Keeling Curve

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Project Summary / Description:

Renetech is developing and testing an innovative institutional solar thermal cooking solution, targeting the institutional cooking market in Kenya. The Gekomoni Secondary School is the first project site, located in Nyamira District, Western Kenya. The school has almost 700 students and in addition almost 50 teachers and other staff. Every school day, there is a large consumption of Solid biomass for cooking for school students and staff. The key objective of this project is to replace unsustainably sourced wood burning (contributing to deforestation, land degradation, climate emissions, and indoor pollution) with a 100% renewable cooking solution. The cooking solution uses solar heat from solar thermal collectors and a heat storage unit for providing hot water and  steam needed for cooking in the kitchens. There are more than 10000 schools in Kenya alone with an equivalnet cooking demand. See the animation of the solution in the link below. 

https://youtu.be/hokNjsjYJe8?si=Wo29QtfMyvLzcCgL

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How Project Affects Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions:

For the past five years ,the Renetech team has worked to develop a solar thermal based cooking stove solution for institutions( Ex. boarding schools, hospitals , refugee centers, community kitchens ) in the global south. Most of our potential customers are currentely using illegally logged wood for prerapration of the food which is also incentivizing deforestation and crime. The adoption of the Renetech solar stove solution reduces the amount of wood consumed in the Kitchens to almost nill, reducing deforestation and illegal logging. See the animation of the solution in the link below. 

https://youtu.be/hokNjsjYJe8?si=Wo29QtfMyvLzcCgL

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Impact on Underrepresented Groups:

Women: 
Women and children in developing regions such as SSA are the most vulnerable to inhouse pollution by mere fact that they spend much time in smokey kitchens. They develop respiratory diseases because of the smoke, in addition to time and safety issues related to fetching firewood. While our idea makes institutional cooking pollution-free, most people working in the kitchen are women. 

People of color: 
The projects being implemented in the rural part of SSA where access to clean cooking less than 17 %, project directly addressed the energy poverty issue in people of color 

Youth: 
The institutional solar cooking stove project creates more than 1,300 full-time green rural jobs in Kenya. 

Climate vulnerable communities: 
Kenya is a country among the top climate-vulnerable countries. Climate change is badly affecting Kenya through rising temperatures, erratic rainfall, and drought. Agriculture being one of main sectors which are impacted enormously, the strain associated with this upon the rural agrarian economy is massive. Unlike very often projects tend to be centered around the urban areas, this project is very much in the rural countryside where the needs are highest. Our products target rural schools in Kenya, representing 75% of the Kenyan education institutions. They are predominantly located in the rural areas and the students are from middle- and low-income earners ($5-10/day) families. The schools operate on a lean budget where cooking using firewood is a major cost item, costing them up to $10,000 per academic year (eg. A school of 700 students). The project has met with five schools, and the first contract is secured. Our target clients are listed below: 
1. Peri-Urban schools. 
2. Peri-Urban hotels. 
3. Industries with boilers.

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