Anthro-Engineering: Decarbonization at the Million-Person Scale

Week 7: Molten Salt Heat Brick Prototypes and Thinking With and Against the Brick | Ger Districts Interventions

In this unit, we will go to the lab with the model ger to learn about the molten salt heat brick prototypes.

Part 1: Improved Stove Program

Before-Class Reading: Impact Evaluation Results of the Millennium Challenge Account Mongolia Energy and Environment Project Energy-Efficient Stove Subsidy Program (ZIP file) from the World Bank:                
Energy and Environment Project 2012-2013, Stove Subsidies Component in Mongolia, 2012–2013.

Please review the Millennium Challenge Corporation’s Impact Evaluation Results of the energy-efficient stove subsidy program. Like the pilot study reading, you do not have to read for small details (the report is 100 pages long). Please read to get a sense of what worked well (and didn’t) with this program, actual stove use behavior (“compliance”) versus expected stove use behavior, and variables that emerged as important following the stove program intervention.

For your reader response, consider “lessons learned” from this case study that could be applied to our molten salt heating solution. How might our solution interact with everyday coal stove use (especially improved, energy-efficient stoves) in the ger districts? What variables emerged in the reports that we should take into account for our research and design process?

Source: Social Impact/Millennium Challenge Corporation. 2014. “Impact Evaluation Results of the Millennium Challenge Account Mongolia Energy and Environment Project Energy-Efficient Stove Subsidy Program.” Arlington, VA: Social Impact.

Resources

Listen to an interview with Laura Nader on the Cultures of Energy podcast, starting at 13:00 minutes. This podcast is AMAZING and is run by Dominic Boyer and Cymene Howe, anthropologists of energy (and more) at Rice University.

Readings

Readings on your own to prepare for case study presentation. 

Part 2 Raw Coal Ban / Improved Coal Briquette Mandate

Homework

Ger Districts Intervention Case Study Presentation

In response to the rapid growth of Ulaanbaatar’s ger districts and the air pollution crisis, numerous agencies like the World Bank have embarked on programs to reduce household coal consumption and air pollution. You will do a case study of an intervention aimed at ameliorating heating, energy, and/or air pollution challenges in the ger districts, examining what worked and what didn’t and what can be learned from this case for our anthro-engineering project. You will present your case study in class.

To help you prepare for the Ger Districts Intervention Case Study Presentation, here are resources about the two major interventions to address Ulaanbaatar’s air pollution crisis:

International Development-Driven Intervention: Improved Stoves

“Impact Evaluation Results of the Millennium Challenge Account Mongolia Energy and Environment Project Energy-Efficient Stove Subsidy Program.” Arlington, VA: Social Impact/Millennium Challenge Corporation. 2014. 

Lobscheid, Agnes, et al. “2012 Pilot Study of Fuel and Stove Use Behavior of Mongolian Ger Households.” Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 2013.

Social Impact. “Mongolia Compact—Energy and Environment—Stove Subsidy Only: Final Analysis Report.” Washington, DC: Millennium Challenge Corporation, August 1, 2014. https://doi.org/10.3886/6far-k027

Ulzii Mazi, “Mongolian TV Commercial about Improved Stoves (Ulzii and Khas Models)” (YouTube).

Government-Driven Intervention: Raw Coal Ban / Improved Coal Briquette Mandate  

Plueckhahn, Rebekah. “Breathing What Air? Reflections on Mongolia before and after Covid-19,” Made in China Journal, Oct. 19, 2020.

GerHub: Information about Mongolia Coal Briquette Production and Distribution (PDF).

Ikon News, “How to Properly Ignite Improved Coal” (YouTube).

An A-level presentation should:  

1. Give an overview of the background and key elements of the case (e.g., What was/is the rationale behind the intervention? Who were/are the main actors involved? What kind of logic (e.g., neoliberal? authoritarian?) shaped the intervention? Who were/are the target populations? How was/is it financed? What kind of marketing was/is there?)
2. Provide a critical analysis of the case addressing what worked/works and what didn’t/doesn’t.  You should provide justification in your analysis about how you evaluated the case and came to your conclusions.  Your presentation will be especially effective if you draw from our readings or other course material to support your argument (especially Liz Fox and Chisato Fukuda’s dissertations).  
3. Discuss insights that can be gleaned from this case study for our anthro-engineering project.  This may include aspects of the intervention that we should avoid or aspects that we might want to emulate in the research, design, and piloting of our decarbonization solution.  
4. Be very well organized and easy to follow, use visual aids and multimedia (I can help you find Mongolian media clips and social media posts), and not run over time.  
5. Draw from different sources (e.g., academic, news, reports, social media, etc.) and incorporate the perspectives of different actors involved.  All sources should be cited in a “References” slide at the end.