Spotted: The World Health Organization estimates that 3.2 million people died from indoor air pollution in 2020, largely from cooking over open fires. Expanding the availability of clean fuels and cooking technologies is essential to reduce that figure and protect inhabitants from being exposed to dangerous indoor air pollution.

In response, Ugandan cleantech startup PowerUP has built a smart-metered electric pressure cooker to help families – and particularly the women and girls who do most of the cooking – eliminate the health risks they face as they prepare food.

PowerUP designed the cookers to accommodate a wide range of cooking styles and food types used across the continent. The built-in energy meter allows users to track costs, and PowerUP digitally tracks usage as part of the company’s development of a carbon credit market.

The stoves are pay-as-you-go, which allows users to budget specifically for cooking energy costs. And, if desired, users can tweak the time of their usage to take advantage of the cheapest energy rates. Pressure cooking reduces the amount of time it takes to prepare a meal, which further helps keep costs down. As well as managing payments and tracking energy costs, the digital interface includes access to recipes.

More than 40,000 homes across Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia are already using PowerUP stoves, and the company recently closed its seed round of funding. PowerUP plans to use the funds raised to improve its data collection and platform, expand and strengthen distribution networks, and launch a carbon credit programme.

Other innovations in Springwise’s library focused on decarbonising cooking include biogas digesters that produce fuel and fertiliser and a solar-powered induction cooker for people without access to the grid.

Written By: Keely Khoury