Modern Energy Cooking Services Programme

About the Project

Modern Energy Cooking Services (MECS) is an eight-year research programme funded by UK Aid (FCDO). We are a geographically diverse, multicultural and transdisciplinary team working in close partnership with NGOs, governments, private sector, academia and research institutes, policy representatives and communities in 16 countries of interest to accelerate a transition from biomass to genuinely ‘clean’ cooking.

In seeking to spark a new approach to clean cooking, the programme researches the socio-economic realities of a transition from polluting fuels to a range of modern fuels. Whilst the research covers several clean fuels, the evidence is pointing to the viability, cost effectiveness, and user satisfaction that energy efficient electric cooking devices provide

Objectives of the Project

Significant progress has been made in access to electricity in the last decade, but these gains are sometimes disconnected from the enduring problem of clean cooking. Now is a moment when the gains of the last decade in electricity access can be used to make significant gains in clean cooking

Cooking with electricity is also cost effective for small business food processing, institutions, and humanitarian contexts. Our research in these areas helps us spark change in the whole socioeconomic system. There are strong opportunities for job creation, business creation, and family supporting actions such as schools feeding programmes.

Our research has shown the match between electric cooking and tasty food. There are many cultures of food and it is important that whatever changes are made to cooking processes, foods retain those familiar tastes. Our research, working with households and ‘everyday’ cooks, has shown in 12 countries so far that local foods and menus can be cooked with electric devices and enjoyed as usual

USD 1 M

Invested Annually

Our priority

Looking to the Future

There are strong opportunities for job creation, business creation, and family supporting actions such as schools feeding programmes.

We remain open to other research and approaches that include other fuels such as ethanol, bioLPG or hydrogen. Our priority is for households to have a genuine clean cooking experience – clean in terms of air quality, clean in terms of the environment, and clean in terms of lifestyle.

There have been significant gains in the energy efficiencies of cooking devices. Energy consumption in kitchens of developed economies has halved since 1980.

Cooking with electricity is cost effective in many contexts and saves the household money. The world is increasingly urbanising and the cost of cooking fuels to urban households has risen significantly over the last 10 years.

Political commitments to solve the enduring problem of clean cooking are growing and we engage at the highest levels of government to share our research and create an enabling environment.

There is an urgent need to decarbonise and mitigate the devastating consequences of the climate crisis. All our research seeks to harmonise with a changing global scene that seeks to decarbonise

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Gamos East Africa also seeks to build the capacity of its associates to identify and implement equally transformative opportunities in the future.

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