About 2.5 billion people and innumerable enterprises in developing countries are facing serious problems in terms of their energy supply. The availability of traditional fuels such as wood is declining, while commercial fuels are too expensive and their availability unreliable. Provision of renewable energy has the potential to keep or lift households out of poverty and to develop small businesses.

However, the provision of renewable energy technologies is not always accompanied by capacity development support to local actors, and therefore hampering the sustainability of initiatives. Here lies the main challenge for SNV. Our main focus is on domestic biogas, but we also have experience with local use of biofuels, improved cook stoves and improved water mills.

Domestic biogas
SNV’s support for national programmes on domestic biogas spreads across three SNV regions: Asia, East and Southern Africa and West and Central Africa. In our multi-stakeholder sector development approach, we aim to optimise organisational and institutional capacities already available in the country.

SNV started supporting biogas activities in Nepal in 1989 and in Vietnam in 2003. Since 2006, domestic biogas programmes have also been established in Bangladesh and Cambodia, while a pilot programme in Lao PDR took off in 2007. Pakistan and Indonesia launched biogas programmes in 2009; Bhutan in 2011. By the end of 2010, 360,000 households (2.1 million people) have been equipped with biogas plants. At the invitation of the Asian Development Bank, SNV is now leading a working group on domestic biogas in the framework of the ‘Energy for All Partnership’. Through this initiative, an additional one million biogas plants are planned across the Asian region by 2015.

SNV’s biogas activities have been expanded to include Africa. Rwanda is the first country of engagement, with another six countries (Senegal, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya) targeted in the framework of the ‘Africa Biogas Partnership Programme’. This Programme took off at the end of 2008, in cooperation with Hivos, and aims to reach 70,000 households by 2013. Cameroon is developing its programme since 2009; Benin since 2010.

Learn more about domestic biogas

Learn more about SNV’s approach in domestic biogas

Biofuels
SNV is involved in biofuels activities in a number of countries including Zambia, Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Ecuador and Peru, tackling diverse problems including lack of energy, unemployment and migration. Again, the main challenge for SNV lies in ensuring sustainability and encouraging pro-poor development. SNV is using two main approaches in biofuels development, namely: Value Chain Development and Inclusive Business.

Learn more about biofuels

Learn more about SNV’s approach in biofuels

Improved Cookstoves
Three billion people all over the world still use polluting, inefficient stoves to cook their food each day. Toxic fumes from these stoves kill almost 2 million people every year, mostly women and children. In September 2010, the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, a $250 million public-private initiative led by the UN Foundation, was launched. The Alliance aims to enable 100 million households to adopt clean and efficient cookstoves by 2020. As one of its founding partners, SNV pledged to contribute $250,000 to the Alliance, as well as provide its extensive expertise in renewable energy.

Website of the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves

Improved Water Mills
In Nepal, SNV has supported the dissemination of improved water mills since 2003 through a sector development approach. Using hydro-power to grind grain makes sense in a region where there are plenty of streams and access to basic energy supplies is limited. By the end of 2010, 6,350 water mills had been successfully upgraded, benefiting around 317,500 families. Water mill improvements have increased grinding capacity by more than 100% and improved the income of millers.

Learn more about Improved Water Mills

Learn more about SNV’s approach in Improved Water Mills