INTERNATIONAL GOLD AWARD WINNERS
Toyola Energy
Limited Ghana Toyola Energy won a 2011 Ashden Award in recognition of its success in producing and selling efficient charcoal stoves throughout Ghana and beyond.
Background Most urban households in Ghana cook on charcoal, using traditional charcoal stoves made of sheet metal. These stoves are polluting and inefficient, and the cost of charcoal is a significant proportion of household income. Most of the wood used to produce the charcoal comes from unsustainable sources, so charcoal production contributes to both deforestation and greenhouse gas production. Toyola Energy was set up to bring cleaner stoves and other energy products to households in Ghana.
The organisation Toyola Energy Limited was founded in 2006 by Suraj Wahab Ologburo, a former accountant and Ernest Kwasi Kyei, an engineer, both of whom had been trained in stove production under the Ghana Household Energy programme (GHEP). They obtained a loan from E+Co to start commercial production and sales, providing work to 77 other artisans including some trained under GHEP. Further loans and carbon finance have enabled the growth of the business, which by April 2011 had five production centres in different parts of Ghana and one in the neighbouring Republic of Togo.
In 2009/10 Toyola Energy had an income of US$550,000, 72% from stove sales and 28% from carbon finance. It employs five people directly and provides work to a large number of self-employed artisans. It has a 90% shareholding in KT ceramics that makes the stove liners, and also has a wholly-owned subsidiary, Toyola Solar, that sells photovoltaic systems.
The programme Toyola Energy produces and sells efficient charcoal burning stoves. Independent selfemployed artisans make the metal stove bodies and the ceramic liners to Toyola specifications, and assemble and finish the stoves. Toyola sells stoves directly, via dealers and also through local marketing agents.
The technology How does it work? The Toyola Coalpot stove has an hour-glass-shaped metal body. The charcoal is burned in a heat-retaining ceramic liner, which has holes to supply air, and let
the ash fall down. An adjustable door in the metal body controls the air flow and therefore the rate of burning. The stove top is designed for the round-bottomed pots that are popular in Ghana, using robust metal pot-rests that give a narrow gap round the pot base and good heat transfer. The Coalpot was developed from the GHEP three-legged Gyapa stove, to be more durable, more stable (particularly with food that requires stirring), and also more efficient.
How much does it cost and how do users pay? US$1 = GHC 1.51 (Ghana Cedi) [April 2011] Coalpots are made in five different sizes. The domestic sizes range from 270 to 360 mm top diameter and retail for GHC 10 to 12 (US$ 6.60 to US$8.00). The commercial sizes are 460 and 510 mm top diameter and retail for GHC 40 and 50 (US$ 26 and US$33). All retail prices are subsidised by carbon finance. Toyola gives up to two months credit to its direct customers, and also to its dealers and sales agents who can pass the credit on to their customers. 75% of customers use credit, 20% pay cash, and a few pay by bartering produce such as cassava. About one third of credit customers use a ‘Toyola money box’ to reserve their savings on charcoal, and use this money to make their credit payments.
Environmental benefits Charcoal savings have been assessed using kitchen performance tests with the same households using their original stove and a medium-sized domestic Coalpot. The Coalpot was found to save one third of charcoal, an average of 0.5 kg per day. Thus the stoves currently in use are saving about 26,000 tonnes of charcoal each year, and so cutting the use of wood to make charcoal.
Perhaps surprisingly, Coalpots also cut fuelwood use directly. Surveys found that 30% of households used some fuelwood as well as charcoal for cooking. When they switched to using a Coalpot, their use of both charcoal and fuelwood decreased.
Currently, about 73% of the wood used in Ghana to make charcoal and directly as fuelwood is non-renewable
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CASE STUDY
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