X PRIZE for efficient cookstoves??

Inefficient cookstoves are a major problem for the poor in the developing world. The soot has serious implications on health and poverty; and population growth, and rising energy costs leave the poor with no choice but to forage for their fuel resulting in environmental degradation, . (Picture source: columbia.edu)

One of the organizations I consulted for a couple of years ago, called the X PRIZE Foundation, where I helped develop the Global Development vertical has moved forward with a partnership with IIT Delhi and the Government of India to develop and launch a prize for developing efficient cookstoves.

Approximately 70% of Indian households -- more than 160 million households, comprising about 770 million people – are estimated to depend on simple but polluting cookstoves that burn solid fuel, mainly wood or coal. It also is estimated that approximately 400,000 to 550,000 people – primarily women and children – die of the resulting indoor air pollution each year in the country. This makes the cookstoves problem in India and the potential market for cleaner cookstoves amongst the largest in the world.

The cookstoves competition falls under the X PRIZE Foundation’s Education & Global Development prize group, which tackles major challenges in areas such as learning, hunger, health and water. Addressing the grand challenges of our time, the X PRIZE Foundation generates innovation through incentivized competition. Through the strategic design of ground-breaking competitions with significant, multi-million dollar prize purses, X PRIZE spurs collaboration among the world’s most brilliant minds to tackle the most pressing issues and create radical breakthroughs for the benefit of humanity. More here.

Looks pretty interesting and exciting. Definitely a worthy issue. More about the cookstove problem is here and here.

Obama's Youthful Idealism Comes to Fruition

President Obama was ahead of his time (photo courtesy: NY Times)

Sunday's NY Times paper was chock full of really great articles. It is during this time that I physically miss having the newspaper in my hands with my morning glass of milk and OJ, under the warm sun. But I'm not complaining. 

(watching Ecotrip yesterday...the episode about what goes into making a paper napkin, I'm not going to cut down yet another tree to get my paper fix!)

Reading this article yesterday again confirmed for me that Obama started training for his critical leadership role as a kid. Obama was way ahead of his time in terms of his thinking (making him an idealist at that age...I wonder how lonely he was as a kid!). Coming of age in the greedy 80's, he formed ideas about nuclear issues that he had no business having even then.

“I personally came of age,” Mr. Obama wrote in “The Audacity of Hope,” his second memoir, “during the Reagan presidency.”

It was a time when President Ronald Reagan began a trillion-dollar arms buildup, called the Soviet Union “an evil empire” and ordered scores of atomic detonations under the Nevada desert. Some Reagan aides talked of fighting and winning a nuclear war.

The popular response was the nuclear freeze movement. Dozens of books warned that Mr. Reagan’s policies threatened to end civilization and most life on Earth. In June 1982, a million protesters gathered in Central Park, their placards reading “Bread Not Bombs” and “Freeze or Burn.” The nation’s Roman Catholic bishops issued a pastoral letter denouncing nuclear war.

Many Columbia students campaigned for the freeze movement, which sought a halt to additional nuclear arms deployments. Mr. Obama explored going further.

At that point the President, then a 21 y/o senior at Columbia University, wrote about disarming our nuclear stockpiles. Not only did he write about it in his report for his class (which got an "A"), but he also went on to pen a lengthy article on the same in the school newspaper. Twenty plus years later, just as he was being elected into the highest political office, the article surfaced again and blew people away. He was way ahead of his time. (see the Conservatives' take on this article) 

Recently the President said this, which forms the crux of his thesis:

“It’s naïve for us to think,” he said, “that we can grow our nuclear stockpiles, the Russians continue to grow their nuclear stockpiles, and our allies grow their nuclear stockpiles, and that in that environment we’re going to be able to pressure countries like Iran and North Korea not to pursue nuclear weapons themselves.”

Thank you Mr President!!

D.Light Fellowship Program: DEADLINE FEB 15, 2009

Want to work on bringing light and electricity to some of the poorest people in Asia and Sub Saharan Africa?? Then join the D.Light Design Fellowship Program.

According to their website,

D.light Design (www.dlightdesign.com) is a lighting and power company that delivers affordable and high quality solutions to serve families living without adequate electricity. Our mission is to replace every kerosene lantern in the world to provide everyone access to a basic human need: safe and bright light. D.light is financed by prestigious venture capital firms including Nexus India Capital, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Garage Technology Ventures, Mahindra & Mahindra; with investment from leading social enterprise funds Acumen Fund and Gray Matters Capital. al.

D.Light is kickstarting what looks like a wonderful fellowship, HURRY application deadline is Feb 15!!

We are pleased to announce the launch of the D.light Fellows Program! The Fellows Program connects D.light with passionate and talented professionals from around the world. For terms of 3-10 months, fellows will use their unique skills and experiences to contribute in a significant way to our mission of replacing kerosene lanterns with safe and bright light.

Each fellow will be located in one of our three field offices in India, China, or Tanzania, working closely with our multi-national team across three continents and four countries. As D.light continues to expand quickly, we promise that all fellows will have an invigorating, challenging, and life-change experience!

Please visit our website to view a more detailed description of the program and how to apply. The first application deadline is February 15, 2009, so please consider applying and help us spread the word! We are currently recruiting for the following fellows:

• Business Development (India)
• International Business Development (China)
• Marketing (India)
• Marketing & Communications (China)
• Product Design (India)
• Reliability & Testing (China)
• Research & Development (China)
• Supply Chain Management (China)

Imitating Photosynthesis, a breakthrough in Storage technology

Nature's most efficient energy producer and storage device: the green leaf (photo courtesy: Luca5)

Nature's most efficient energy maker?? The green leaf. In a process called photosynthesis, the leaf, uses chlorophyll to capture solar energy, water and carbon dioxide, and efficiently converts it into oxygen, water and starch/sugar. The leaf distributes the sugar/starch within the plant system, releases the oxygen for the world to breathe, and either keeps or discharges the water.

Oxygen is that thing that we breathe in and need to survive, and it is a great fuel source.

For years, scientists have tried unsuccessfully to mimic the green leaf. Then last week, renowned MIT Professor of Chemistry, Dan Nocera, announced a breakthrough. He had finally found a way to artificially mimic the leaf. I think he deserves (and frankly, he just might get it!) a Nobel Prize for this research. Its THAT big!

Why?? Free energy for the world...

To quote PSFK:

Scientists at MIT have developed what may be the holy grail of of solar power. In the past, the problem with solar was keeping the electricity flowing at night. Storing excess energy for use after sundown has traditionally been really expensive and highly inefficient. Now, by mimicking the way plants store energy MIT has created a way to store solar power in fuel cells that can keep power running around the clock.

MIT News reports:

Requiring nothing but abundant, non-toxic natural materials, this discovery could unlock the most potent, carbon-free energy source of all: the sun. “This is the nirvana of what we’ve been talking about for years,” said MIT’s Daniel Nocera, the Henry Dreyfus Professor of Energy at MIT and senior author of a paper describing the work in the July 31 issue of Science. “Solar power has always been a limited, far-off solution. Now we can seriously think about solar power as unlimited and soon.”

Inspired by the photosynthesis performed by plants, Nocera and Matthew Kanan, a postdoctoral fellow in Nocera’s lab, have developed an unprecedented process that will allow the sun’s energy to be used to split water into hydrogen and oxygen gases. Later, the oxygen and hydrogen may be recombined inside a fuel cell, creating carbon-free electricity to power your house or your electric car, day or night.

Solar Cookers in Darfur

Different versions of Solar cookers

Time Magazine did a great photoessay on solar cookers being disseminated in Darfur.

The photoessay proves a very important point...that all technology has its place.

While solar cookers are environmentally friendly and convenient in many ways (less labor/time intensive than gathering wood), they've never quite caught on in the developing world. I've never been to a village where solar cookers were being used, even in areas of extensive sun/heat where firewood was scarce! I even came across a couple of villages where the cookers were given away for free as part of some program. The women/families would pull it out when guests came and do a short demo. But for everyday use, they still preferred firewood and its smokiness.

The reasons were mainly:

• most women cooked early in the morning and later in the evening, before the family had awoken, when sun light/heat is at its lowest. During the day, they were out collecting wood for light, heat, and cooking (which solar cookers can't compensate for) and doing other income generating activities.
  
• the last thing any of these women wanted to do was sit out in the hot sun and cook (its the same reason why smoky cookstoves are placed inside the house rather than outside)
  
• flies and bugs are ubiquitous outside (inside too, but they are minimal compared to the outside). Cooking out in the open is simply less comfortable and sanitary. This is another reason for why women prefer to inhale smoke rather than cook outside.
• the cookers rarely come with instructions/training and aren't standardized...you have a problem and who do you go to for help??
  
• Finally, depending on the culture, women aren't allowed or don't feel safe sitting exposed outside the house for extended periods of time when their husbands aren't around. Cooking outside means being more exposed, less safety, or even asking for trouble. Granted hunting for firewood is dangerous, but its more socially acceptable and there are other women around with you when you are doing your search.
  

Yet I do believe that the solar cookers in Darfur have a lot of things in their favor:

a. They come in a kit, which means that they are standardized, and they are buildable (which increases ownership!), and they are transportable. Some enterprising person can even take the same kit apart and make their own.

b. They used fairly locally available materials...again some enterprising person can build their own.

c. They come with specialized training. Most women I had met with the free solar cookers didn't quite know how to use them and didn't have the time to invest in sitting idly for three hours cooking food.

d. MOST importantly, the security situation is so bad, that there is a STRONG negative incentive for them to use the cookers. In some ways, they have no other choice but to use the cookers. They probably also spend a lot of day-time in their homes (it being a refugee camp), to allow day-time cooking rather than taking part in income generating activities as you would in a safer/regular part of the world.

The food crisis, climate change and the role of technology to solve it

A woman walks through a paddy field in southern India (photo credit: Meena Kadri)

Sorry to digress a bit here. There is just SO much going on, and everything is related - poverty, food, energy, water, and climate change, and the growth of technology that could change things for the better. I will have my regular post about water in addition to this.

Today there were two well-written posts, that were separately contiguous.

The first was from the google.org people. Today is World Health Day (who knew!) and the WHO has released evidence stating that Climate Change has a significant impact on food and health. They even have a map showing areas with high death rates as a result of climate change. Not surprisingly, Africa is the worst hit, with a significant region attributing 80-100 million deaths to climate change. Read the whole post here. This was something covered by Al Gore as well in his blockbuster movie An Inconvenient Truth.

The second is from Paul Krugman of the New York Times, who wrote a brilliant summary of the causes of the impending food crisis, titled Grains Gone Wild. The World Food Program (WFP), Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), and the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD) all UN agencies have stated that 854 million people are starving. Again, this starvation is primarily centered in Africa and parts of Asia, and slated to get worse with population growth. And its related to climate change.

So, the general consensus is that food and health are gravely affected by climate change. But can anything be done?? Well, obviously we (particularly those in the industrialized countries) need to be more aware of these issues and stop our own wasting. We need to stop hogging everyone else's food and messing with the rest of the world's agricultural policies. But that's an aside to my point (which has to do with this blog) about technology.

I think technology can offer a solution in the larger picture. (Please note that I believe in technology being used as an accelerator in solving a crisis; it is not the whole solution and can never be!)

Technology saved the day during the last major food crisis. Post World War II, countries all over the world were struggling with food rationing. There simply wasn't enough food produced (quite different from now, where famine is more a result of a combination of issues). Then advances in technology like pest-resistant cropping started a green revolution in many countries...the most famous of these scientists won a Nobel Prize for his work. Because climate change is such a large problem, advances in technology in every field (energy, food, road/transportation design, etc) are required to quell it. Suddenly the boundaries are blurred, and as a whole professionals and inventors in every field need to work together to solve this problem.

Technology is out there to provide a solution, but we all need to work together to make it happen. This isn't a single technological advancement needed...its a multiple technological advancement that's needed. The food crisis is just one example, one symptom in the larger issue of Climate Change.

Good technology comes from good institutions

I spent a lot of time at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) until a few months ago. What makes me most proud about having been involved with that institution is that it is a true laboratory of genius - minds work together, not for the money or the fame, but for the beauty and purpose of technology itself, that it should help others. The university provides the space, the creative minds, facilities, and some funding to get students started up. From there, genius evolves. Its not surprising that some of the world's greatest minds and technologies are born there.

Recently, MIT has taken on a major energy and sustainability drive. The energy drive was first driven by student interest. They organized themselves and brought on board faculty and more students. Then the political climate became such that energy was the hot topic. Soon the university embarked on a major energy initiative. Now the whole University is working together to devise better technologies to address the incoming energy crisis. I have no doubt that they will succeed.

Similarly, when graduate students found that MIT's energy bill was a ridiculous 100 million dollars a week, they decided that something had to be done. They organized a sustainability drive, bringing together a group of undergraduate and graduate student projects that all addressed various sustainability issues across campus. Its now a movement to "green" MIT. Yesterday, NPR did a great piece on it. Check it out here.
http://www.here-now.org/shows/wed.asp

There are many universities that do projects like this, but there need to be more. And there needs to be more invested in projects like these. More universities nationally and internationally need to provide this type of environment for budding minds to flex their intellectual muscle for the good of mankind.