Approval granted for hydroelectric power source for briquette production

This month, Clean Cooking Fuel for Refugees received approval to connect to a nearby hydroelectric dam for a stable source of renewable energy!

Approval granted for hydroelectric power source for briquette production

Just the gist

If you're in a hurry, here's what you need to know this month:

  • The project received approval to connect to a hydroelectric dam for a source of renewable energy. This new power supply will enable mass production of briquettes!

Hey there! It's election day in the U.S., and we know, at least for our American subscribers, that focusing on anything else is nearly impossible. If you have a moment, here's the latest update from our Clean Cooking Fuel for Refugees project in Uganda:


A key piece of the Clean Cooking Fuels for Refugees project is using renewable energy to run the machines that create clean-burning briquettes. So far, our partners on the ground in Uganda have been creating test batches of briquettes using energy from a biomass power plant they built (pictured below).

The Clean Cooking Fuel team and USAID members standing in front of the biomass generator. The generator provides char used to create briquettes.

The power plant burns agricultural waste to generate electricity, and the by-product of this waste is used to supply some of the biochar used to produce briquettes! It's an effective method and a great way to make use of agricultural waste, but it doesn't produce enough energy to power all the briquette machines for this project.

Luckily, last month our partners got approved to connect the project site to a hydroelectric dam nearby in order to have access to way more renewable energy, and as a result produce more briquettes. To close out this month's update, here's a message from Peter Nyeko, project lead:

“We're still awaiting a timetable on when we could connect to the hydroelectric energy source (we've been advised it may take a while, since the government can be slow), but we're excited for the project to be producing briquettes at scale soon! We're shooting to have the first stoves and briquettes delivered to refugee families this December, thanks to your contribution.”

Peter Nyeko, Project Lead


That's it for this update! If you have questions or feedback, please reply directly back to this email and I'll answer back as quickly as possible.


– Ben Stanfield