The Future of Woodfuels – Panel Session with wPOWER Hub

Renewable energy sources are becoming more and more present, as is the wide acceptance that we need them to safeguard humanity’s existence on this planet. However due to the very high cost of setting them up, most of the world is still very dependent on non-renewable sources, particularly in developing countries, where there is little capital available to create new infrastructure. Well never fear, there are agents out there working hard to replace the dirty, pollutant, and wasteful reality we’re currently living in with another more picture-perfect one, and one of these agents is wPOWER Hub. You might remember wPOWER Hub from our November New Arrivals post, where we gave them a shout-out after they had just taken up one of the enclosed offices we have available in Westlands. This coming Thursday afternoon (January 19th 2017), this awesome firm is hosting an invite-only panel discussion about one energy source in particular that doesn’t often get spoken about, and its future in the developing world. You might be the ideal addition to the crowd!

When we think about different energy sources, wood fuels don’t always come to our mind. And yet, 72% of urban and 98% of rural households use wood fuel in the form of firewood and charcoal for cooking and space heating in sub-Saharan Africa! Despite this governments seem to be neglecting their importance, de-emphasizing their role in their national energy policies, favoring more modern energy sources like LPG. This hasn’t been very realistic however, and it has been proven that wood fuels aren’t going anywhere in the foreseeable future… How do we diminish wood fuels’ negative impact on the well-being of its users, and their environment? That’s precisely what the panel session will be centered on, with the speakers listed below coming together to discuss the problem, raise awareness, and brainstorm a solution!

Be careful not to lose your breath as you read through this list of big names that wPOWER Hub managed to bring together for this event, all of whom will be speaking about the future of wood fuels as a renewable energy source in the developing world! Wow!

We’ll be having:

• Moderator: Wanjira Mathai – Director of wPOWER Hub
• Mary Njenga, PhD –  Researcher in Bioenergy at ICRAF
• Ruth Mendum, PhD – Researcher at Gender, Agriculture, Energy and Environment Initiative (GAEEI) Penn State University
• Teddy Githinji – CEO and Sustainability Director  of Cookswell Jikos
• Wanjiku Manyara – General Manager of the Petroleum Institute of East Africa
• Edward Hewitt – Director of Global Lands Strategist at The Nature Conservancy (TNC)
• Sagun Saxena – CTO of CleanStar Ventures

Now beyond the environmental jibber-jabber, it goes without saying that this is a cool topic guys, one that is relevant to millions of households, and that is relevant to our city, and the people that we share it with! If you’d like to attend, which you should, just express your interest in an email to info@wpowerhub.org, with a few words about yourself.

PS: We didn’t mention that the Director of wPOWER Hub happens to be Wanjira Mathai, daughter of… You can guess who! Imagine the other sorts of people you’d be surrounded with if you chose to let us become YOUR office space.