DOÑA DORA
LOCATION
GUATEMALA
SECTOR
ENERGY EFFICIENCY SOLUTIONS
YEAR OF INVESTMENT
2012
Need
Wood provides over 50% of Guatemala’s energy and most of it is used indoors for cooking. Nearly 7 in 10 families cook with wood, and most lack adequate chimneys to remove wood smoke from their homes. Exposure to wood smoke from cooking contributes to a wide range of chronic illnesses and acute health consequences. Women and children are most affected; an estimated 5,000 premature deaths result annually in Guatemala from the use of solid fuels in the home. Reliance on wood, combined with inefficient cooking, also increases pressure on local forest resources and contributes to emissions of greenhouse gases.
Solution
Estufa Doña Dora is pioneering the commercial sale of high-quality, efficient and clean cookstoves as an alternative to the smaller low-cost stoves provided through the NGO sector. Doña Dora’s customers enjoy net savings on fuel from their investment in an efficient cookstove, and a 2-year payback on product acquisition. The company builds ‘plancha’ type griddle stoves and sells them directly to consumers. A proportion of the company’s sales are via development agencies. Doña Dora maintain several partnerships with MFIs in Guatemala to provide dedicated financing and distribution support.
Impact
Doña Dora’s stoves can reduce the use of fuel by up to 50% without compromising on the time it takes to cook a meal. The stove’s design and built-in chimney eliminate all smoke emissions in the home or businesses where they are used (often a small lunch spot or eatery), reducing indoor pollution and illness, keeping interiors clean, and lowering the risk of fires. Over 1,500 families have benefited to date and over 13,000 tons of C02 have been reduced by the efficient stoves.
