For people living in some remote villages in Indonesia, heating houses and fuelling stoves can be a real challenge. The resources required, like gas and wood, have to get shipped in and distributed to individual households, and not only does this process take a whole lot of time – some families wait weeks for new gas to arrive – it also produces a tonne of emissions that contribute to global warming.

The good news is that this antiquated system is now on its way out, thanks to an unlikely source: tofu.

You’re probably familiar with tofu as a delicious, fluffy treat that’s made from bean curd, but in Indonesia, tofu isn’t just a snack – it’s a livelihood, with hundreds of small, family-run shops producing tofu in massive quantities every day. Now, thanks to a government-run program, the waste water from all that tofu production is getting transformed into biogas that can be pumped directly to houses.

Tofu has been made the same way for generations, and it’s a rather simple, yet time-consuming process. Basically, producers start by soaking and grinding soybeans to separate the soy milk from the soy pulp. This step takes the longest because the beans have to soak for hours before they are ready for separation.

After the separated parts go through a filtration system, the protein and oil are separated from the soy milk. A chemical coagulant, which varies based on the producer, is added to firm everything up. Once formed, you have tofu ready for cutting. So, in essence, tofu is coagulated soy milk that you can pick up and eat.

Though simple in practice, an enormous amount of water is required to make tofu – roughly 33 litres (8 gallons) for every kilogram (2.2 pounds) of spongy bean curd. Noticing this, researchers working with Indonesia’s government found that this waste water could be turned into biogas if a certain type of bacteria is added to it.

It’s really that simple. Every day, the waste water is collected from various shops in the village, taken to tanks called ‘digesters’, and treated with bacteria. Once transformed, the gas is pumped directly from the tanks to local homes.

Besides creating a green energy source for locals, using all that waste water has significantly helped the local environment.  Thousands of litres of waste water drained from raw tofu was once pumped daily from factories around the village into nearby rivers, befouling waterways and contaminating rice fields downstream.

Without all that wastewater lying around, farmers have seen an increased rice yield and the foul smell that comes with tofu production has left the area. Now, with so much success, locals are lining up to get in on the new energy source. In fact, there’s a waiting list while the government installs new digesters to cope with the increased demand, even though a whopping 20,000 have already been installed.

The hope for Kalisari is to become the first full-blown green village in Indonesia – an area of the world that is notorious for its high levels of emissions. If they’re successful, there’s no reason why similar programs couldn’t sweep across the region, dramatically changing the way people get the energy they need to live out their lives.

[Source: http://bit.ly/1Oq2gwP]

Johannesburg – Electricity parastatal Eskom says it is well on its way to achieving its energy availability target and expects no need for load shedding this winter.

“This week we achieved a significant milestone in relation to our target of 80:10:10 (ie, 80 percent energy availability factor (EAF), 10 percent planned maintenance, and 10 percent unplanned maintenance),” it said in a statement.

“On Tuesday, 10 May, we achieved a daily EAF average of 80 percent. This is a clear indication that we are solidly on track to meet the overall target well before the targeted 2020/21 financial year.”

This “remarkable achievement” was also an indication that Eskom’s maintenance programme was beginning to bear fruit, with a decrease in unplanned outages as a result of disciplined execution of the programme.

“Our prognosis for winter is that there will be no load shedding. We will continue with a rigorous program of planned maintenance without implementing load shedding while also minimising the usage of open cycle gas turbines (OCGTs).“

For winter, Eskom is targeting a maintenance budget of 8500MW; in summer we budget 11 500MW.

“We appreciate the support of all our customers and urge them to continue to use electricity sparingly at all times,” Eskom said.

[Source:  http://bit.ly/23PzqYx]

Energy is a critical enabler. Every advanced economy has required secure access to modern sources of energy to underpin its development and growing prosperity. In developing countries, access to affordable and reliable energy services is fundamental to reducing poverty and improving health, increasing productivity, enhancing competitiveness and promoting economic growth. This is because it is essential for the provision of clean water, sanitation and healthcare, and provides great benefits to development through the provision of reliable and efficient lighting, heating, cooking, mechanical power, transport and telecommunication services.

Modern energy services enhance the life of the poor in countless ways. Electricity provides the best and most efficient form of lighting, extending the day and providing extra hours to study or work. Household appliances also require it, opening up new possibilities for communication, entertainment, heating etc. It enables water to be pumped for crops, and foods and medicines to be refrigerated. Modern cooking facilities have the potential to significantly reduce the daily exposure of households (particularly women and children) to noxious cooking fumes – helping to avoid premature deaths caused by indoor air pollution. They can also help remove the burden of spending hours every day travelling long distances to gather fuelwood. And modern energy can directly reduce poverty by raising a poor country’s productivity and extending the quality and range of its products – thereby putting more wages into the pockets of the deprived. For instance, mechanical power can benefit agriculture (ploughing, irrigation) and food processing (otherwise, a laborious and time consuming job), textiles and other manufacturing.

Each year, 4.3 million premature deaths can be attributed to household air pollution resulting from the traditional use of solid fuels, such as fuelwood and charcoal. This figure is much higher than previous estimates, primarily due to the inclusion of new diseases, such as cardiovascular disease and lung cancer.

The international community has long been aware of the close correlation between income levels and access to modern energy: not surprisingly, countries with a large proportion of the population living on an income of less than $2 per day tend to have low electrification rates and a high proportion of the population relying on the traditional use of biomass for cooking. Despite the importance of these matters, billions of people continue to be without basic modern energy services, lacking reliable access to either electricity or clean cooking facilities. This situation is expected to change only a little by 2030 unless more vigorous action is taken.

[source:  http://bit.ly/24YMXmt]