China

From Solar Cooking

Jump to: navigation, search

1 News and Recent Developments
2 The History of Solar Cooking in China
3 Climate, Culture, and Special Considerations
4 Documents
5 Contacts
6 See Also

[edit] News and Recent Developments

January 2008: Finland buys Certified Emission Reductions from solar cooker project in China - Kauppalehti Online
November 2007: A report written by Australian scientist Xuemei Bai, and published in the Worldwatch Institute’s “State of the World 2007,” describes the city of Rizhao as a “solar-powered city.” Rizhao — which literally means “city of sunshine” — is a coastal city with nearly three million residents. Six thousand households have solar cooking facilities, but the most prevalent technology is solar water heaters. “A combination of regulations and public education spurred the broad adoption of solar heaters,” says Bai. “The city mandates all new buildings to incorporate solar panels. To raise awareness, the city held open seminars and ran public advertising on television.” An astounding 99% of central city households now have solar water heaters, as do 30% of suburban households. Given that Rizhao is not particularly wealthy, city officials have targeted their limited funds. Instead of subsidizing end users, as is often done, the government provides funding to the solar water heater industry to conduct research and development, resulting in technological breakthroughs that increase efficiency and lower prices. Standard solar water heaters now cost about the same as electric ones, and save the consumers about $120 per year over the 15-year lifespan. Rizhao is consistently ranked among the lowest polluting cities in China.

July 2007: Tom Rick of the Yancheng Sangli Solar Energy Co. Ltd. announced that the company’s price for exporting high-powered, focusing solar cookers has been reduced to $65, FOB Shanghai. More information on these durable, effective cookers can be found in the November 2006 Solar Cooker Review article "Chinese company makes, exports thousands of solar cookers."
March 2006: A group of six undergraduates from Tufts University traveled with their faculty advisor to Gymthang, Tibet, to investigate adaptation of solar cookers for medical waste disinfection. Under the guidance of the Health Ministry of Gyatsa county, China (Tibet), and the KunDe Foundation, the students formulated plans prior to their visit as part of an interdisciplinary undergraduate design program affiliated with the Engineers Without Borders organization. Their design — a modified solar cooker — consisted of a double-walled box with a removable base, fixed dual-paned glass top, and four-sided reflector. Medical waste could be placed in a container on the removable base. By design, the cooker had to be fabricated locally from local materials. Mikmar, the village carpenter, built an internal hewn framework to which internal and external plywood walls were nailed. The corners of the box were sealed against air loss with high-quality reflective tape readily available across Asia for use with parabolic-type solar cookers. The glass was sealed in place using a mixture of animal collagen glue and epoxy. Felt, between the removable base and the walls of the box, limited hot air loss. The device was able to boil water in less than 20 minutes, and attained a maximum temperature of 120°C. In celebration, the students baked an apple pie for their hosts using yak butter and barley flour. The approach selected by the students was intended to encourage a motivated high-profile member of the community — the village doctor — to adopt use of the technology for a new application that would significantly improve current ground-dispersal methods for waste disposal. (The doctor did not have any patients during the time the students were in Tibet, but they intend to return to follow up on usage.) Contact: Douglas Matson

[edit] The History of Solar Cooking in China

The world's largest solar cooker programs are found in China. One contemporary spokesperson for this issue in China is Chen Ziaofu, Deputy Secretary General of the China Association for Rural Energy. He writes that China has been active in designing devices, in materials technology, in establishing technical standards for industrial production, and in dissemination and sales for over 20 years. An earlier spokesman, speaking at the First World Conference in Solar Cooking, held in 1992, provides an even longer history. Wang Xiping, a participant in that meeting in Stockton, California, outlines the use of light-collecting and focusing devices in China back into antiquity. He tell his audience that solar cooking had appeared in China before the beginning of the 20th century, with Peking duck roasted in Xiao's Duck Shop, ChengDu, China, in 1894. (Pejak,ed., 1993, p. 12).

Both gentlemen and other reporters tell of a number of efforts within China in the 1980 and 1990s. Following up on an initial meeting in 1973 on solar cooking as a new technology, the first China National Solar Energy Congress was held in 1975, a second in 1979. From initially using principally circular parabolics and simple box cookers, new and improved designs were introduced during this period, and materials for several new designs were explored and tested. In 1982, at the national level, a United Key Task Team on Solar Cooking was created, under the auspices of the Ministry of Agriculture, since the technology was particularly needed in rural areas where fuelwood was increasingly in short supply. The work of the Task Team was to begin the rigorous assessment and establishment of standards for solar cooking devices to assist consumers and policy makers in comparing the efficiency and consumer acceptability of solar stoves. Even as this was occurring, solar cooking was spreading rapidly through the countryside as the new designs emerged. The need for mechanisms to evaluate cooking equipment became clear; by 1990, National Standards for examining and testing focussing cookers were ratified by the China State Standard Agency. Over time, these beginning have led to movement from experimentation to industrial production, and from strong government support to semi-commercial dissemination strategies.

Most of the effort has been focused on rural areas. Districts with cooking fuel shortages have shown strong support for cookers using the sun's energy. Even as subsidies have been reduced, sales have continued to grow. Factories supply most of the cookers, which are made of metal or concrete, with glass as reflecting mirrors. Others are made by hand, and in both modes, new and improved designs continue to be developed and tested. Government sources continue to provide technical and financial assistance, both to active and potential manufacturers and to low income consumers, through subsidies and tax reductions.

The most recent estimate of cookers in use in China is 560,000. While there is considerable variance by region, each cooker is believed to have saved from ^600-1000 kilograms (somewhat under 300 to 500 pounds) of fuel wood per year, important benefits to both economic and environmental circumstances.

Tibet appears to be a special case in regard to solar cookers. The Solar Energy Research and Demonstration Center of Tibet, in Lhasa, indicates that approximately 70,000 solar cookers, mostly of the concentrator type, have been sold in Tibet. Initially, these sales were heavily subsidized, but that seems no longer to be the case. The cost of the devices is roughly $60, but fuel savings amortize the cost quickly. The devices are more popular in rural areas than in cities, as agriculturalists and herders are eager to save animal dung for use as fertilizer rather than as cooking fuel.

An example was seen recently by American subscribers to the National Geographic magazine. Many were startled when they opened the January, 2002, National Geographic, to find a picture of a woman making herself tea beside a modest house in the middle of China's Alashan Plateau, an isolated high natural desert in the far north of China, bordering Mongolia. The surprise was the stove she used, a mirrored solar collector. The brief story said that she was a widow of Mongolian heritage, 72 years old, living alone since the death of her husband almost 30 years ago, existing on earnings from herding camel and sheep. The lonely life meant she saw few people and had few opportunities to spend her small income. She therefore decided to invest in some "creature comfort" for herself and purchased a parabolic solar cooker for about $150. She uses it regularly to cook her meals, make tea, and prepare food for occasional visitors, in this area where the sun shines most days. She was very pleased with herself and her purchase.

Many reports of correspondence from manufacturers, research institutes, social organizations confirm the steady interest in China in solar cooking. Perhaps this interest, expertise, and promising experience with solar cookers might be harnessed in some way to assist other nations of the region.

To that end, a September 1994 International Solar Energy Applications Training Workshop was held for citizens of other Asian nations, sponsored by the National Energy Research Institute of Gansu Province, Academy of Science, and aided by the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation. The workshop is one excellent model for dissemination of the technology in Asia. China was also represented among those demonstrating solar cooking at the 2002 Johannesburg World Social Summit.

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

[edit] Climate, Culture, and Special Considerations

Solar Cookers International has rated China as the #2 country in the world in terms of solar cooking potential (See: The 25 countries with the most solar cooking potential). The estimated number of people in China with both sun and fuel scarcity in 2020 is 98,100,000.