Advancing Heating Services Beyond the Last Mile

Abstract

In cold-climate regions of developing countries, access to a reliable and affordable heat supply is critical to the well-being of the rural and peri-urban poor, who enjoy only limited access to district heating, natural gas, and electricity networks. Most of them have long relied on solid fuel–fired, traditional heating stoves or simple low-pressure boilers (LPBs), which are fuel-inefficient, leaky, and highly polluting both indoors and outside. Having access to high-efficiency, low-emissions (HELE) heating stoves offers under-served households a cost-effective, intermediate solution until fuel-switching to gas or electricity is possible. Recent World Bank– supported winter heating pilot programs in the Central Asian countries of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan brought to market a small number of advanced, solid fuel–fired space heating and cooking stoves. This technical report aims to document the Central Asia pilot experience with HELE heating technologies and their potential use as a cost-effective, intermediate solution for millions of underserved households for improving health and reducing household air pollution, energy poverty, and climate impacts.