The Borehole Project Calculator is built for early-stage safe-water modelling. It helps teams test whether a project is likely to generate commercially meaningful annual credits, whether the assumptions look credible enough for diligence, and which variables need stronger field evidence before anything is shared externally.
This is a first-pass model rather than a registry submission engine. It is most useful when commercial, sales and technical teams need a fast answer on whether a borehole opportunity deserves further work.
Pro feature. The Borehole Project Calculator is included on the Pro plan because it is designed for editable project modelling, branded exports, share links and embed workflows rather than casual public use.
What the calculator tests
Reach
Household and water access scale
Estimate whether reach assumptions are large enough to produce meaningful credit volume before validation and monitoring costs are considered.
Baseline
Boiling behaviour before intervention
Model the share of household water that would otherwise be boiled, which is often one of the most commercially sensitive assumptions.
Performance
Uptime and delivery reliability
Bring equipment availability into the estimate so the modelled result better reflects real delivery conditions.
Conservatism
Uncertainty and deduction handling
Apply a practical deduction for leakage or uncertainty so modelled numbers do not overstate likely external-facing outcomes.
Main inputs
- Households served to set programme reach.
- Water accessed per household per day to estimate credited activity volume.
- Baseline boiling share to reflect the counterfactual behaviour the project displaces.
- Wood displaced per litre boiled and non-renewable biomass share to translate activity into avoided emissions.
- Borehole uptime and uncertainty deduction to keep the result grounded in delivery quality rather than best-case assumptions.
- Credit price and project life so the modelled carbon estimate can be read in commercial terms.
How the calculation logic works
The model estimates useful water delivered, applies the share that would otherwise have been boiled, translates that displaced boiling activity into wood savings, then applies the non-renewable biomass share and emissions factor. Uptime and deduction settings bring the gross result back toward a more conservative operational estimate.
| Step | Purpose |
|---|
| Useful water delivered | Converts households, daily water access, boiling share and uptime into the annual water volume used by the model. |
| Wood displaced | Uses wood-per-litre assumptions to estimate the baseline fuel displaced by reliable safe-water access. |
| Non-renewable share | Applies the share of biomass that counts toward avoided fossil-equivalent emissions. |
| Gross credits | Translates displaced non-renewable wood into annual tCO₂e using the emissions factor in the tool. |
| Net credits | Applies deduction settings so the result is directionally conservative rather than promotional. |
When to use it
Use the Borehole Project Calculator when a project is too early for detailed diligence but important enough to warrant a first-pass commercial model. That includes inbound sales conversations, donor or partner opportunity review, early funder conversations and internal triage before technical teams are asked to spend time on methodology or monitoring design.
What to do after the first-pass estimate
If the modelled number looks credible, the next step is not usually to publish it. The stronger path is to test methodology fit, verification burden and buyer readiness. That is where the surrounding Pro workflow matters.
Model the opportunity before you commit more time
Open the Borehole Project Calculator, then test stronger projects against methodology, verification and commercial evidence requirements.
Open in Pro →
