R4D Energy

Achieving development goals with renewable energy – the case of Tanzania

Tue, 15 May 2012 04:14 GMT

Document Type: Briefing
Creator: Weischer, L

Production Year: 2012

Citation: Weischer, L. Achieving development goals with renewable energy – the case of Tanzania. Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN), (2012) 6 pp. [Inside Stories on climate compatible development]

Summary: Lack of reliable access to electricity is a significant barrier to economic development and job creation in Tanzania. Currently, only 14% of the population has access to electricity; in rural areas the electrification rate hovers around 2%. Power outages are frequent – especially during droughts, which cripple the hydroelectric power on which most of the country depends.

This policy brief, by Lutz Weischer of World Resources Institute for CDKN, is about the Small Power Projects (SPP) programme that Tanzania designed – with very limited financial resources – to support renewable energy deployment. These decentralised renewable energy projects are helping Tanzania to address her power challenges while avoiding growth in greenhouse gas emissions.

Water, Food & Energy Nexus: High Level Panel at the Sixth World Water Forum

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 03:13 GMT

Document Type: Event (Miscellaneous)
Creator: CPWF

Production Year: 2012

Citation: CPWF. Water, Food & Energy Nexus: High Level Panel at the Sixth World Water Forum. (2012) 31 pp.

Summary: This publication underpins discussions of the High Level Panel on the Water, Food and Energy Nexus, co-convened by CPWF, held during the 6th World Water Forum in Marseille on 16 March 2012. It presents a collection of case studies that provide insight into the strong inter-linkages and inter-dependencies between water, food and energy at policy and project levels through the eyes and perspectives of a diverse group of organisations working across the world.

Energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence analysis of zinc and iron concentration in rice and pearl millet grain

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 03:58 GMT

Document Type: Journal Article
Creator: Paltridge, N.G.; Palmer, L.J.; Milham, P.J.; Guild, G.E.; Stangoulis, J.C.R.

Production Year: 2012

Citation: Paltridge, N.G.; Palmer, L.J.; Milham, P.J.; Guild, G.E.; Stangoulis, J.C.R. Energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence analysis of zinc and iron concentration in rice and pearl millet grain. Plant and Soil (2012) : [DOI: 10.1007/s11104-011-1104-4]

Summary: Background and aims: Rice (Oryza sativa L.) and pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum L.) biofortification breeding programs require accurate and convenient methods to identify nutrient dense genotypes. The aim of this study was to investigate energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (EDXRF) for the measurement of zinc (Zn) and iron (Fe) concentration in whole grain rice and pearl millet.

Methods: Grain samples were obtained from existing biofortification breeding programs. Reference Zn and Fe concentrations obtained by inductively-coupled plasma-optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES) were used to calibrate the EDXRF instrument. Calibration was performed with 24 samples and separate calibrations were developed for rice and pearl millet. To validate calibrations, EDXRF analyses were conducted on an additional 40 samples of each species.

Results: EDXRF results were highly correlated with ICP-OES values for both Zn and Fe in both species (r2?=?0.79 to 0.98). EDXRF predicted Zn and Fe in rice to within 1.9 and 1.6 mg kg-1 of ICP-OES values, and Zn and Fe in pearl millet to within 7.6 and 12.5 mg kg-1 of ICP-OES values, at a 95% confidence level.

Conclusion: EDXRF offers a convenient, economical tool for screening Zn and Fe concentration in rice and pearl millet biofortification breeding programs.

Nutrition of draught oxen in semi-arid west Africa. 1. Energy expenditure by oxen working on soils of different consistencies

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 09:41 GMT

Document Type: Journal Article
Creator: Fall, A.; Pearson, R.A.; Lawrence, P.R.

Production Year: 1997

Citation: Fall, A.; Pearson, R.A.; Lawrence, P.R. Nutrition of draught oxen in semi-arid west Africa. 1. Energy expenditure by oxen working on soils of different consistencies. Animal Science (1997) 64 (02) 209-215. [DOI: 10.1017/S1357729800015757]

Summary: The Oxylog, a portable breath-by-breath gas analyser, was used on seven animals to determine standing metabolic rate, energy cost of walking on soils of different consistencies and efficiency of work ploughing and carting. The average standing metabolic rate of animals was 5·63 (s.e. 0·12) W/kg M00·75. The consistency of the soil on which animals worked had a marked effect on their energy cost of walking which was 1·59 (s.e. 0·069) on unploughed soil, 2·15 (s.e. 0·084) on ploughed soil and 1·0 (s.e. 0·10) J/m per kg live weight on laterite tracks. The efficiency of ploughing sandy soils (i.e. ratio of work done to energy used for work) was 0·32 and was not significantly different from the efficiency of carting with different loads. The efficiency of doing work was not influenced by the type of work performed, the draught force exerted or the walking speed.

Joto Afrika, Issue 8. Should Africa take the renewable energy path?

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 08:13 GMT

Document Type: Magazine/Newsletter
Creator: Denton, F. (Editor)

Production Year: 2011

Citation: Denton, F. (Editor). Joto Afrika, Issue 8, October 2011. Should Africa take the renewable energy path? ALIN (Arid Lands Information Network), Nairobi, Kenya (2011)

Summary: Topics covered in this issue include: Renewable energy on Mount Mulanje, Malawi; Biofuel use in Zambia; Hydropower in East Africa; Biogas; and Fuel briquettes.

Protocol - What are the enabling or limiting factors influencing the large scale uptake by households of cleaner and more efficient household energy technologies, covering cleaner fuel and improved solid fuel cookstoves?

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 08:41 GMT

Document Type: Protocol
Creator: Puzzolo, E.; Stanistreet, D.; Pope, D.; Bruce, N.; Rehfuess, E.

Production Year: 2011

Citation: Puzzolo, E.; Stanistreet, D.; Pope, D.; Bruce, N.; Rehfuess, E. What are the enabling or limiting factors influencing the large scale uptake by households of cleaner and more efficient household energy technologies, covering cleaner fuel and improved solid fuel cookstoves? EPPI-Centre, Social Science Research Unit, Institute of Education, University of London, London, UK (2011) 27 pp.

Summary: This is the protocol for a systematic review which will describe and assess the importance of different enabling or limiting factors that influence the large scale uptake by households of cleaner and more efficient household energy technologies. More specifically, this systematic review will:

develop a framework for different categories of factors influencing large-scale uptake;
provide a summary of existing knowledge relating to each of these categories, including interpretation of data through an equity lens; and
set an agenda for essential primary research (stand-alone research or evaluations of current and future initiatives).

What are the enabling or limiting factors influencing the large scale uptake by households of cleaner and more efficient household energy technologies, covering cleaner fuel and improved solid fuel cookstoves?

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 10:33 GMT

Project Status: Current

Project Objectives:

The main objective of this systematic review is to describe and assess the importance of different enabling or limiting factors that influence the large scale uptake by households of cleaner and more efficient household energy technologies.

More specifically, this systematic review will:

develop a framework for different categories of factors influencing large-scale uptake;
provide a summary of existing knowledge relating to each of these categories, including interpretation of data through an equity lens; and
set an agenda for essential primary research (stand-alone research or evaluations of current and future initiatives).

Nutrición de Ganado Lechero. Valores nutritivos de los suplementos energeticos y proteicos en Santa Cruz [Dairy Cattle Nutrition. Nutritional values of energy and protein supplements in Santa Cruz]

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 07:19 GMT

Document Type: Extension Leaflet/Booklet

Production Year: 1997

Citation: FEDEPLE Misión Británica, Boletín No. 10, 4 pp.

Protocol - What are the major barriers to increased use of modern energy services among the world’s poorest people and are interventions to overcome these effective?

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 02:25 GMT

Document Type: Protocol
Creator: Watson, J.; Byrne, R.; Opazo, J.; Tsang, F.; Morgan-Jones, M.; Diepeveen, S.

Production Year: 2011

Citation: CEE protocol 11-004, Collaboration for Environmental Evidence, 21 pp.

Summary:

A lack of access to modern energy services (such as electricity from solar home systems for lighting, natural gas burned in modern stoves for cooking and petroleum-based engines for motive power to enable agro-processing) among the world's poor is widely recognised to have negative impacts on their health, education and quality of life, further deepening and entrenching their poverty. This systematic review has been commissioned in order to "neutrally collect, critically appraise and synthesise" the evidence provided in the literature on barriers to the use of modern energy services among the world's poorest people, and interventions to remove those barriers. The review will focus on sub-Saharan Africa, searches will be conducted in as broad a manner as possible in order to capture lessons learned from lower-middle income countries in other parts of the world. This document sets out the research protocol that will be used to collect, analyse and synthesise the available evidence.

The following sub-research questions immediately fall out of the primary, overarching question.

What are the different types of modern energy services, and associated technologies for their delivery and/or use, which are used, or could be used, by the world's poorest people?
What are the major economic, technical, political, cultural and social barriers to the use of modern energy services, and associated technologies, amongst the world's poorest people? What criteria are used to define a 'major' barrier?
What are the different types of interventions that have been used to promote or increase uptake of modern energy services and technologies? What are their characteristics and outcomes?
What are the different measures of effectiveness which are used to assess the interventions and how do these vary depending on the intervention, the modern energy service and the relevant barriers in different contexts?

This review will concentrate on modern energy services other than cooking, as another research team has been commissioned by DFID to conduct a systematic review to understand the specific issues related to cooking.

The effect of energy malnutrition in ruminants on experimental infection with Dermatophilus congolensis

Fri, 09 Sep 2011 06:51 GMT

Document Type: Journal Article
Creator: Sanders, A.B, How S.J., Lloyd D.H.and Hill R.

Production Year: 1990

Citation: Journal of Comparative Pathology (1990) 103 (4) 361-368 [doi:10.1016/S0021-9975(08)80024-2]

Summary: The ability of malnourished and optimally fed animals to resist infection with D. congolensis was assessed by the dose-response to experimental inoculation. The severity of infection, as measured by scoring the lesions, was the same in both groups of lambs. However marked differences were seen between the two groups in the appearance of scabs and in the time taken for them to resolve. The malnourished animals had more persistent, chronic lesions compared with the more obvious, acute type lesions seen on the skin of the healthy controls. These results were probably related to the reduced rates of wool growth and lanolin production found in the malnourished lambs, which may reflect a reduction in the rate of cellular turnover in the skin of these animals.