Woodfuels in Kenya and Rwanda: powering and driving the economy of the rural areas

Rwanda: Primary energy supply is dominated by biomass resources in Rwanda. Wood supplies about 57 percent directly and wood for charcoal 23 percent, while agricultural residues and peat provide 6 percent and petroleum products 11 percent. Only 5 percent of the country’s population are connected to the electricity grid, with 3 percent of these being in the rural areas and 25 percent in the urban areas. 88.2 percent of the total households use biomass in form of fuelwood at 1.45 kilograms (kg)/person/day, while 7.9 percent use charcoal at 0.48 kg/person/day. There is a combined per capita demand of wood (both for fuelwood and charcoal) of 1.93 kg/person/day, which creates an unsustainable situation because it largely surpasses the production capacity of 0.46 kg/capita/day.