The Borehole Project Calculator is built for early-stage safe-water screening. 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 live project screening, 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 screened result better reflects real delivery conditions.

Conservatism

Uncertainty and deduction handling

Apply a practical deduction for leakage or uncertainty so screened 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 screened carbon estimate can be read in commercial terms.

How the screening 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 volume relevant for screening.
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 screened 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 commercial screening. 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 screened 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 and Enterprise workflow matters.

Next step

Methodology Selector

Check whether the safe-water route looks suitable before you rely on a screened carbon number.

Next step

Verification Cost Estimator

Test whether the likely credit volume can justify validation, verification and monitoring overhead.

Guide

Borehole carbon credit guide

Read the full explanation of usage evidence, baseline risk and the assumptions that matter most.

Related tool

Water Project Calculator

Use the broader water tool when you need a more general safe-water screening route beyond borehole delivery.

Screen the opportunity before you commit more time

Open the Borehole Project Calculator, then move stronger projects into methodology, verification and Enterprise screening workflows.

Open Borehole Calculator →