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Business Opportunities
Introducing fuel alcohol stoves opens up a wide range of new opportunities for employment. Stoves and fuel alcohol need to be either manufactured or imported. There are openings for investment, micro-finance, stove development, stove manufacture, stove import and sales, in all countries where ethanol or methanol can be locally sourced. Project Gaia is working with CarbonAided, an ethical carbon offset company, investigating ways in which carbon finance can be used to reduce appliance and fuel prices. This could make fuel-alcohol technologies very desirable commercially.
Employment opportunities
Businesses will need to employ:
• managers
• trained and skilled employees, particularly on the shop floor
• technical (and maybe computer) staff
• marketing staff
• accountants
After liaising with Dometic AB, the Ethiopian company Makobu Enterprise works to manufacture the CleanCook stove in Addis Ababa, which creates jobs and strengthens the local economy.
They will need to find:
• steel stockholders
• advertising companies
• transport companies
• forward-looking banks
• training organizations
• supply chains for fuel
They will need to work with government organizations to ensure that policies and practices are conducive to good labor relations.
They will need to liaise with NGOs to learn the preferences of their customers, and ensure that appropriate market mechanisms make stoves and fuel affordable and attractive to communities. NGOs can help to mitigate the economic impact of this technology introduction on other energy suppliers (eg charcoal sellers).
Opportunities in stove import and manufacture
Currently, high quality stoves are being manufactured in Europe, but Gaia and Dometic (the business that holds the patent for the CleanCook stove) are keen work with local partners to manufacture and/or supply this stove in countries where the skills level will allow local manufacture. Project Gaia will also support and work with manufacturers of other types of fuel alcohol stoves, provided that they provide clean and efficient household energy.
There is potential for developing partnerships (distribution networks, and factory capacity) to build fuel alcohol stoves locally. Project Gaia and Dometic (for the CleanCook) are in discussions with several governments; each of these countries will be seeking commercial partners to develop ethanol stoves (and potentially, technologies for refrigeration, lighting, and electrical power).
Opportunities for ethanol manufacture
Alcohol stoves can use both ethanol and methanol. Large-scale distilleries can develop a substantial and stable ethanol market which does not suffer the vagaries of the global fuel market. Small-scale distilleries provide secure local fuel supplies, employment, increase income from agri-residues, creating profitable enterprises for local entrepreneurs. Methanol can be made cheaply from flare gases.