Accra, 30th March, 2015 – The Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) with support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Energy Commission of Ghana will commission a Cookstove Testing and Expertise Lab at the University Council Chamber on Tuesday, 31st March, 2015 at 10.00am.
The laboratory, which will be commissioned by the Vice Chancellor of KNUST is a major boost for Ghana’s quest to promote the manufacturing of improved cookstoves and stimulate their demand, under a UNDP partnership with the Energy Commission within the framework of the Sustainable Energy for All Initiative.
“It is heartwarming to note that this laboratory will not only be used for testing purposes, but also, create an avenue for research and development to continually improve the design and manufacture of improved cookstoves in Ghana”, says Dominic Sam, UNDP Country Director.
The provision of the laboratory comes on the heels of a recent study commissioned by UNDP and SNV that showed that cookstove testing facilities are not available to 47% of manufactures while the few that test their stoves do not follow any standard protocols. This lab will therefore become a central point for manufacturers, as the data generated from the tests will enable them to improve the efficiency of their stoves and expand their market.
Improving the efficiency of the more than 100,000 cookstoves distributed in Ghana annually is important to reduce the demand and the time used for searching wood, which places a heavy burden on Ghana’s degrading forests. Unclean cookstoves and woodfuel consumption are also responsible for the more than 16,000 deaths per year in Ghana, according to WHO estimates.
The Cookstove Testing and Expertise Laboratory will help reverse negative trends and encourage the deployment of 5 million clean and improved cook stoves and its adoption by 4 million households in Ghana by 2020, in line with the set by the Ghana Alliance for Clean Cookstoves.
Currently, UNDP is supporting the Ghana Standards Authority to develop technical standards to regulate the thermal and energy efficiency of stoves, as well as the indoor air pollution. A labelling scheme will be designed to clearly provide this information to consumers. These regulations will need adequate enforcement mechanisms to ensure that only quality products are available on the market; The Cookstove Testing and Expertise Lab can play a key role in the enforcement.
This article has 0 comment, leave your comment.