Solar thermal cooking has benefits not only for the cook but in general for women, environmentalists, health workers, engineers, economic developers, and country leaders. Billions still cook over open fires, but on sunny days a solar cooker can replace fire and provide clean, safe cooking energy with no fuel cost -- the cheapest way to cook food. Solar cookers can thereby also eliminate much of the labor of foraging for wood, chopping and preparing fires, and thus it can liberate time for women to devote to child care, education and employment. This in turn can lead to multiple economic, health and environmental benefits, such as reduced deforestation, reduced injuries, reduced habitat loss, reduced pollution, and hence help to develop countries in an innovative way. This is one of a series of slide presentations developed by Paul Arveson, a director of Solar Household Energy, Inc., a nonprofit organization based in Washington, DC.
2. 2
My Discovery
• Billions of people eat food cooked on wood or
biomass fires
• This practice has huge environmental, health,
social and economic impacts
• Meanwhile in many of these areas sunlight is a
plentiful energy resource
• Despite these facts, there is very little
awareness and support for solar cooking
• So I joined a local solar cooking nonprofit
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Messages to Caring Communities
• Climate change community
• Ecology / Environment communities
• Global Health community
• Humanitarian & Social Justice communities
• Economic Development community
• Disaster Relief community
• Corporate community
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Message to the Scientific
Community in the US
• Changing how mankind cooks, like many other
global challenges, requires a multidisciplinary
effort
• Many small research projects have been done
and some show that cooking habits can be
changed and new habits sustained
• But there is currently no agency or foundation
that has pulled together the various disciplines
necessary to focus on the challenge:
– to scale up from small projects to the many
millions necessary to move mankind out of stone-
age cooking practices
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Haiti’s Denuded Hills
Google map of a region of Haiti.
Notice that the hills are almost entirely bare,
except for vegetation near creeks.
Dominican Republic is to the east of the river.
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Some Disciplines Involved in
Solar Cooking Development
• Anthropology
• Architecture
• Business development
• Communications
• Earth sciences
• Economics
• Engineering
• Health care
• Nutrition
• Physics
• Program management
• Social work
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Some NGOs do in fact supply solar cookers to Darfur refugees.
These women don’t have to stir the pot, fetch wood,
walk long distances, or fear attacks outside the camp.
They don’t have to do any of that any more, just relax and talk,
or do some other more constructive work.
These cookers are called CooKits. They are made of cardboard
and lined with aluminum foil or metallized plastic film.
They can be made cheaply, in country, from plastic bags and
candy wrappers -- stuff that we throw away all the time as trash.
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Challenges
• In the developed world:
– “Sun-blindness” to solar energy potential
– Lack of financial support for solar cooking
programs
• Chicken-and-egg problem
• In the less developed world:
– Sheer magnitude of the need
– Resistance to changing ancient habits
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The Solar Cooking NGO Landscape
• Dedicated Solar Cooking NGO’s in US:
– Solar Cookers International (SCI)
– Solar Household Energy, Inc. (SHE)
– Partnership for Clean Indoor Air (PCIA)
• Solar Cooking Programs of Charities:
– Jewish World Watch (Darfur, Chad)
– Haiti Solar Oven Partners (Methodist)
– Bethesda Evangelical Mission (Haiti)
– CEDESOL Bolivia
– Many others
• National solar cooking programs
– India
– China
– Nepal
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S.H.E. Operations
• I: Research and Development
– Collect existing design knowledge
– Conduct experimental research
• 2. Education and Promotion
– Deliver focused messages to interest groups
– Engage in cooker standards development
• 3: Field Projects
– Partner with local missions in the field
– Maintain training and support for users
– Obtain verifiable evidence of acceptance
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Examples of Successful
Pilot Projects
• Indonesia, 1998 - acceptance of 28% encouraged the
govt. to increase support.
• Burkina Faso, 2003 - 45% used CooKit 3-7 times per
week during dry season.
• Madagascar, 2006 – 75% used solar cookers
“regularly”
• El Salvador, 2006 – 59% used HotPot 3 times per
week or more.
• South Africa, 2007 – 83% used an average of ¼ of
time in households.
• Senegal, 2008 – Several villages using HotPots
regularly.
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Deforestation
Message to the Ecological / Environmental / Forestry Communities:
Use of wood for fuel and charcoal is causing deforestation in many regions.
Population growth is converting forests to agricultural land on a large scale.
Loss of forests results in severe habitat loss and erosion problems.
Solar cooking reduces demand for wood.
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African WellOften dirty water is available.
The need is for clean water.
Any water can be sterilized by
heating it in a solar cooker to
65 deg. C.
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Where Women are Strong…
Solar cooking eliminates dangers to women and children gathering firewood.
Solar cooking reduces the need to gather, store, transport, and purchase fuels.
Solar cooking reduces labor and creates new job opportunities for women.
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300 Million Cell Phones in Africa
(2009)
New technologies will be accepted anywhere
if they meet a felt need!
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UN Millennium Development Goals
• Goal 1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
• Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education
• Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower
women
• Goal 4: Reduce child mortality
• Goal 5: Improve maternal health
• Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other
diseases
• Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability
• Goal 8: Develop a global partnership for
development
Solar cooking can impact every one of these goals!
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Map of Solar Cooking Benefits
Economic
Development
Disaster
Relief
Women’s
Empowerment
Maternal
Health
Child
Health
Reduced
Deforestation
Less Habitat
Loss
Save Endangered
Species
Reduced
Climate
Change
Child
Education
Women’s
Safety
Child
Safety
Child
Nutrition
Job
Creation
Fuel cost
Savings
Poverty
Reduction
Solar
Cooking
Solar Household Energy,
Inc.
www.she-inc.org/
32. 32
Message to the UN Agencies and
Other International NGO’s
• Solar cooking addresses every one of the
eight UN Millennium Development Goals
directly or indirectly:
• Poverty, education, equality, women’s
empowerment, child health, environmental
sustainability, and economic development
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Meal Preparation Labor Time
Traditional open fire
Fuel-efficient wood stove
LPG or alcohol powered stove
Solar cookstove
Avg. time gathering firewood Preparing
fuel for fire
Stirring food Cleanup
Avg. time
gathering firewood
Preparing
fuel for fire
Stirring foodPreparing
food
Preparing
food
Stirring food
Preparing
food
Preparing
food
Cleanup
Cleanup
Cleanup
Total labor time is reduced because
the pot does not need to be stirred.
Note: this is total labor time, not “clock
time”. The cook can do other useful
work while food is cooking in the sun.
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Lester Brown, 1976:
"We need a basic overhaul, restructuring, and reorientation
of the research establishment. We need to look around,
establish what the pressing needs are - solar technology
is one, the development of a solar cooking device to offset
the world firewood crisis." Brown acknowledged it was hard
to imagine Ed David or Guy Stever talking up solar cookers,
but "things may change. We can't divorce anything from
the needs of the rest of the world."
Science, v. 193, 6 Aug. 1976
This is an article in Science magazine, March 2010. It is an article by biologists who surveyed the barren, deforested countryside of Haiti. They were told, “Charcoal is the major cooking energy for the country. You can kiss Haiti goodbye unless you plant wood for charcoal.”
Here is a Google map image of a region of Haiti. Notice that the hills are almost entirely bare, except for vegetation near creeks. Dominican Republic is to the east of the river.
The article mentioned in passing that Haiti gets “almost no rain for half the year.” Hello --- that means the sun is shining, as in the photo of the child. When you see photos of developing countries, please look for shadows; that means the sun is shining down on them.
A fuel-efficient stove designed at the Dept. of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, where they usually simulate nuclear weapons using sophisticated computer codes. Some volunteers used the computers to design an efficient stove for refugees in Darfur. Note the sun blazing down in these pictures.
The CooKit and WAPI.
Some NGOs do in fact supply solar cookers to Darfur. So here are the women and children standing around watching their food cook. They don’t have to stir the pot, fetch wood, walk long distances, or fear attacks outside the camp. They don’t have to do any of that any more, just relax and talk, or do some other more constructive work. These cookers are called CooKits. They are made of cardboard and lined with aluminum foil or metallized plastic film. They can be made cheaply, in country, from stuff that we throw away all the time in the trash.
Here’s an old Mauldin cartoon, showing the hard-working nuclear scientist, the coal miner and the oil driller searching for energy. Why don’t we look up?
Message to the Climate Change Community
The science is clear; the climate is changing and it is caused mostly by humans
CO2 and CH4 greenhouse gas emissions
Black carbon emissions
Some of the CO2 increases are from wood burned for fuel, and from the loss of forests
Est. 500,000,000 cooking fires daily
Much of the burning occurs in low-income regions where sunshine is abundant
Solar cooking offers a substitute for cooking over open fires for many people
Message to the Ecological Community
Use of wood for fuel and charcoal is causing deforestation in some low-income regions
Population growth is converting forests to agricultural land on a large scale
Loss of forests results in severe habitat loss and erosion problems
Solar cooking reduces demand for wood
Message to the Global Health Community
Many people in poor regions suffer from waterborne diseases
Viruses, bacteria, parasites, worms
Well water can reduce disease, but wells are expensive and cannot be drilled fast enough
There is usually plenty of dirty water available
Any water can be sterilized by heating it in a solar cooker to 65 deg. C.
Message to the Economic Development Community
Good job opportunities are the path to development
Education is the key to good jobs
Improved child health is key to education
Solar cookers can improve health and keep children in school
Solar cookers eliminate fuel costs and increase job opportunities for women
No cooking fuels available? Why not use the sun?
Most areas of the world have water, but it is contaminated and not drinkable.
Why ship bottled water to disaster sites?
Ship solar cookers and bottles instead, then use the local water.
Message to the Humanitarian & Social Justice Communities
Solar cooking eliminates dangers to women and children gathering firewood.
Solar cooking reduces the need to gather, store, transport, and purchase fuels.
Solar cooking reduces labor and creates new job opportunities for women.
Message to the Corporate Community
If you are looking for an opportunity to make a unique impact;
If you are seeking to fill a gap in global needs;
If you want to sponsor a truly “green” and humanitarian program;
Solar cooking is it!
Message to the UN Agencies and Other International NGO’s
Solar cooking addresses every one of the eight UN Millennium Development Goals directly or indirectly:
Poverty, education, equality, women’s empowerment, child health, environmental sustainability, and economic development
This is the last reference to solar cooking in Science – 34 years ago.