Building a Sustainable Market for Biodigesters in Vietnam – SNV World/EnDev

Since 2003, SNVWorld, with funding from the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs (DGIS), have been working to develop the biogas and biodigester sector in Vietnam. SNV to date have been providing technical assistance and developing financial capacity in conjunction with the country’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, with the Department of Livestock Production under the MARD acting as the implementing partner for the project. Vietnam is particularly suitable for the development of biodigester technology, given the high prevalence of livestock farming and the large heads of animals present in the country. In 2016, over 26 million pigs were raised in the country, and utilising the waste products from this livestock farming can provide significant benefits to the economy, as well as sustainability objectives. As of March 2017, the project has installed over 150,000 biodigesters in the country, with a further 80,000 having been installed under spin-off projects implemented by the MARD.

The project has not only focused on installations, but has sought to develop the capacity for a functional, self-sustaining market for biodigester technology in the country. To that end, as of March 2017 the project has created over 2,500 new jobs in rural areas of the country, and trained over 1,700 masons in the construction of biodigesters. The consumer-side has also been targeted by the project, with over 160,000 households receiving both pre-installation training on the use of biodigesters, and post-installation training on the maintenance of the digester chamber and the use of bio-slurry in agricultural applications.

Dome-type biodigester in rural Vietnam. Image: SNVWorld

One of the innovative measures used to assist in developing a sustainable biogas sector in the country was implemented by the NGO EnDev in partnership with SNVWorld and the MARD. The NGO has recently implemented a Results-Based Financing (RBF) scheme in the country to promote the acceleration of biodigester construction, through empowering the supply-side of the biogas market to keep up with demand through subsidy. A financial incentive is provided for the construction and verification of each new biodigester, starting at US$50 for each new digester and falling over time. The intention is that the suppliers who receive this incentive can then reinvest the extra income in attracting more staff and scaling their businesses. The verification system is implemented through a novel online application developed in partnership with SNVWorld and AVKO, combining input data, photos and GPS locations translated to maps that are automatically updated with new information from the field. This system has replaced the traditional hard-copy form submission system for verification of new installations, streamlining the process for both EnDev and installers. The system is currently in use by 146 active installers in 18 provinces in Vietnam, and to date has verified over 35,000 biodigester installations.

In terms of capacity-building, SNV are currently partnering with MARD to continue the training of government installation and verification partners to build capacity in the biodigester sector, in an effort to better support a viable, private-sector supply and distribution market. Government technicians are also being trained in communicating about benefits of biogas technology, supporting enterprises in identifying suitable households and providing them with extension services on the use of bio-slurry.

– Daniel Kerr, UCL

References

SNVWorld (2018) Vietnam Biodigester Programme. Available at: http://www.snv.org/project/vietnam-biogas-programme [Accessed 11^th March 2018]

Teune (2017) Igniting a Self-Sustaining Biogas Market in Vietnam. Available at: http://www.snv.org/update/igniting-self-sustaining-biogas-market-vietnam [Accessed 11^th March 2018]

What Could the Energy Transition Be for Thermal Energy Services in the Global South

The STEPs project (Sustainable Thermal Energy Service Partnerships) funded by Dfid-DECC-EPSRC is about the design of public private partnerships for the provision of thermal energy services targeting the poorest in developing countries.  The STEPs research focuses on thermal energy services for households and small producers.  The following posts describe what the main needs are in terms of thermal energy services, and with which technologies they could be provided.

Households and small producers in developing countries have needs in terms of cooking, heating/cooling, refrigeration and drying which vary according to the geographical, socio-economic and cultural conditions found in their locations, and can be satisfied in a very different manner than in industrial countries.  Not only can the technologies used be different, but the entrepreneurial model which can help to disseminate these technologies is particular to the Global South: social entrepreneurs, cooperatives, informal groups or established small rural companies acting like utilities have to be involved.

The sustainability of their business models implies the need to find the right mix between different technologies and services provision adapted to the context they evolve in.

Cooking

Currently cooking in developing countries is mainly done using non-efficient cook stoves using traditional biomass (wood, charcoal) or fuels like coal or paraffin. More infrequently efficient cook stoves, bio-digesters or more rarely LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas) are used for cooking in rural areas.

Improved cook stoves have been tried to be disseminated for several decades now with mixed results. It seems cook stoves of all kind of shapes and made of all kind of materials have been conceived without being able to reach their intended market. Improved cook stoves fall broadly into two categories – cook stoves that use traditional wood fuels more efficiently, or cook stoves that use improved fuels such as unprocessed charcoal, briquettes or pelletised fuelwood.

A small selection of the diverse design options for clean cookstoves. Image credit: GIZ 

One of the aims of the STEPs project is to understand if public-private partnerships similar to the ones established for rural electrification could facilitate the dissemination on a very large scale of improved cook stoves. This is done by reviewing the (few) successful experiences of large-scale dissemination of improved cook stoves, for example the National Biogas Cookstoves Program (NBCP) in India (http://www.mnre.gov.in/schemes/decentralized-systems/national-biomass-cookstoves-initiative/), and determining how private business can take charge of the distribution and the marketing of improved cook stoves.

Another way of facilitating the energy transition in terms of cooking facilities is to encourage the use of LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas). LPG may not be a very low-carbon energy but it is considered a lot cleaner/less damaging for the environment and efficient than the use of traditional fuels. Unfortunately, the logistics of distribution in remote places makes it unaffordable for the poorest unless a program of subsidies is also implemented, which experiences show are difficult to target. For example, the Ghanaian LPG distribution and promotion program started in the 1990s, and continuing today, has experienced difficulties through cross-subsidising LPG, intended for cooking, through gasoline sales. This led to a rise in LPG transport use and conversions, particularly in urban taxis, skewing sales towards transport use and not rural cooking use as intended by the government program.

Bio-digesters can produce methane for cooking. This technology is widely disseminated in few countries like China or India, but not so much in sub-Saharan African countries. Various reasons have been invoked to explain this situation – low density of population/small size of holdings notably. It seems nevertheless than even if conditions may be less favourable in African countries than Asian countries, there could be specific services organised around collective use of bio-digesters (e.g. cooking in a school by collecting waste from a community).

There are two main approaches to household biodigester construction. The traditional technology is a dome-type biodigester, with the digesting chamber constructed from compacted earth or brick. These are cheap and easy to construct, but are prone to failure and require significant maintenance for good efficiencies. Modern household biodigesters are made from prefabricated plastic digesting chambers, which only require maintenance to maintain the digestion process, and are significantly more durable than the traditional type.

Biogas construction in cantonment (4971874669)” by SuSanA Secretariat – https://www.flickr.com/photos/gtzecosan/4971874669/. Licensed under CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Prefabricated biodigester being installed in South Africa. Image: popularmechanics.co.za

Prefabricated biogas digester being constructed by AGAMA Bioenergy worker in South Africa. Image: Agama Biogas PRO via Youtube

Solar cooking and solar ovens are another technology that can be used for cooking in rural areas of developing countries. The Global South, and Sub-Saharan Africa in particular, generally has a good level of insolation for the use of solar technologies. Solar cooking technology however has struggled to find a foothold in Sub-Saharan African markets, and is at a low level of dissemination despite the maturity of the technology. A number of factors could be behind this, most notably the lack of convenience associated with solar cooking and the long cooking times and forward planning associated with using the technology.

A solar oven being demonstrated in Ghana. Credit: Ikiwaner / Licensed under CC BY 2.0 by Wikimedia Commons

– Xavier Lemaire & Daniel Kerr – UCL