Background: The global focus on improved cookstoves (ICSs) and clean fuels has increased because of their potential for delivering triple dividends: household health, local environmental quality, and regional climate benefits. However, ICS and clean fuel dissemination programs have met with low rates of adoption.

Objectives: We reviewed empirical studies on ICSs and fuel choice to describe the literature, examine determinants of fuel and stove choice, and identify knowledge gaps.

Methods: We conducted a systematic review of the literature on the adoption of ICSs or cleaner fuels by households in developing countries. Results are synthesized through a simple vote-counting meta-analysis.

Results: We identified 32 research studies that reported 146 separate regression analyses of ICS adoption (11 analyses) or fuel choice (135 analyses) from Asia (60%), Africa (27%), and Latin America (19%). Most studies apply multivariate regression methods to consider 7–13 determinants of choice. Income, education, and urban location were positively associated with adoption in most but not all studies. However, the influence of fuel availability and prices, household size and composition, and sex is unclear. Potentially important drivers such as credit, supply-chain strengthening, and social marketing have been ignored.

Conclusions: Adoption studies of ICSs or clean energy are scarce, scattered, and of differential quality, even though global distribution programs are quickly expanding. Future research should examine an expanded set of contextual variables to improve implementation of stove programs that can realize the “win-win-win” of health, local environmental quality, and climate associated with these technologies.

Who adopts improved fuels and cookstoves? A systematic review.

Modern fuels are an important enabler of social and economic development. Still, over 2 billion people rely on traditional biomass for their daily energy needs. To overcome the negative effects of traditional energy on human health and the environment and to enhance the livelihood conditions of the poor, a transition towards cleaner and more efficient forms of energy is needed. Understanding household fuel choice and fuel switching behaviour is of vital importance in search for policies to support such a transition process. This paper adds to the existing energy transition literature in two ways. First, we provide a novel conceptual framework to analyze the decision environment underlying energy and fuel choices. Second, we apply this framework in a meta-analysis of existing choice models investigating energy switching and stacking behaviour in urban and rural areas in developing countries. The meta-analysis shows that socio-economic household characteristics appear to receive most attention so far in identifying groups of fuel users, while relatively little information is available on the impact of the external decision context on household energy choices.

The energy ladder: Theoretical myth or empirical truth? Results from a meta-analysis

The impact of household consumption on energy use and CO2 emissions in China

https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-01290714/document

Household fuel use in developing countries: Review of theory and evidence

Improving access to affordable and reliable energy services for cooking is essential for developing countries in reducing adverse human health and environmental impacts hitherto caused by burning of traditional biomass. This paper reviews empirical studies that analyze choices of fuel and adoption of improved stoves for cooking in countries where biomass is still the predominant cooking fuel. The review highlights the wide range of factors that influence households cooking fuel choices and adoption of improved stoves, including socioeconomic (access and availability, collection costs and fuel prices, household income, education and awareness), behavioral (food tastes, lifestyle), and cultural and external factors (indoor air pollution, government policies). The paper also summarizes the evidence on the significant adverse health impacts from exposure to indoor smoke, especially among women and young children. In low-income households, perceived health benefits of adopting improved stoves and financial benefits from fuel savings tend to be outweighed by the costs of improved stoves, even after accounting for the opportunity cost of time spent collecting biomass fuel. The paper identifies knowledge and evidence gaps on the success of policies and programs designed to scale up the adoption of improved cookstoves.

/pdf/household-cooking-fuel-choice-and-adoption-of-improved-2wwf2t4mmw.pdf

Household cooking fuel choice and adoption of improved cookstoves in developing countries : a review

Variations in energy use by Indian households: an analysis of micro level data.

As agriculture is one of the highly respected and valued sectors of the economy of India, its level of water consumption pumped to eighty-five percent with respect to its resources. However, this factor brings us to an efficient way of energy usage. The present work is an effective presentation of the water pumping scenario with a specific eye on solar pumping application. Long lasting trait of a solar appliance and its low cost for maintenance makes it a great solution for the existing demand. Multilevel inverters have proved to be viable solutions with their reduced dv/dt stress of devices, better output quality, and minimal filter requirement. Quantity of voltage levels is directly proportional to the control complexity and device count for any conventional multilevel inverter. There is also a possibility of energy unbalance issue which obviously will affect the reliability of the system. Here, in this paper, an efficient model of a solar based water pumping system with energy balancing capability is proposed which can act as a effective replacement for the existing systems. A 3-$\Phi$ nine-level inverter topology is now proposed in this paper with the issues addressed there by having a minimal device count and maximum reliability factor. 4-Isolated DC sources with magnitudes of Vdc/4 (where Vdc is the voltage requirement for the conventional NPC multilevel inverter), constitute the PV sources. Energy balancing capability during the partial shading of PV panels is specifically worked out in the proposed topology. The mathematical analysis of energy balancing between the DC sources is also presented in this paper. Using MATLAB/Simulink the energy balancing issue is analyzed in this paper.

M. Narasimha Rao

Papers

Variations in energy use by Indian households: an analysis of micro level data.

Energy Balancing Capability of a Three Phase Nine-Level Inverter for Solar Water Pumping Applications