294 Energy andtransport for thefuture
In much of the developing world, most of the population live in
areas where there is no access to modern or on-grid energy. They rely
on ‘traditional biomass’ (fuelwood, dung, rice husks and other forms of
biofuels) to satisfy their needs for cooking and heating. Ten per cent or
so of world energy originates from these sources supplying over one-
third of the world’s population. Although these sources are renewable, it
is still important that they are employed efficiently, and a great deal of
room for increased efficiency exists. For instance, a large proportion of
each day is often spent in collecting firewood especially by the women,
increasingly far afield from their homes.
The burning of biomass in homes causes serious health problems
and has been identified by the World Health Organization as one of
the most serious causes of illness and mortality especially amongst
children.^33 For instance, much cooking is still carried out on open fires
with their associated indoor pollution and where only about five per
cent of the heat reaches the inside of the cookingpot. The introduc-
tion of a simple stove can increase this to twenty per cent or with a
little elaboration to fifty per cent.^34 An urgent need exists for the large-
scale provision of stoves using simple technology that is sustainable –
although there is often considerable consumer resistance to their intro-
duction. Othermeans of reducing fuelwood demand are to encourage
alternatives such as the use of fuel from crop wastes, of methane from
sewage or other waste material or of solar cookers (mentioned again
later on). From the existing consumption of ‘traditional biomass’ there
is the potential to produce sustainable ‘modern’ energy services with
much greater efficiency and much less pollution for the two billion or
so people who currently rely on this basic energy source. A particular
challenge is to set up appropriate management and infrastructure for the
provision of these services in rural areas in developing countries (see box
below).
Firstly, consider the use of waste.^37 There isconsiderable public
awareness of the vast amount of waste produced in modern society. The
UK, for example, produces each year somewhat over thirty million tonnes
of domestic solid waste, or about half a tonne for every citizen; this is
a typical value for a country in the developed world. Even with major
programmes for recycling some of it, large quantities would still remain.
If it were all incinerated for power generation (modern technology en-
ables this to be done with negligible air pollution) about 1.7 GW could
be generated, about five per cent of the UK’s electricity requirement.^38
Uppsala in Sweden is an example of a city with a comprehensive dis-
trict heating system, for which, before 1980, over ninety per cent of the
energy was provided from oil. A decision was then made to move to
renewable energy and by 1993 energy from waste incineration and from