Blog on information on the Stove Trace program of Nexleaf Analytics
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Wednesday, September 7, 2016
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StoveTrace
Stakeholders – Nexleaf
Analytics, TERI, Qualcomm
Technology - Smartphones connected to a thermal sensor, a
temperature sensing mobile application and wireless connectivity for uploading
temperature data from the mobile phone to a remote server
Traditional
cookstoves, which many families in underserved communities use, can have both
adverse health and environmental effects. However, most users of these cooking
stoves find it expensive to replace them with clean cookstoves. The Wireless
Reach StoveTrace program features a smartphone connected to a thermal sensor
that is pre-loaded with a mobile application, providing an affordable,
reliable, monitoring device to measure a family’s clean cookstove usage. This
enables families to obtain credits from a voluntary carbon exchange when they
use clean cookstoves, and provides them a financial incentive for using clean
cookstoves, while also reducing carbon emissions and improving the health of
their families.
Nexleaf Analytics,
the implementation partner, has deployed a robust Android application which
enables tracking of the usage of the clean cookstove. Nexleaf Analytics
has received a US patent[1] for
this method of tracking the usage of cookstoves. Currently, over 700 sensors
have been deployed among users in Orissa and Uttar Pradesh states of India. For
2015, the sensors have tracked that participants have used clean cookstoves for
a total of 103,000 hours, enabling savings of 250 tons of CO2
thereby earning US $1500. Direct remittance of climate credits to clean
cookstove users has increased clean cookstove usage and has motivated families
to follow-up and service their stoves in case of break downs. The next phase
will increase financial inclusion for 1,000 women by connecting stove users
with Vodafone mPesa mobile money to get the climate credits directly into their
hands.
Nexleaf
Analytics has been invited to speak at several international conferences,
including the UN’s Sustainable Energy for all[2]
conference in May 2015 and the USAID and Global Alliance of Clean Cookstove
conference in Lima, Peru[3].
Additionally, results of the StoveTrace program have been published in notable
peer-reviewed journals[4]. Vodafone has cited Nexleaf as a customer
reference for its M2M (machine to machine) telecom solutions[5] The StoveTrace program has won the
Aegis Alexander Graham Bell Award in the category of innovation in M2M category
in 2015. In 2016 they were finalists in the Harnessing
the Data Revolution for Resilience Recognition Award organized by USAID Asia. In July 2016 they also received the Juror’s mention prize in the
mBillionth awards 2016 in the category of Agriculture and Environment.
Nexleaf is now
collaborating with the World Bank to add particulate monitoring to the
StoveTrace platform, extend StoveTrace to monitor both improved and traditional
stoves, enable the StoveTrace dashboard to quantify health and climate impacts,
and enable all stakeholders access to the data.
Nexleaf
presented their results of the Wireless Reach program on March 14th
at a meeting convened by the World Bank and thereafter on March 15th,
both times to stakeholders comprised of clean cookstove manufacturers, climate
and cookstove experts, department heads from the Government of India overseeing
the clean cookstove program, community based organizations implementing the
clean cookstove programs and financial institutions funding clean cookstoves,
and received broad agreement for scaling the monitoring platform.
Nexleaf has
engaged with various mobile money companies like Vodafone mPesa, Airtel Money
and PayTM to enable remittance of the carbon credits directly to mobile phones
of the families instead of using traditional bank accounts. Use of mobile money
will motivate the families to increase usage of clean cookstoves.
StoveTrace
supports the Indian Government’s programs to drive adoption of clean cookstoves,
the UN Environment Program and similar international initiatives, including the
Global Alliance of Clean Cookstoves, which works to drive adoption through
innovative financing means such as carbon finance[6],[7]. Currently, the Government of
India provides a subsidy of between Rs 400 to Rs 800 (US$ 7 – US$ 14) for using
clean cookstoves (based on type). The innovative technology developed by
Nexleaf may influence the Government to switch to usage-based subsidy payments
which may be more effective in driving behavioral change.
A case study of
the StoveTrace project can be downloaded from https://www.qualcomm.com/company/wireless-reach/projects/india-StoveTrace.
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