In the past few years, a number of health researchers have come to the same conclusion: that providing a safe, energy-efficient wood-burning cookstove to millions of people in the developing world can directly improve health (by reducing smoke inhalation), aid the environment (by reducing the amount of wood needed for fuel) and alleviate poverty (by reducing the amount of time needed to devote to gather wood every day).

Many projects have pursued this goal, but Potential Energy, a nonprofit dedicated to adapting and scaling technologies to help improve lives in the developing world, is the furthest along, having distributed more than 25,000 of their Berkeley-Darfur Stoves in Darfur and Ethiopia.

Please check it out and share it widely!

Last week, Livelihoods Specialist Jan Maes represented Potential Energy at Rethink Relief, an annual “intense design workshop dedicated to creating technologies for humanitarian relief that specifically address the gap between short-term relief and long-term sustainable development.” At the workshop, Jan shared lessons from Potential Energy’s six years working in the most punishing humanitarian environments in the world and explained how the success of the still thriving Darfur Stoves Project is one example of how engineering and design are being used to solve a humanitarian problem.

Rethink Relief is organized by MIT’s D-Lab, which fosters sustainable solutions for international development, and TU Delft’s Industrial Design Engineering, and founded by Amy Smith of MIT, who also co-founded the MIT IDEAS Competition, and Ana Laura Santos, a PhD candidate in the department of Design for Sustainability and Medisign at TU Delft. We are so excited that Jan was able to work with these brilliant individuals!

The event is free and open to the public. If you’re in the area, please drop by and learn about our stove projects and other groups’ sustainability projects!

Omnia Amr Abbas (Sudan Field Representative)
Omnia has extensive research experience in climate policy, environmental politics, and private governance. She has been involved in numerous projects dealing with environmental issues and sustainability, including launching Eco Options Egypt, the first environmental issues online magazine in Egypt, and acting as an Energy and Environment Program Consultant for the United Nations Industrial Development Organization in Italy (Cairo Office). Omnia serves as Potential Energy’s on-the-ground representative in moving to a financially sustainable market-based strategy for the Berkeley-Darfur Stove in Darfur and other areas of Sudan. Omnia has an MSc in Environmental and Resource Management from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and a BSc in Biology from the American University in Cairo.

Getnet Tesfaye and Hilawe Lakew (Ethiopia Field Representatives)
Jointly serving as PE’s Ethiopian field representatives through their clean energy consultancy, Ethio Resource Group (ERG), Getnet and Hillawe are helping to launch PE’s newest clean cookstove program.

Getnet Tesfaye has worked for the Ethiopian Rural Energy Development and Promotion Center for 19 years as an energy planner, energy information officer and as a member of several sector strategy and policy development teams. His recent clean cooking related experience includes project development and coordination for the Nordic Climate Fund-supported project for clean cooking promotion in Ethiopia, and the development and implementation of the EU Energy Facility-funded Integrated Rural Household Energy project being implemented by Addis Ababa University. Getnet holds an MS in Energy Systems and the Environment from the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK and a BS in Electrical Engineering from the Addis Ababa University.

Hilawe Lakew has many years of experience in energy engineering related to industrial, household, and rural energy programs, with particular emphasis on energy efficiency and the harnessing and utilization of alternative energy resources such as biomass, solar and micro hydro. Hilawe has been part of several clean cooking stove design and dissemination projects in Ethiopia, including the design and development of an improved charcoal stove and the development of the improved injera baking stove as a design expert at the Ethiopian Ministry of Mines and Energy. Hilawe obtained an MSc. in Renewable Energy and The Environment from The University of Reading, UK and a BS in Physics from Addis Ababa University.

In addition, we’ve added a Donation Calculator!

Enter an amount to see the impact of your donation. Thank you to Danny Wilson for the icons!

1. Our new video. Earlier this month, we debuted our new promotional video at our annual fundraising gala. Watch it to learn about our work providing clean cookstoves in Darfur and Ethiopia, and share it with your friends.

2. Spark Speaker Series: Social Entrepreneurship. Next Tuesday, our Executive Director Andrée Sosler will speak at an event hosted by Spark, a nonprofit dedicated to improving the lives of women around the globe. Learn more about the event and grab your tickets at Eventbrite.

3. An article in the online journal Solutions. Interested in a thorough overview of Potential Energy’s story? Check out the new article “Stove Solutions: Improving Health, Safety, and the Environment in Darfur with Fuel-Efficient Cookstoves,” published in Solutions, a nonprofit peer-reviewed online journal. The article penned by Potential Energy Founder & President Ashok Gadgil, Executive Director Andrée Sosler, and Associate Director Debra Stein.

Our colleague El Haj posing with newly-assembled Berkeley-Darfur Stoves.

Enjoy a video of last year’s MOJAMOJA Brunch and Benefit Concert below:

View more event details and purchase tickets at Eventbrite.

In cooperation with two US non-profit organisations, Impact Carbon and Potential Energy, myclimate has launched a carbon offset project at camps for internally displaced persons and in other parts of Darfur. Impact Carbon’s local partners are in charge of distributing water purification technologies, while Potential Energy is responsible for the efficient cookers. More than 140,000 families in Darfur will benefit from these efforts.

myclimate supports projects like the Darfur Stoves Project that reduce greenhouse gases and in doing so protect the climate and contribute to sustainable development in the project regions.

Read myclimate’s December newsletter here.
See myclimate’s spotlight on Potential Energy and Impact Carbon on their website.
Learn more about myclimate’s carbon offset project in Darfur on their website.

This project is being developed under new Gold Standard rules, which make it easier for people in insecure environments, such
as displacement camps, to benefit from access to carbon finance.