resulted in oversupply and low revenue. Preliminary numbers already indicate that the community has reduced the amount of food waste by 50% and that the increase in vegetable sales has created additional income for the families.
The involvement of the community was key to the success of the project and now the community owns and manages the system via a committee of local farmers who operate it. The holistic approach included the design of an innovative and sustainable energy solution, capacity-building for beneficiaries, value chain management and the raising of public awareness within the community about the project. We look forward to sharing future updates about this project!
5. Gender equality, sustainable development and energy access
Female entrepreneurs and practitioners have long been under-represented in the sustainable energy sector. Empowering more women to actively participate in the sector unleashes talent, helps to build resilient, sustainable and inclusive societies, and promotes gender equality. In light of this, the Alliance for Rural Electrification has recently launched a rich knowledge resource on best practices and stories of female empowerment in the sustainable energy sector. A case study from our partner network, HPNET, is featured among the examples of best practice in the field.The case study reviews the experiences of the micro-hydro (MHP) system built in the Pinthali village in Nepal over 20 years ago. The project took gender mainstreaming activities into account from the planning stage and these proved essential for including local women in the decision-making processes. The project also monitored the effects of the MHP on women in the village, including changes in daily activities, health impacts and increased household incomes.
Based on this and other experiences, ARE has produced recommendations for action at three levels (organisational, community and investor), which include:
• Community level: to inform every stage of energy access project design with data on local gender dynamics.
• Organisational level: to integrate gender mainstreaming into company business models and organisations’ programmes, and to develop a Gender Action Plan with clear objectives to guide the process.
• Investor level: to make a stronger case for gender-lens investment, and to provide financial incentives to investees with good gender practices and female empowerment programmes.
You can find the ‘Women Entrepreneurs as Key Drivers in the Decentralised Renewable Energy Sector’ report here.
6. End of year reflection
As 2020 draws to a close, we pause to reflect on our activities and those of our partners, and on developments in the sustainable energy space. Needless to say, travel restrictions have had an extensive impact on our work and that of our networks this year. However, the vibrant exchange of ideas and experiences between local energy practitioners continued through virtual means, with hugely successful online gatherings and a lot of creativity around formats that increased interaction. In addition to the annual meetings already described in this newsletter, the Hydro Empowerment Network launched their new podcast format Streamside Chats, which delivers insights into recent developments in the micro-hydropower sector in Southeast Asia. They also released a compelling video about the network and its work. We look forward to more in 2021!
At the beginning of the pandemic, we talked a little about its possible impacts on SDG7 in this blog post. The picture is not wholly negative. One of the effects we have seen is the widespread realisation that sustainable energy can make communities across the Global South more resilient against current and future crises, including the climate emergency. The pandemic has brought into focus the inextricable links between clean and affordable energy, the climate threat and people’s wellbeing.
2021 will be decisive for progress on tackling the climate emergency and achieving SDG7. We look forward to further advancing the core goals of WISIONS, which include the empowerment of local energy practitioners in the Global South, the exchange of knowledge to accelerate local energy transitions, and the advancement of evidence-based holistic approaches to energy access interventions.
Closer to home, there is one more thing that we are definitely looking forward to in the coming year: the Wuppertal Institute will celebrate its 30th anniversary! We are proud to be part of this family of transformative researchers working on all fronts of the energy transition.
We hope you enjoy the holiday season and wish you a good start to 2021!