# Sustainable Household Energy Adoption in Rwanda (SHEAR): Promoting Rural Health with Solar and Natural Gas

> **NIH NIH R01** · COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY · 2024 · $630,158

## Abstract

Abstract
Exposure to household air pollution from the use of traditional energy sources is a top-ten risk factor for morbidity
and mortality worldwide. Emissions from traditional energy sources in the home create unhealthy levels of
household air pollution and the issue is pervasive. Approximately 3 billion people rely on fuels like wood,
charcoal, and kerosene to support needs such as cooking, heating, and lighting. Approximately 80% of the
population in Rwanda uses such fuels, making exposure to household air pollution the 3rd leading contributor to
the burden of disease in this country. Exposure to household air pollution is also a problem in the developed
world. Nearly 30 million Americans burn solid fuels as their primary source of heating energy.
Nearly 50 years of research on ‘cleaner’ household energy technologies has demonstrated only modest global
impact, due to a combination of economic, cultural, and technologic barriers that prevent access to and usage
of clean energy. A further limitation is that nearly all household energy interventions, to date, have focused on
replacing only a single energy source (i.e., replacing just cooking, or just lighting) with a more modern technology.
We propose to address these issues by conducting a randomized controlled trial that (1) focuses on total
household energy (2) in a country that evinces readiness for alternative forms of energy, (3) by forming a public-
private partnership to promote technological solutions that are consumer-focused and market sustainable, (4)
by investigating outcome measures that are clinically actionable and strongly linked to morbidity/mortality, and
(5) by developing project outputs that can inform policymakers with cost-benefit information. We hypothesize
that a whole-house energy intervention (replacing all primitive forms of energy within the home with cleaner,
modern forms) will produce meaningful reductions in household air pollution and health benefits in rural Rwandan
homes. The randomized controlled trial will substitute traditional forms of household energy (biomass for cooking
and kerosene for lighting) with solar power and liquefied petroleum gas stoves in rural Rwanda. Participants will
be followed for 3 years with repeated measurements of household air pollution exposure (24-hour fine particulate
matter and black carbon), energy usage, and health. Primary health endpoints will include blood pressure in
adult women and men and lung-function growth in children; secondary health endpoints include blood pressure
in children and lung-function change in adults.
The long-term goals of this research are to increase the clinical knowledge-base on the health effects on
household air pollution, to demonstrate that a whole-house energy intervention will produce meaningful
household air pollution reductions and health benefits in rural Rwandan homes, to elucidate the relationship
between fuel subsidy levels and household air pollution exposure, and to demonstrate that s...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10838447
- **Project number:** 5R01ES029995-05
- **Recipient organization:** COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Maggie Lynn Clark
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $630,158
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-09-15 → 2026-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10838447

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10838447, Sustainable Household Energy Adoption in Rwanda (SHEAR): Promoting Rural Health with Solar and Natural Gas (5R01ES029995-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10838447. Licensed CC0.

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