Power Play: Freeplay Energy and the Freeplay Foundation Expand Access to Energy, Information, and Education (Innovations Case Narrative: Freeplay Energy and Freeplay Foundation)

Another 35 percent has access to electricity, but only intermittently. Only the 30 percent of people residing in the world’s wealthiest places can rely on electricity as a dependable resource for life and work. For places without power, the existing energy options are biomass, candles, kerosene, and batteries. These sources of energy are not just unsustainable, they are actively destructive. Household dependence on biomass cook-stoves depletes forests, contributing to erosion, threatening ecosystem viability, and exacerbating the adverse impacts of climate change. Candles and kerosene are costly; kerosene is also a hazardous chemical inappropriate for household storage. The health impacts of relying on these energy sources are severe. The pollutants released from the burning of biomass and kerosene within households constitute the world’s