Solar Cooking
Don't have an account?
Register
Register
Solar Cooking
Solar Cooking Wiki
1,786
pages
in: South America, Americas, Countries involved in solar cooking,
and 2 more

Changes: Bolivia

Back to page
Edit
Line 67: Line 67:
   
 
===Audio and video===
  
===Audio and video===
−
*'''August 2010:''' [http://mobile.globalpost.com/print/5581230 Energy Entrepreneurs: Starting a solar-powered tradition] A short film by Julia Kumari Drapkin. She speaks with Ruth Saveeda, A native Bolivian, who has worked to improve the lives of women and children in poor communities by introducing solar cooking. Like many areas, These communities are experiencing deforestation, and the smoke from traditional wood stoves has damaged the health of residents, beyond those directly involved with cooking. She founded Sobre la Roca, a company making high quality [[solar box cooker]]s from recycled materials to spread her message.
+
*'''August 2010:''' [http://mobile.globalpost.com/print/5581230 Energy Entrepreneurs: Starting a solar-powered tradition] A short film by Julia Kumari Drapkin. She speaks with Ruth Saveeda, A native Bolivian, who has worked to improve the lives of women and children in poor communities by introducing solar cooking. Like many areas, These communities are experiencing deforestation, and the smoke from traditional wood stoves has damaged the health of residents, beyond those directly involved with cooking. She helped found [[Sobre la Roca]], which makes high quality [[solar box cooker]]s from recycled materials as part of their efforts to spread her message.
 
{|
  
{|
 
|-
  
|-

Revision as of 18:26, 27 August 2010

Searchbox


Events

See Calendar of events

News and Recent Developments

CEDESOL 2009 participants

CEDESOL participants in Cochabamba receive their certificates and solar cookers in 2009.

Bolivia cookers

As of 2006, Bolivia Inti-Sud Soleil had distributed 3,600 cookers in the Andean countries of Bolivia, Chile, and Peru, benefiting 25,000 people in 200 communities.

  • April 2010: Thousands of grass root organizations, politicians, intellectuals, scientists and individuals will debate about climate change next week, April 19th-22nd, in Cochabamba, Bolivia. Discussion will include black carbon emissions and the practical solutions that are available to tackle them.Conference Information... Also see recent CEDESOL activities in Bolivia
  • April 2007: The Center for Development of Solar Energy (CEDESOL) is working to install 2000 solar cookers and 2500 fuel-efficient, two-burner Rocket Stoves in Bolivia by the end of May. Over the next 12 months it hopes to scale up to 15000 stoves and cookers. CEDESOL contributes to a campaign led by the German aid group GTZ to distribute 100,000 solar cookers, heat-retention cookers, and fuel-efficient stoves by 2010.The GTZ campaign is to be launched during an international seminar in La Paz this month. Contact: CEDESOL
  • April 2006: Under the auspices of the French NGO Bolivia Inti, alternative energy experts David Whitfield and Ruth Whitfield introduced solar cooking to many villages in Bolivia between 2001 and 2003. After demonstrating solar cookers in public forums, they then trained those people expressing interest in how to make and use solar cookers. Research was conducted in the central highlands of Bolivia in 2005 to assess the continuing impacts of solar cooking on participants of these solar cooking courses conducted by the Whitfields. The researcher, Chris Pell of the University College London, interviewed 170 people with and without solar cookers to determine whether their use affected household fuel consumption. The data showed that 92.7% of the solar cooking course participants continue to use their solar cooker three to five years after the course ended. In fact, 62.4% of all participants use their solar cooker at least once a day during the dry season, demonstrating a lifestyle change that incorporates solar cooking into their daily lives. The solar cooker now supplements their other energy sources: gas, wood, or a combination of gas and wood.
  • March 2006: French organization Bolivia Inti-Sud Soleil credits three “Ps” for their successes in spreading solar cookers: passion, perseverance, and positive attitude. In 2005, they trained around 800 new solar cooks. Over the past six years, Bolivia Inti-Sud Soleil has distributed 3,600 cookers in the Andean countries of Bolivia, Chile and Peru, benefiting 25,000 people in 200 communities. They have 25 solar cooking trainers, and have recently added a fourth training team. Bolivia Inti-Sud Soleil also has several initiatives in Africa, where an emphasis is placed on the wood saving aspect of solar cookers. These initiatives have met with considerable success.

The History of Solar Cooking in Bolivia

A very active promoting team, David Whitfield and his wife Ruth Whitfield, have established what is most likely the largest program on this continent. It is organized in conventional manner, with workshops held in various villages in which people are taught how to build their own wooden box cookers. Ruth is a Boliviana, and David an American who has lived in Bolivia for more than 30 years. In the last two years, they estimate they have taught more than a thousand people to make and use their own solar cookers. Fuel shortages are a substantial problem in this part of the mountainous region of South America, and the purchase of gas, sometimes a necessity, is very costly.

For a number of years, Ruth and David struggled along (and undoubtedly still do) with minimum resources of dollars but endless enthusiasm and faith in themselves and the potential of solar cooking. Several years ago, they were privileged to receive financial and technical assistance from the French organization INTI and for two years were yet more optimistic. Now that support has ended, and they are waiting for word on a pending Rotary International grant application.

The pilot program, required prior to application for a larger grant, was begun in 2003, when Wilfred Pimentel visited Bolivia for that purpose. If they receive the larger grant, the efforts of Sobre la Roca will be considerably enhanced.

Thus far, while more or less a hand to mouth operation, they have assisted households in dozens of villages to make and build their own cookers. They have also attempted to evaluate the usage of new cooks. When calculating the carbon emissions that did not enter the atmosphere because of the solar cookers, the figures are quite impressive, if hard to conceptualize. The story of the large Bolivian project is one of the continent's most impressive. It is important to note that estimates of having made and trained cooks of 1,000 households would make this among the larger programs on the continent, if not indeed the largest.

The Whitfields have actively sought to educate themselves about the entire range of solar devices and, indeed, about fuel efficient stoves and hay boxes, in the interest of assisting people to develop a complete and integrated cooking system for the household.

They have promoted parabolics with the cooperation of EG-Solar, a German group, which states that 200 such parabolic cookers have been distributed in South America, at a cost of around $90. The usual means of doing that is shipment of components, with local assembly, making shipping costs less and thus the device cheaper to the purchaser.

Currently, they have submitted a proposal for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which sponsors a grant program that provides assistance for sustainable environmental activities around the world.

[Information for this section was taken originally from State of the Art of Solar Cooking by Dr. Barbara Knudson]

See also

Climate, Culture, and Special Considerations

See also Solar cooker dissemination and cultural variables

Resources

Possible funders for solar cooking projects in Bolivia

Reports

Articles in the media

Audio and video

  • August 2010: Energy Entrepreneurs: Starting a solar-powered tradition A short film by Julia Kumari Drapkin. She speaks with Ruth Saveeda, A native Bolivian, who has worked to improve the lives of women and children in poor communities by introducing solar cooking. Like many areas, These communities are experiencing deforestation, and the smoke from traditional wood stoves has damaged the health of residents, beyond those directly involved with cooking. She helped found Sobre la Roca, which makes high quality solar box cookers from recycled materials as part of their efforts to spread her message.

Proyecto TAMBO (I) - Cocinas solares parabólicas en Bolivia - José Garrido

Web pages

Contacts

The entities listed below are either based in Bolivia, or have established solar cooking projects there:

SCI Associates

NGOs

Manufacturers and vendors

Individuals

Government agencies

Educational institutions

See also

References


See Also

Community content is available under CC-BY-SA unless otherwise noted.