English Version:

Since approximately thirty years biodigestion technology has been applied by the agricultural sector in Costa Rica. However, the current progress is mostly based on the implementation of small-scale agriculture and generally linked to specific government programs, which are generally dispersed and disjointed.

Based on this experience the Asociación Costarricense de Biogás and the WISIONS collaborate in order to develop strategies to consolidate biodigestion technology as a tool to improve agricultural production in Costa Rica. This project is accounted as the WISIONS SEPS Exchange project  "Exchange: Consolidating the Adoption of Small and Medium-Scale Biogas Technology by Livestock Farmers in Costa Rica (SEPS16).

Main milestone in this exchange project consisted of a two day workshop for Biogas Consolidation in July 2019, gathering farmers, government officials, biodigester suppliers and researcher in order to address current challenges for bringing biodigester technology forward in Costa Rica. WISIONS team collaborator  Dr. Willington Ortiz participated in this workshop and gave some reports from it. (WISIONS & Asobiogás Workshop in Costa Rica, WISIONS News 19 July 2019).

In the upcoming webinar, Asobiogas will present current developments from the exchange project with distinct focus on the findings of the workshop from July. The webinar will take place on 13 November 2019 at 8 A.M. Costa Rica Time (3 P.M. CET).

Register here!

Versión en español:

Desde hace aproximadamente treinta años la tecnología de biodigestión ha sido aplicada por el sector agrícola en Costa Rica. Sin embargo, el progreso actual se basa principalmente en la implementación de la agricultura en pequeña escala y generalmente vinculada a programas gubernamentales específicos, que generalmente están dispersos y desarticulados.
Con base en esta experiencia, la Asociación Costarricense de Biogás y WISIONS colaboran en el desarrollo de estrategias para consolidar la tecnología de biodigestión como una herramienta para mejorar la producción agrícola en Costa Rica. Este proyecto se contabiliza como el proyecto WISIONS SEPS Exchange "Exchange: Consolidating the Adoption of Small and Medium-Scale Biogas Technology by Livestock Farmers in Costa Rica (SEPS16).
El hito principal en este proyecto de intercambio consistió en un taller de dos días para la consolidación del biogás en julio de 2019, que reunió a agricultores, funcionarios gubernamentales, proveedores de biodigestores e investigadores con el fin de abordar los desafíos actuales para hacer avanzar la tecnología de biodigestores en Costa Rica. El Dr. Willington Ortiz, colaborador del equipo de WISIONS, participó en este taller y presentó algunos informes al respecto. (WISIONS & Asobiogás Workshop in Costa Rica, WISIONS News 19 July 2019).
En el próximo webinar, Asobiogas presentará los desarrollos actuales del proyecto de intercambio con especial atención a los resultados del taller de julio. El webinar tendrá lugar el 13 de noviembre de 2019 a las 8 de la mañana, hora de Costa Rica (15.00 horas CET).

Registrese aqui!

The SEPS Energy Exchange project in collaboration with IESR and their partners CAFOD and IIED approaches since 2014 the question, why sustainable energy projects in remote areas fail in many cases. Insufficient attention to long-term costs of operation and maintenance, local realities socio-cultural factors including gender issues, lack of attention on how an energy project is actually going to have a development impact and eventually lack of participation of local stakeholders. These are only some of the reasons why some energy services in remote areas fail.

With special focus on remote areas in Southeast Asia, they created a participatory model in order to : the Energy Delivery Model (EDM). This EDM model included countries, such as Indonesia, Cambodia and Myanmar but essentially relates to an issue concening most of sustainable energy development projects. In the case of Indonesia, the exchange project approached the local community of Boafoa and piloted the EDM model. By including local practitioners and stakeholders from different contexts (education and coffee production), the project came into application. The introduction of solar systems for schools and a coffee production plant has been assessed and two participants now reported their experiences so far with the model:

Find more information about the project here: Exchange: Capacity Building and Knowledge Exchange on the EDM Participatory Approach to Designing Energy Services in Indonesia (SEPS16)

RedBioLAC (short for Red de Biodigestores para Latino América y el Caribe) took place from 14 to 18 October 2019 and included various technical trainings, implementation of small and large scale biodigester facilities, exchanging knowledge about the technology, connection and networking of the participants and showcasing the own work at place. As the conference gathered more than 120 experts in biodigestion technology from 15 different countries, it attracted the interest of local media. See the RedBioLACs coordinator Mariela Pino, WISIONS project collaborator Dr. Willington Ortiz and Prof. Yuvan Contino explaining the significance of RedBioLAC and of the conference for the the Cuban local television broadcast service.Furthermore, the cuban news platform "Prensa Latina" covered the reporting from the conference with direction to an international and in particular Latin-American audience. The news article can be accessed by following the URL link (in spanish): Curso sobre biodigestores abre en Cuba XI Encuentro de la RedBioLAC.

The reporting coverage also included information dissemination through social media networks. In the following you can find several reports and pictures from the conference, technical tours and biodigester technology in general.