Montserrat Serrano-Medrano

This paper introduces a new methodology for the development of appropriate technology that allows satisfying energy needs in rural communities. The methodology integrates the technological development, taking particularly into account the assessment of environmental impacts as well as evaluation of the functionality of the technology. Therefore, it is implemented as a case study in the development of a solar wood-dryer in an artisan community in Mexico. Relevant issues were identified for the success of the methodology, which includes identifying key participants in the community, as well as the use of specialized simulation- and computer-based design tools, and a prior evaluation of the potential environmental impacts through Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) of the solar wood-dryer. Three geometries of a solar wood-dryer prototype were proposed and analyzed with computer-based simulations, which showed better interior heat transfer than the traditional wood brick-dryer. LCA revealed that the new solar wood-dryer prototype has environmental impacts in all analyzed categories that are 5% or smaller than those of the traditional dryer. Therefore, it was demonstrated that the solar wood-dryer developed with our introduced methodology leads to less environmental impacts compared to those of the traditional wood brick-dryer previously used by the rural community.

This article presents an historical account of patterns of household fuelwood use in Mexico from 1960 until the present. The results of scenarios outlining the likely evolution of future fuelwood use according to different socio-demographic and technological variables are offered up to 2030 along with the expected environmental impacts. Mexico is an interesting case as it went from importing oil to becoming an oilexporting country during the historical period under analysis and the use of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) intensified in the residential sector. However, rather than exhibiting a sharp decline in fuelwood use, as would be expected from the energy transition model, we observe that fuelwood use has remained almost constant for more than 40 years. In fact, rather than completely switching to LPG, a large portion of rural and small-town households adopted a fuel-stacking strategy, combining both fuels on a long-term basis. We conclude by examining the implications of the current patterns of fuelwood use and fuel-stacking in terms of future fuelwood consumption, numbers of users and emissions of greenhouse gases.