EG-Solar, a prominent worldwide solar cooking program, has its headquarters in a small southern German town. Centered in a national industrial school, founders Dieter Seifert and his wife Imma Seifert, with the assistance of other family members and friends, registered EG Solar as a charitable organization in 1993, though their activities date back to the early 1980s. The organization has been very active in promoting parabolic cookers, of varying size and characteristics, literally around the world. Their strategy is based on the underlying assumption that people can assist themselves by constructing the^cookers. The cookers' components are manufactured in Germany and shipped with instructions which are "word free" - entirely pictorial - and thus relatively easy (though time consuming) to assemble into the finished product. The Seiferts also make available, as needed, the equipment to produce most of the parabolic cooker's components, even in places without electricity. Because of difficulty of obtaining appropriate materials and the need for quality control, the shiny aluminum panels that constitute the parabolic reflector itself are made in Germany and shipped around the world. The Seiferts conduct workshops in Germany on the construction and use of the devices, as well as in many other countries of the world. This German based operation is among the larger, if not the largest, such program in the world. They report that 15,000 cookers have been sold in over 80 countries of the world. (Printed brochure, EG Solar.) Among the nations where they have substantial sales programs are: Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Ghana, Haiti, Mauritania, Namibia, Nepal, Zanzibar, Zimbabwe, South Africa, and Uganda and many others.
Dieter Seifert has been active in promoting solar cooking as one way to reduce the emission of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, contributing to the greenhouse effect and global warming. He has urged the consideration of solar cooking programs as eligible for carbon credits as envisioned in the United Nations Joint Implementation/Clean Development Mechanism, that permits the exchange of "carbon credits" between developed and developing nations. One such exchange is in place between the area where Dr. Seifert lives and an organization in Nepal, where solar cooking promotion is supported in this manner. Almost alone in the solar community to explore this potential, Dr. Seifert offers to provide assistance to others in calculating carbon emissions as a prelude to applying for assistance in this carbon credit scheme.
Recent developments
- In the spring of 2006 EG-Solar asked its supporters to donate money to pay for materials to build 150 parabolic solar cookers for poor Ethiopians. The children of these lucky families now do not have collect firewood and can attend school. EG-Solar is accepting donations to bring cookers to more families in Ethiopia this year.
Contact
EG-Solar e.V.
Neuöttinger Str. 64c
D-84503 Altötting
Germany
Tel: ++49 / (0) 86 71 / 96 99 37
Fax: ++49 / (0) 86 71 / 96 99 38
EG-SOLAR@t-online.de
http://www.eg-solar.de/
EG-Solar is a registered charitable organization created by the Altötting Public Community College.