Our mission: Accelerating access to clean, electric cooking.
Modern Energy Cooking Services (MECS) is an eight-year research programme funded by UK Aid (FCDO). We are a geographically diverse, multicultural and transdisciplinary team working in close partnership with NGOs, governments, private sector, academia and research institutes, policy representatives and communities in 16 countries of interest to accelerate a transition from biomass to genuinely ‘clean’ cooking.
In seeking to spark a new approach to clean cooking, the MECS programme researches the socio-economic realities of a transition from polluting fuels to a range of modern fuels. Whilst the research covers several clean fuels, the evidence is pointing to the viability, cost effectiveness, and user satisfaction that energy efficient electric cooking devices provide. Significant progress has been made in access to electricity in the last decade, but these gains are sometimes disconnected from the enduring problem of clean cooking. By integrating modern energy cooking services into the planning for electricity access, quality, reliability and sustainability, MECS hopes to leverage investment in renewable energies (both grid and off-grid) to address the clean cooking challenge.
Read further about MECS in the brochure:
Access the library of MECS resources
MECS has a vast suite of outputs, tools and methodologies which present a rigorous evidence base for a range of clean cooking solutions, with a focus on electric cooking (eCooking). All resources are freely available for download from this website (no paywalls!), and we invite you to access these and share with your colleagues and collaborators. Highlights include:
Cooking Diaries is a MECS research methodology that combines recording qualitatively ‘how’ people cook with quantitative measurements of energy consumption to understand what people cook, how they cook, when (frequency of certain dishes), and how compatible these practices are with innovative modern energy cooking products and services.
Access the Cooking DiariesPioneered by MECS in 2019, eCookbooks, or energy cookbooks, measure the energy, time and cost savings of cooking traditional dishes using energy efficient electric appliances. They package and present complex findings around energy and cooking in a digestible and accessible way so households, utility companies and policy-makers can make better informed decisions around fuels and appliances for cooking.
Access the series of eCookbooksEnergy 4 Impact has collaborated with MECS to produce the Financing Clean Cooking series. Taken as a whole, the five reports in the series comprise a detailed analysis of the financing mechanisms currently being used within the sector, whilst offering recommendations to donors on the critical financial interventions needed to support the transition to clean and modern energy cooking.
Access the Financing Clean Cooking seriesMECS has conducted a Global Market Assessment for electric cooking to identify where the greatest opportunities and challenges for a scale up of electric cooking in the global south lie.
Access the online GMA visualisation toolThis set of MECS Policy Briefs, specifically designed to aid policy makers in scaling access to clean, electric cooking, provide a country-specific overview of the current situation for electricity access and clean cooking, the potential for eCooking, and a socio-economic and environmental cost and benefit summary.
Access the Policy Briefs