Takamoto Biogas provides an energy resource for the local people by partnering with other local companies and organizations. We perceive waste today as a problem of unused resources. Takamoto transforms biodegradable wastes into valuable products (biogas and fertilizer) through a process called anaerobic digestion, eliminating wastes and providing an alternative green energy resource.
Takamoto has built 30 biogas digesters with low financial investment and expects to break even early in 2012. Clients are very happy with our product and our ability to help them finance their biogas digester via introductions to local banks and micro finance institutions. We have started to build a competent team in the field and are further defining the needs for the office staff.
Contact Information
Our Focus
Our target is mainly low income rural farmers. We build biogas digesters for them and supply them with the appliances. We are in partnership with KENFAP, a local government organization which provides subsidies for the project. We are also in a memorandum of understanding with a micro-finance and a local bank who provide loans for the farmers so that they can afford these systems. They are supposed to pay the loans at a lower interest rates rather than the market rate.
Our Experience And Interest In The Four PCIA Central Focus Areas
Takamoto offers free trainings to the farmers to make them aware of the advantages of using the biogas stoves over the traditional fuels and stoves. Our main barrier is the cost of buying the stoves but we are working with micro finance institutions and a local bank to make them affordable. We are developing local stoves which are more cheaper than the imported ones.
The market penetration of the improved cooking technologies is minimal in Kenya, still more than 63% of the population use traditional cooking methods and fuels. We plan to reduce this number by offering more trainings and marketing strategies. In terms of product development, we have made a step forward for we have designed and rolled out our own stove, we continuously monitor them and get feedback from the users fro improvement purposes.
We are currently running standardization procedures for the stoves we design. Lack of proper testing equipments has been our major barrier.
With the use of traditional cooking fuels and stoves, we have noted that most of the children suffer eyesight problems due to the smoke and the kitchens never look clean.
Relevant Publications or Studies
None noted
Our Contribution to the Partnership
We would like to participate in trainings so that we can improve and test our stoves making them more efficient and affordable. We can also participate in seminars, webinars and be able to share our experiences to the rest of the world. Our organization has skilled and experienced engineers who can be part of any new product development. We can offer to be the official partner in Kenya.
