solar cooking

In some of the poorest parts of the world fuel for cooking and purifying water is one of the biggest uses of energy.  As drought has spread throughout many of these developing countries finding enough fuel even for this meager need has become extremely difficult.  What these countries do have is plenty of sunlight.  Consequently the use of solar ovens for cooking and water purification represents a major opportunity for improving living conditions. The World Health Organization reports that in 23 countries 10% of deaths are due to just two environmental risk factors: unsafe water, including poor sanitation and hygiene; and indoor air pollution due to solid fuel use for cooking.

Most early solar cookers were either curved parabolic reflectors focusing intense heat onto a single pot, or heat trap boxes with a window on the top and one or more flat reflectors. While these types of cookers were effective they were too expensive for most people, cumbersome and sometimes even dangerous to use. Fortunately, there are now a number of new solar cookers which are more convenient, much lower-priced, and now competitive with alternatives such as wood, charcoal, and wood stoves.

One such model, an open reflector, has been widely tested and has proven useful in the USA, Kenya and Zimbabwe. It pays for itself in fuel savings in two months or less and becomes a recurrent economic benefit to individual households. Developed in 1994 by an international team of volunteers and dubbed the "CooKit, it is ideal for introducing the basics of solar cooking. It is easily hand-made and also is being mass-produced in USA, Kenya and Zimbabwe with modifications to suit local needs and climates. The picture below shows it being used in Ghana.

Solar cooking offers a number of advantages.  These include:

• Requires no fuel - Lack of fuel is a critical advantage to many groups of people where potential fuel such as wood or cow dung is in very short supply.
• Reduces Disease - Many families that might not have the fuel to boil water for purification can do so with a solar cooker.
• Produces no pollution - The indoor burning of certain biofuels such as cow dung contributes to disease and poor health.
• Requires little maintenance - Solar ovens require little maintenance leaving people free to do work or care for the family while the food is cooking.
• No time lost collecting fuel - Many poor people travel many miles each day to find enough firewood to do their cooking.  With solar ovens this is no longer necessary.
• No strain on the environment - In drought areas people scavenging for fuel have put an even further strain on the environment. Solar cooking eliminates this need. A solar cooker can save one ton of wood per year.
• Better nutrition - Solar cookers tend to produce lower temperatures than cooking with wood and so preserve more of the nutrients of the food.

There are a number of charitable organizations that are actively involved in raising funds to purchase and distribute low cost solar ovens to parts of the world where they can be of great benefit.  There are also some great websites dedicated to this whole area.  One of the best is www.solarcooking.org.  This comprehensive Wiki site is a storehouse for information on solar cooking. Check it out!