Declining Cost of Renewables Could Mean Cheap Alternatives to Fire for Cooking
In the Global South, the role of renewable electricity for the cooking sector has been widely neglected as too expensive, too complicated and too different from the tradition of cooking with wood fuel. While this was true for many years, the preconditions for cooking with electricity from solar and wind have changed entirely.
By electrifying the cooking sector with renewable sources in rural areas in Africa, Asia, and South America, millions of people’s lives could be saved while helping to limit global warming to 1.5C. Current exposure to household air pollution from cooking with solid fuels causes 4.3 million premature deaths per year. Inefficient cooking fuels and technologies are particularly affecting women and children since they are the ones most exposed to the toxic fumes.
Across the world, upwards of 3 billion people rely on biomass for fuel. Firewood, charcoal or animal dung are often employed to meet household energy needs for cooking, resulting in seriously adverse consequences for the environment, health, and economic development within this substantial population. Turning cooking with electricity into an affordable and technically reasonable option could therefore help a great deal in addressing these challenges.
Zdenko Zivkovic