Mexico

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Last edited: 28 February 2024

Solar Household Energy profiles the Oaxacan 'Women of the Sun' introduction to solar cooking, and how it has affected their lives. Solar Household Energy has long played an active role introducing and helping to facilitate solar cooking in Mexico. They have been working closely with Lorena Harp to bring solar cooking to the rural women of Oaxaca. She introduced an affordable but durable panel-style solar cooker called the Haines Solar Cooker (HSC). Prior to the launch of the initiative, Lorena conducted local market research and optimized the HSC for local consumer preferences. She then trained three rural women to become “solar cooking ambassadors” to sell HSCs for 500 pesos (about USD 25) on a commission basis (earning 200 pesos, about USD 10) to members of their communities and provide follow-up support to maximize adoption of this alternative cooking model. Ambassadors quickly reached their pilot project goal for solar cooker sales.

Events

• NEW: First Sunday of the month (Cuernavaca, Morelos): Cuernavaca Solar Cooking and Solar Drying Club - The club meets the first Sunday of the month for solar cooking, 11:00am - 2:00pm. You can bring ingredients and utensils to cook with the sun and share sunny food at the end. San Miguel Ecological Park Acapantzingo, Av. Atlacomulco No.14, Acapantzinga, 62448 Cuernavaca, Mor. Mexico. If you like to bring materials to build your solar kitchen or solar dryer, we will send you the plans and list of materials by mail. jm.hernandezjarquin@gmail.com

Featured international events

• 4-6 June 2024 (Bridgetown, Barbados): Sustainable Energy for All Global Forum - The event will be co-hosted by Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL) and the government of Barbados. It is a platform for government, business and finance leaders, entrepreneurs, and youth and community representatives from around the world to come together to broker new partnerships, spur new investment, and address challenges at the nexus of energy, climate, and development. More information...

Online events

• NEW: Thursday, 18 April 2024 (2:30pm-3:15pm EDT), (Washington, D.C., USA): ESMAP Spring Meetings Knowledge Café: Clean Cooking at the Heart of Energy Access - Join ESMAP for this exciting knowledge-sharing opportunity, which will showcase the role of clean cooking as a key part of energy access and energy transition. Presentations by René van Hell, Director of Inclusive Growth, Ministry of Foreign Affair, Netherlands, Dr. Kandeh Yumkella Chairman, Presidential Initiative on Climate, Renewable Energy and Food Security, Sierra Leone, and Chandrasekar Govindarajalu, Practice Manager, ESMAP, World Bank. In-person attendance at World Bank Atrium, MC Front Lobby is for Spring Meetings registrants only. However, you can watch the event online

Requests for proposal

• Decentralized Renewable Energy Solutions utilizing Solar and Bio-Energy - Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments of ScienceDirect, is requesting guest-author submissions. The special issue, VSI: DRES is devoted to publishing research articles reporting the innovative designs and design interventions in solar thermal and bio-energy for decentralized energy systems (DES). It includes i) new and novel designs of prototype or commercial devices and technologies, their development, modeling and simulations and experimental validation; ii) innovations for processes, techniques, utilization, and applications; iii) novel use of materials for improving efficiency, performance, techno-economic feasibility, and sustainability and iv) research findings addressing the socio-economic, health and safety impacts, and life cycle assessments leading to proposing novel devices for DES. The Deadline for submission is 31 July 2024. More submittal information...

See also: Global Calendar of Events and past events in Mexico

Most significant projects

• The HotPot solar cooker introduction in Mexico - Solar Household Energy (SHE), spent several years developing a solar panel cooker called the HotPot, a variation on Solar Cookers International's cooker, the CooKit. In 2003 SHE received a grant from the World Bank’s Development Marketplace to mount a HotPot promotion project in Mexico working with the Mexican nature conservancy, Fondo Mexicano para la Conservación de la Naturaleza (FMCN). By July 2004, 2,000 HotPots had been manufactured and trucked to eight local conservation NGOs that had agreed to participate in the HotPot distribution initiative. Solar Household Energy may be the global leader in promoting solar cooking. Lesson learned: Quality solar cookers are appreciated. However, demand may not be able to be met without significant financial support.

Workshop participants receive their HotPot solar cooker in Mexico.

See other significant solar cooking projects worldwide.

News

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• NEW: February 2024: Bank de Alimentos Querétaro gathering - Cocineros Solares invited Bank de Alimentos Querétaros members to join them for a solar cooked meal. The bank has a program to collect food donated by companies, and then deliver well-assorted pantries to thousands of families in the State of Oaxaca. Photo credit: Cocineros Solares

• August 2023: Juana María Hernández Jarquín of Red Mujeres en Energía Renovable y Eficiencia Energética conducted a demonstration for children at a summer science school in Mexico.

Juana María Hernández Jarquín stands with the Funnel solar cookers used for her demonstration

Curious young students watch the food being prepared for cooking

Participants learn about the various solar cookers available

Photo credit: Juana María Hernández Jarquín

• November 2022: Solar cookers produce more than food for Mexican women - Sponsored by the Washington D.C., USA based non-governmental organization Solar Household Energy(SHE), women from 10 communities have received some 200 Haines solar cookers, including residents of the municipality of Villa de Zaachila with about 43,000 inhabitants. The village is near Oaxaca in southern Mexico. Local women explain their impressions of the program in the video below.

Solar Cookers Produce More Than Food for Mexican Women-2

Poli & Rodrigo, founders of Delicias de Oaxaca Photo credit: Low-tech Lab

• January 2022: Solar food drying company in Oaxaca - Delicias de Oaxaca is a solar food processing company located in Oaxaca, Mexico. Founders, Poli & Rodrigo, specialize in dehydrating various fruits and vegetables for sale. They collect unsold fruits and vegetables from many farmers in the region. They peel them, cut them into thin slices and expose them to the sun and wind on the roof of their house. The simplest drying room there is: shelves protected from insects by a mosquito net.

Gregor Schäpers, of Triniy Sol, runs a solar bakery in Cardonal, Mexico

• October 2021: Mexican entrepreneurs are changing the future for solar cooking business in Mexico - Gregor Schäpers, of TrinySol, is one of a number of entrepreneurs convinced that solar cooking and distilling, as used by business, can help Mexico — and other parts of the world — leave the fossil fuel era behind. “Solar is very versatile, clean and reduces the need for firewood, thus protects forests. It is climate-friendly, saves money and strengthens small and medium-sized businesses in the region,” he concludes. Cooking with the sun: Entrepreneurs help launch Mexico’s solar revolution - Mongabay

Victoria Aguilera, founder of La Sazón del Sol, sells solar processed foods at the local market.

• June 2021: Solar processed foods available near Oaxaca - La Sazón del Sol is located in the village of Tlacochahuaya, Mexico near Oaxaca. Victoria Aguilera, the founder, is interested in encouraging the use of solar energy to be part of daily life for local residents. She supports the area ecology, economy, health of the community, and also produces many of the solar dried foods herself. The facility operates a training center dedicated to women and provides workshops at the Oficina Solar Tlacochahuaya in do-it-yourself construction of solar cooking and drying appliances. With a primary focus on solar food drying, they prepare a variety of foods for sale.

Rural customers from Oaxaca, Mexico, have adopted the Haines Solar Cooker. Photo credit: Lorena Harp

• January 2020: Scaling up Lorena Harp's Haines Solar Cooker Enterprise in Mexico - Solar Household Energy is currently supporting Mexican solar cooking expert Lorena Harp in her dream to bring solar cooking to the rural women of Oaxaca State through a sustainable social enterprise. Prior to launching the initiative, Lorena conducted local market research and optimized the HSC for local consumer preferences. She then trained three rural women to become “solar cooking ambassadors” to sell HSCs for 500 pesos (about $25 USD) on a commission basis (earning 200 pesos, about $10 USD) to members of their communities and provide follow-up support to maximize adoption of this alternative cooking model. More information...

• October 2019: Solar Cookers Produce More Than Food for Mexican Women - Inter Press Service

Ovens being demonstrated in Teotitlán del Valle

• March 2019: During the second day of construction conducted by students of the Mount Sentinel school of Canada in collaboration with Techamos Una Mano and Gie Oaxaca, families of Teotitlán del Valle were trained and received a donation of Haines Solar Ovens.

Bernardo López Sosa, Photo credit: Conacyt

• May 2018: Bernardo López Sosa is originally from the indigenous community of Naranja de Tapia in Michoacán. At 28 years of age, he is pursuing a doctorate in science in metallurgy and materials science at the Institute of Metallurgy and Materials Research of the Michoacán University of San Nicolás de Hidalgo. He studies how the advance of science does not always consider social implications. He participates with fellow innovators as a founding member of the Grupo Multidisciplinario de Investigadores Indígenas para el Desarrollo de Tecnologías Sustentables The group is experimenting with various thermal retention coatings for solar cookers, and providing demonstrations in rural communities.

History

Mexico has a rich solar cooking history, with several projects successfully implemnted since the early 2000's. Below is a summary of some of these programs.

Girl Scouts/Rotary

Girl Scout leader Barby Pulliam conducted training programs for Girl Scout leaders and other representatives of NGOs in a number of cities and towns. Rotarian Wilfred Pimentel has also conducted a number of pilot programs in various cities. In some of those places, Rotary and Girl Scouts joined forces. A number of missions and other religious groups have promoted solar cookers in various parts of the country. One example is the Mission Mazahua, in Atlacomulco, which produced around 600 cookers. Several university faculty members have conducted research on cooking devices as well.

Solar Household Energy: Sierra Gorda Nature Reserve project

A large project originated in an unusual venue, a nature conservancy area, the Sierra Gorda Nature Reserve. In the spring of 2003, Louise Meyer of Solar Household Energy, Inc. (SHE, Inc.) conducted a training program to test user acceptance of a then new solar cooker called the HotPot. The device uses a modified CooKit design, initially of a plastic material then mental, as opposed to the cardboard of the CooKit. A black pot is enclosed within a tempered glass "greenhouse" instead of the plastic bag used in the original CooKit.

Within the confines of nature conservancies in Mexico, as elsewhere, trees cannot be cut down for use as fuelwood. Households living within the area thus must find other sources of energy for cooking. Therefore, the managing group of the Sierra Gorda site, the Grupo Ecológico Sierra Gorda, was delighted to explore the potential of solar cooking. The town of Purisima and a village, Mavi, were selected as the site for the initial training program. The Director of the Mexican Fund for the Conservation of Nature, Lorenzo Rosenzweig, partnered with SHE, Inc. to plan and implement this project.

Ms. Meyer traveled to Mexico, and conducted training for Sierra Gorda women, who were given HotPots and trained in their use over a two-day period. After the training, Ms. Meyer visited the women in their homes as follow-up for days of further training and coaching. The women were all interested in what others were cooking, and eventually a throng of cooks accompanied Ms. Meyer on most visits, enhancing the group learning substantially. Two women from the group were chosen for additional training in "how to teach others". The new trainers were again visited and coached in the art of training.

This pilot project, growing into a large-scale follow-up in other areas of Mexico, was among the winners of the 2003 Development Marketplace competition, an annual event held by the World Bank.

Sun Ovens International: Institutional solar cooking

Sun Ovens International reports promoting both Sun Ovens and Scheffler-type parabolics in Cuernavaca and Mexico City. The parabolic portion of this work, conducted by the Grupo Scheffler de México installs large commercial and institutional cooking and water heating. The first institutional solar kitchen of Mexico (6 Schefflers reflectors of 10m²) was built in the Hidalgo State by Gregor Schäpers.

External links

• April 2023: The poor woman’s energy: Low-modernist solar technologies and international development in India and Mexico, 1878–1966 - Cambridge University Press

Main article: History of solar cooking

Archived articles

• Alex Carl
• BASIC Initiative Mexico Program
• Chocosol Traders
• Club Rotario Torreón Centenario
• Cocina Solar
• Grupo Ecológico Sierra Gorda
• Juan Antonio Rubio Castro
• Mixtec Children's Project
• Niño a Niño
• Oliver Gonzalez

Climate and culture

Insolation in Mexico

Mexico is the most populous Spanish-speaking country with over 100 million inhabitants. One-quarter of the population lives in Mexico City, the world’s largest city. Rapid population growth and industrialization in Mexico over the last few decades have put an enormous strain on the environment, economy and on individual health.

Less than 10% of Mexico’s native tropical rainforests remain today. These rainforests are limited to southeastern Mexico and are most threatened by subsistence activities—especially fuel wood collection. Fuel wood supplies 69% of the energy consumption in rural areas, particularly for cooking. As the supply of wood decreases it negatively impacts the lives of the people who depend on it.

For instance, women and girls are responsible for procuring fuel wood and they must travel farther from home as wood becomes scarcer. This task demands many hours and minimizes opportunities to attend school and participate in income-generating activities. In other areas, it is no longer feasible to gather wood. Families in these areas can spend 15% to 37% of their income on wood and/or gas.

In addition to the negative environmental and economic impact of fuel wood dependence, women and children suffer from health problems caused by cooking inside small, enclosed kitchens that often lack windows or other ventilation. They inhale toxic smoke for many hours each day, which can lead to pneumonia and respiratory infections, the biggest killers of children under five years of age.

Below are comments made by Kathy Dahl-Bredine on November 17, 2015 regarding the extent to which Mixtec families near Oaxaca, Mexico, who apparently have an ample supply of firewood to collect, continue to use their solar cookers:

After having done many solar workshops, I've always wanted to know the extent to which families are really continuing to use it. And after checking around a good deal, it seems to me that the technology is not really taking hold enough to change overall cooking habits. The participants are always very excited about the technique during the workshops, and I give them "homework" tasks afterward, which include teaching others to solar cook, et al. But in general, they do not seem to be continuing it long term, and I've tried to analyze the reasons:

1. Most of the solar cookers we use, including models being commercially made and sold, as well as designs we make on our own, are too small for an average family in indigenous or traditional communities. Generally extended families live and eat together, an average of 6-10 persons. The standard black enamel pots that we generally use hold enough for only a small family. The main exception to that is the "family size" version of the Ulog. We have made those, but they tend to be very heavy and a little unwieldy, so that's a drawback we haven't solved yet.
2. In our own village and many of the others in our mountain area, there is plenty of firewood, so there isn't the urgency for fuel that exists in many places. I've often thought that some of those places in Africa, where apparently the Cook-it has really caught on well, one of the main differences may be the lack of adequate fuel, where people have to either walk long distances in unsafe areas, or spend part of their scarce food money to buy wood or other fuel.
3. Also, something that is no doubt hard to fathom for all of us who were brought up on gas stove cooking, for people in this culture, there is something about the smell of wood smoke and a fire going that feels homey, familiar, and good to folks -- the warm and familiar sense of family, etc. Sometimes people even say that the food tastes better when cooked over a wood fire. (Although many folks also have said that solar cooked food has more flavor! I've heard that a number of times as a reason for not liking gas stoves. A few people around here even have small gas stoves, but they generally don't use them much - perhaps only when there's an emergency to get a fire quickly.

Besides the various types of simple solar cookers that I make with groups: Cookit, Windshield Shade Solar Cooker model, and others, my husband, Phil, and the teenagers he has trained in carpentry, make the Ulog box cookers. We're searching for a way to make a good reflector for that model, also a better version of the larger, family-size one. I keep thinking we need to find a way to make something as efficient as the Sun Oven. My son gave me one, and I use it nearly all the time. None of the ones we've ever made can measure up to that efficiency. And here in these mountains, known as "país de las nubes" (land of clouds), it is often at least partially cloudy, so a very efficient cooker would encourage folks to use it more. We need to find a way to make good extra reflectors. As models to use with the local people, we are committed to using only cookers that we can make locally, so as to be sustainable.

See Also:

• The climate of Mexico - Wikipedia
• Mexico Energy Situation - Energypedia

Articles in the media

• October 2022: Cooking with the sun: Entrepreneurs help launch Mexico’s solar revolution - Mongabay
• June 2021: 71-Year-Old Mexican Man Builds Solar Stoves Out Of Reused Materials - Intelligent Living

Lorena Harp demonstrates solar cooker to project participant in September 2019

• September 2019: Mexican Women Use Sunlight Instead of Firewood or Gas to Cook Meals - Inter Press Service
• April 2019: Mexican student develops cactus capsules to purify water, with the aid of a solar cooker - The Yucatan Times
• July 2017: Solar cooking, sustainable living - The Taos News
• July 2008: Cocina solar, una opción económica - El Siglo de Torreón

Audio and video

• July 2023: Technical-Economical Analysis of the Thermosolar Plant Drying of Different Agricultural Products - CONSOLFOOD2023

S3A7 Octavio García-Valladares et al. (Mexico)- Technical-economical analysis of the thermosolar ...-2

• July 2023: The Solar Cooker Ambassador Program in Oaxaca, Mexico, 5-year evaluation - Solar Household Energy

S3A6 Sophie Lyman et al. (USA-Mexico)- The solar cooking ambassador program in Oaxaca, Mexico- 5-...-2

• July 2023: Solar cooking in the rural areas of Mexico - CONSOLFOOD 2023

S2A9 Luis Edoardo García Sánchez et al. (Mexico)- Solar cooking in the rural zones of Mexico-2

• November 2022:

Solar Cookers Produce More Than Food for Mexican Women-2

• February 2022:

4-2 Constructal evolution of the solar oven Tolokatsin 2021 - CONSOLFOOD 2022-2

• February 2022:

4-1 Solar thermal drying plant for agricultural products - CONSOLFOOD 2022-2

• February 2022:

3-2 Pineapple dehydration in the Thermosolar Plant for agricultural products… - CONSOLFOOD 2022-2

• May 2021

MUJERES DEL SOL-2

Solar Household Energy profiles the Oaxaca 'Women of the Sun' introduction to solar cooking, and how it has affected their lives

• October 2019:

• May 2013:

Taquería de Oaxaca funciona con energía solar en vez de gas

Desde hace tres años funciona en Oaxaca una taquería que en vez de gas utiliza la energía solar. Los rayos de luz son captados a través de un panel móvil de aluminio que los convierte en energía y permite cocinar elementos mediante una estufa solar.

• June 2012:

• February 2010:

Taquería oaxaqueña trabaja con energía solar

Alfredo García instaló un reflector cilindro parabólico en su puesto ambulante para calentar el consomé y los tacos que venden en las calles de Oaxaca. Además del ahorro que representa el no utilizar gas, otro de los beneficios de este sistema es que la comida resulta menos grasosa.

• February 2009:

LA COCINA SOLAR

Resources

Possible funding

• Find a Kiva microfinance partner in Mexico.
• Raising funds through grants and donations

Facebook groups

• NEW: MTBCAR Nayarit
• Sol Gurmet Coatleco
• Cocineros Solares
• Red Mexicana de Secado y Cocción Solar
• Cocina Solar México
• Solar Household Energy
• La sazón del sol-Solar Súper Foods
• TrinySol

Project evaluations

• April 2019: The Ambassador-Led Social Enterprise in Oaxaca, Mexico: Sustainably Spreading Solar Cooking in Rural Communities - Solar Household Energy
• January 2017: Adopción tecnológica sustentable de cocinas solares en comunidades indígenas y rurales de Michoacán - M. González-Avilés
• August 2006: Nogales, US-Mexico Clean Air Report Excerpts August 2006 - Report for the Thermal Construction and Alternative Heating and Cooking Technologies Project that outlines research conducted to assess the air quality along the US-Mexico border. Solar Household Energy collaborated with the research team to introduce solar cookers into the cities being studied.

Main article: Project evaluations

Documents

• April 2023: The poor woman’s energy: Low-modernist solar technologies and international development in India and Mexico, 1878–1966 - Cambridge University Press
• January 2017: Adopción tecnológica sustentable de cocinas solares en comunidades indígenas y rurales de Michoacán - M. González-Avilés
• January 2017: Production of Solar Processed Food in Search Alternatives in Nutrition, Conversation, Diversification and Valorisation of Resources in Oaxaca Mexico - Victoria Aguilera Velazco
• January 2017: If No One Copies it or Tries to Steal It—Is It Worth Nothing? State of the Art of Small Automatic Parabolic Trough Steam Systems for Food Processing - Michael Götz
• November 2014: Desarrollo, implementación y apropiación de cocinas solares para el medio rural de Michoacán - Una alternativa energética para la conservación de recursos forestales maderables - M. González-Avilés, Bernardo López-Sosa, et al
• February 2013: Kit Para Cocina Solar - Xuni
• January 2009: CHOCOSOL- An Experience of Producing Joy Without Generating Malice - Aline Desentis Otálora
• January 2009: Agave syrup production – a sweet tradition goes solar - Gregor Schäpers
• July 2006: Una entrevista con Mariana Díaz del Fundo Mexicano para la Conservación de la Naturaleza (FMCN) -
• August 2006: Report on the use of HotPot solar cookers to reduce air pollution from cooking fires in northern Mexico
• Spring 2004: The HotPot in Mexico - Louise Meyer

Books

• Recetario de Olla Solar
• Cocina Solar, alternativa energética sustentable Modelo matemático y construcción física - Bernardo Sosa
• Cocinas solares: alternativa energética para el medio rural Desarrollo, implementación y apropiación - Bernardo Sosa
• Summer 2005: Mexican Straw Weavers in Mixteca Region of Oaxaca Learn to Solar Cook - Weave A Real Peace Newsletter

Contacts

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

SCI Associates

• Allart Ligtenberg
• Juana María Hernández Jarquín
• Patrick Sherwin

Main article: Solar Cookers International Association

NGOs

• Border Partners
• Cocina Solar Mexico
• Fondo Mexicano para la Conservación de la Naturaleza
• Friendly Appropriate Solar Technologies
• GRUPEDSAC
• La Sazón del Sol
• MéxicoSOL
• Oficina Solar Tlacochahuaya
• Red Mujeres en Energía Renovable y Eficiencia Energética
• Rotary Club of Fresno
• Rotary Club of Tapachula Centenario
• Solar Household Energy
• The Nature Conservancy
• TrinySol
• Via Organica

Manufacturers and vendors

• Delicias de Oaxaca
• La Sazón del Sol
• Simply Solar
• Solar Household Energy
• SunOK

Individuals

• Allart Ligtenberg
• Bernardo Sosa
• Gregor Schäpers
• Heike Hoedt
• Juana María Hernández Jarquín
• Kathy Dahl-Bredine
• Lorena Harp
• Louise Meyer
• Michael Götz
• Patrick Sherwin

See also

• Category:Chiapas
• Cocina Solar Simple
• Devos-Prim-Rubio
• Category:Federal District
• Category:Hidalgo
• Category:Jalisco
• Template:MexicoFacebook
• Mexico news archive
• Category:Michoacán
• Mobile Solar Taco Stand
• Category:Oaxaca
• Prim-Devos-Rubio
• Category:Querétaro
• Solar Cooking on Social Media
• Taquería Poncho
• Category:Veracruz