Zero Emission
Electric Cooking

Electric cookers play a crucial role in climate change mitigation efforts, especially in contexts where lowering carbon emissions is exceptionally difficult. They not only address the direct health, environmental, and social repercussions of energy poverty but also use the cleanest, healthiest zero-emission fuel: Electricity.

Project Technology:

Electric Pressure Cookers & Induction Stoves

Project Standards:

Project Locations:

Ghana, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia

Projects Underway:

GS11578, GS10963

Project Overview:

115+ million people in sub-Saharan Africa gained access to electricity in 2014–2019. By 2040, its predicted access will reach 70%+. However the transition to e-cooking in sub-Saharan Africa is a complex and costly endeavor that requires significant financial support and on-the-ground expertise. Carbon financing is critical in this context, providing the necessary backing to bridge the financial gaps in manufacturing, distribution and household adoption that enable UpEnergy to deliver fuel-switching technology at scale.

Why Access to Electric Cooking is Essential in Emerging Markets:

Immediate Decarbonisation

The uptake of an electric cooker represents a household moving to a possible zero-carbon producing fuel with each electric cooker preventing multiple tonnes of CO2e per year compared to traditional cooking fuels.

The only possible zero-carbon fuel source:

As low-income families climb the energy ladder, electric cooking is the only technology allowing a leapfrog from biomass dependent cooking to the cleanest, healthiest near zero-emission cooking fuel: Electricity.

Other healthy fuels are expensive:

Besides being highly flammable, LPG is expensive and unsafe due to a lack of regulation and control; plus puts governments and users at the mercy of global natural gas markets.

Fast-tracking the transition:

Electric Cookers don’t depend upon ongoing fuel distribution networks to function. They are comparably lightweight, non-hazardous and easy to transport.

Currently 90% of electricity generation in Ethiopia, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia and Zambia comes from hydropower.

The Technology Behind the Solution

Electric Cooking: Cook faster, cheaper, and cleaner (and smarter).

Subsidized pricing thanks to carbon financing.
Ability to become Pay As You Go to make it ultra affordable an
Can contain connected Smart Metering Technology for continuous cloud-based monitoring.
Cheaper fuel vs. charcoal or gas plus easy to transport.
Fully electric. No biomass or fossil fuels.

2x

Faster

compared to cooking with charcoal free up time for other productive uses.

Reduces

Air-Pollution

Avoiding direct burning of dirty fuels means lower levels of indoor air pollution

Avoided Emissions

removes direct emission related to biomass based cooking

50%

Savings

on household fuel costs per year by switching away from

charcoal

"Using traditional cookstoves to prepare meals for my five kids was a difficult undertaking. I am grateful for my electric cooker since it allows me to prepare food faster and eliminates my concern for my children's safety around open flames.”

Bitimujaa, Kampala-Uganda

Impact on Sustainable Development Goals

Energy efficient Electric Cookers, which can cook food up to twice as fast, make cooking significantly more affordable especially compared to rising biomass fuel costs driven by scarcity.

Electric cooking delivers fuel switching to a zero emission fuel and support the energy transition for households in Africa.

Replacing antiquated cooking practices with more efficient and affordable methods. Customers save money every time they cook with an electric pressure cooker - each dish saves between $0.08 - $0.55.

Thanks to the ease of use, convenience (for example it can keep food warm until ready to eat) and speed, electric cooking also promises to relieve women of burdensome tasks associated with fuel collection and cooking, freeing their time for productive activities.

Electric cooking provides hope for critical health improvements especially in the lives of women and children, who bear the worst impacts of indoor air pollution.

The harvesting of forests for cooking fuel is a leading cause of deforestation, which can result in serious environmental consequences such as soil erosion and loss of biodiversity. Electric cooking removes the need for biomass fuel easing pressure on surrounding land & forests.

Case Study:

Transition to Electric Cooking in Uganda

Sharifah: Shop Owner
Income: UGX 1,500,000/month (approx. $400)
Household: 4 Members
Location: Urban area with long-standing electricity connection

Sharifah’s Story:

Sharifah, a shop owner in Uganda, earns UGX 1,500,000 (approx. $400) monthly and feeds a family of four. Previously reliant on charcoal for cooking - costing her UGX 25,000 ($6.70) weekly - she switched to an electric cooker for its speed, cost-effectiveness, and convenience.

This change has not only made cooking safer and cleaner around her active 10-month-old child but also reduced her monthly expenses from UGX 100,000 ($26.79) on charcoal to UGX 40,000 ($10.72) on electricity. She's so pleased with her electric pressure cooker’s efficiency and cost-effectiveness that she's already recommended it to six friends, becoming an advocate for electric cooking in her community.

“Unlike other cooking methods, my electric pressure cooker does not need to be supervised. I now have enough of time to watch my baby boy and complete other housework. In addition, it is way less expensive to use than charcoal that I was using before. I sincerely appreciate it.”