Sustainable cooking energy options for rural poor people in India: an empirical study

Currently, energy consumption for cooking in rural households of India is mostly based on fuelwood used in traditional stoves. This paper presents results of a study carried out in a forest fringe area of India on cooking energy use. The concept of calculating levelized cost as cost per unit of usef...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inEnvironment, development and sustainability Vol. 19; no. 3; pp. 921 - 937
Main Authors Jana, Chinmoy, Bhattacharya, S. C.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.06.2017
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects
Alternative energy sources
Biogas
Briquetting
Community development
Cooking
Earth and Environmental Science
Ecology
Economic Geology
Economic Growth
Energy
Energy consumption
Energy sources
Energy usage
Environment
Environmental Economics
Environmental Management
Gasification
Households
Liquefied petroleum gas
Low income groups
Residential energy
Rural areas
Rural communities
Stoves
Sustainability
Sustainable Development
India
Firewood
Briquettes
Cookstoves
Cooking energy
GHG emission
Biogas
India
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Summary:Currently, energy consumption for cooking in rural households of India is mostly based on fuelwood used in traditional stoves. This paper presents results of a study carried out in a forest fringe area of India on cooking energy use. The concept of calculating levelized cost as cost per unit of useful energy is applied on source–device combinations of cooking and validated in Bargaon Community Development Block of Sundergarh District in Odisha, India. About 92 % of the households in the study area use fuelwood as the only energy source for cooking; the total use of fuelwood for only cooking, in the Block is nearly 1.8 times the total sustainable wood supply showing an urgent need for promoting alternative cooking energy options. This paper also presents an assessment of different cooking options in terms of cost per unit of useful cooking energy. LPG, biogas and gasifier stoves are found to be far too expensive for the local people. Briquette-fired improved stoves appear to be a promising cooking energy option in the study area. Government support and intervention are recommended for promoting this option.
ISSN:1387-585X
1573-2975
DOI:10.1007/s10668-016-9774-y