Energy
Clean and Sustainable Energy
Skanse is engaged in the transition to clean energy, with its early efforts in West Africa. Its initial focus is to establish solar power generation and to promote clean cooking solutions. The benefits of lower carbon emissions and the improved indoor air quality from transition from solid fuels such as wood and charcoal to natural gas are well established. Skanse aims to develop local solutions through technology and community based initiatives.
Solar Power - West Africa
The lack of access to reliable electricity at an affordable price remains a key constraint to achieving broad-based economic development for the West African region. Years of uncoordinated planning and project implementation in the region’s power sector, plus a growing energy sector debt, lack of energy security, a fledgeling regulatory environment, and a lack of stable power grids have denied millions in the region of experiencing improved living standards.
Skanse efforts are aligned to providing access to cheap, reliable, secure, and sustainable energy through increased private sector investment in West Africa.
Transition to LPG for Clean Cooking in West Africa
It is a well-established fact that two in five, or nearly three billion people, rely on wood, coal, charcoal or animal waste for cooking or heating. Household air pollution produced by rudimentary cookstoves is so toxic that the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates it leads to around four million deaths every year - a figure that exceeds the death toll attributed to malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS combined. Reliance on traditional use of solid biomass for cooking contributes to forest depletion and climate change. Cooking with biomass is also an enormous burden on families' livelihoods. In rural areas, women and girls can devote up to six hours per day gathering wood or spend a third of household income on fuel.
In Sierra Leone, fuel options for clean cooking are only available in its capital city of Freetown. Throughout the region, one of the best alternatives to wood and charcoal, LPG, are only distributed in the big cities, while rural areas are left out. Much of the country does not have knowledge of the benefits of clean cooking or access to the same, as is the case in much of West Africa.
By using more energy efficient cooking options and replacing the traditional fireplaces with modern stoves and clean cooking solutions, Skanse is looking to reduce smoke emissions, improve indoor air quality, provide cost savings and reduce the time and resources needed to procure fuel. Skanse aim at enhancing the lives of the people in the region while protecting its environment and help reduce carbon emissions. Our initiatives will begin in Sierra Leone and then extend to the neighbouring countries. We are dedicated to meeting the sustainability goals of the region by providing affordable access to safe, reliable and sustainable sources of energy.