Projects

Juntos NFP is presently conducting a project with 750 cookstoves in Hingalganj, West Bengal, India.   The cookstove device and operational approach are nearly identical to a documented pilot study ( drtlud.com/deganga2016 ) that began with 11,000 Champion TLUD-ND stoves and has now grown to include 35,000 sustained daily users.  This popularity is attributed to the multiple household and local area benefits.  In fact, there is a ready market willing to pay US$20 whenever additional stoves become available (currently with a US$40 subsidy to cover stove manufacturing).

The Hingalganj, West Bengal project is different from the Deganga project only in terms of the verification procedures (visit chartrac.com/introduction for an introduction to our innovative, comprehensive verification approach).  The project success and benefits to the households have created considerable demand for more of the Champion stoves in this community, resulting in a backlog of potential sales. This isn’t surprising given the financial benefits that are realized in every household:

• Annual SAVINGS of ~US$100 in cost of purchased stick-wood / biomass fuel.
• Annual cash EARNINGS of ~US$40 paid incrementally every 4 weeks from the sale of stove-produced charcoal that each cook collects.
• These savings are a subtle, socially acceptable EMPOWERMENT OF LOCAL WOMEN who use the money for family necessities. TLUD cookstove users have said “If I had more cash in hand (if the collection cycles were eight rather than four weeks), my husband would take it.”

The financial benefits are in addition to the smoke-less cooking (with health benefits that are not readily recognized), cleaner pots, and speed and control of cooking temperatures. The Champion stove is an aspirational purchase that is actively sought.

Every participating household obtains a Champion woodgas cookstove for its post-subsidy price of US$20, and the household releases to the project owner (sponsor) its rights to the carbon emission reductions (ERs) of 4 tonnes CO2e per year, as established in the Deganga project since 2013.

Juntos Energy, as project owner in Hingalganj, maintains a registry of these carbon emission reductions and offers them as carbon offsets in exchanges for donations.  And because Juntos NFP is a nonprofit, we utilize the funds received for appropriate actions, including project expenses (US$10 per stove per year for maintenance and user support costs), repayment within three years of the loans that covered the initial subsidy, expansion of the project, and/or further benefits to the stove users.