In rural Georgia, 80 per cent of the population uses firewood in inefficient stoves for heating, cooking and heating water. Families spend up to 30% of their income on energy (mostly consisting of firewood), and yet most are only able to heat one room in their poorly insulated houses, and struggle to heat enough water to meet their needs.
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In 2016, four cooperatives were set up to produce, install and maintain the water heaters and stoves in four regions: Imereti, Samegrelo, Samtskhe Javakheti and Shida Kartli. Thirty-one local people, 40% of them women, received training and took on management roles. This process was facilitated by Georgian NGOs, such as the Greens Movement of Georgia, Greens Regions, Rural Communicty Development Agency, Georgian Ecological Agricultural Association (SEMA) and Center for Sustainable Development Akhaltsikhe, WECF and the international cooperative Clean Power Europe.
In the first phase of the project, 650 subsidized solar water heaters and 100 energy efficient stoves were installed in private homes and public buildings. Since then, more have been installed in kindergartens and small guesthouses and in 2021, more than 1,000 solar water heaters and 300 stoves were in use. The new technologies increase people’s comfort and reduce energy bills by 20–50 per cent as well as the burden of unpaid labour and indoor air pollution.
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Although the technologies have clear benefits and will pay back quickly, the initial investment is unaffordable for poorer households. In the pilot phase, subsidies enabled people to benefit. When these ended, it proved challenging to sell units at a commercial price. In the target regions demand was high, but people expected subsidies to continue and were not willing or able to pay the cost price. In other regions, there was little awareness around energy efficiency.
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