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Revision as of 17:55, 28 March 2009 by Tom Sponheim (talk | contribs) (→‎News and Recent Developments)
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News and Recent Developments

Steven foundation 2007
  • August 2008: Elena Pineda is known as "the tortilla lady" in Jinotega, a mountain community in Nicaragua. She had used a wood-burning stove to cook her totillas for a long time, but it produced a lot of smoke. Elena's life changed though when she was visited by Sue Kellett. Kellet is a member of the St. Edward Parish in Bloomington, Minn and is developing a new smokeless cooker. When her and Elena met, Sue knew that Elena would benefit greatly from using this new cooker. Since Sue gave her the gift of a new stove, Elena has been able to cook tortillas faster and in a much safer environment because it does not produce huge plumes of smoke.
  • August 2008: Wendell and Sammie Rickon of Mendocino, California (USA) have experimented with a number of solar cookers since being reintroduced to the concept in the summer of 2006. Later that same year they ordered a solar CooKit and some literature from Solar Cookers International (SCI), joined the organization, and learned much more about the usefulness of solar cookers on a global scale. After many successful solar meals, and a few failures, the Rickons were confident that they could solar cook most of the non-fried foods in their diet. Their thoughts turned to the community of Ciudad Dario, Nicaragua where their son directs Seeds of Learning (SOL), a small nonprofit educational organization. The Rickons asked if he could incorporate a solar cooking component into his work at SOL. He challenged them to write a project proposal, secure funding, and volunteer some of their own time to get a project going. They met his challenge, and spent much of 2007 gathering training materials from SCI, building solar cookers, and, of course, cooking! In November 2007 the Rickons packed a supply of aluminum foil and transparent oven roasting bags and headed for Nicaragua. Upon arriving in Ciudad Dario, the Rickons promoted solar cookers to anyone who seemed interested, including family members, friends, SOL staff, and Peace Corps volunteers. They conducted a number of small workshops, during which participants learned to make and use solar CooKits and sampled solar dishes such as beans, rice, squash and chocolate chip cookies. In all, the Rickons taught 48 people, including several SOL staff members and two university students that agreed to continue the project with the support and assistance of SOL.
  • July 21-31, 2008: Solar Culture Course given by Grupo Fenix
  • July 2007: The foundation Sustainable Technology and Energy for Vital Economic Needs (STEVEN), of Ithaca, New York, is partnering with the Cornell University chapter of Engineers for a Sustainable World (ESW) on an upper-level engineering course, now in its fourth year. Teams of students gain hands-on experience in a variety of real-world service projects. One team is working on a solar cooking project for the Sabana Grande community of Nicaragua. The team has taken the name "Amanecer," which means "sunrise" in Spanish, a suitable title for solar cooking advocates. Francis Vanek has taken a prominent role in the service project and has made a close connection with nongovernmental organization Grupo Fenix, based at the National University of Nicaragua in Managua. Amanecer is experimenting with a variety of solar cooker designs, and hopes to improve performance and implement use of the cookers in rural Nicaragua. To promote sustainability, Amanecer is paying attention to expense, local availability of materials, and the expressed needs of the community. The specialized engineering course provides students an abundance of learning opportunities — cultural exchange, ethics, an applied approach to engineering, resourcefulness, an understanding of user needs, and an awareness of local and international communities. Amanecer has sub-teams that focus in three areas: cooker construction, light simulation, and community and market research. The construction team worked on solar cooker designs, while the light simulation team built an indoor testing facility with controlled lighting systems. The community and market research team evaluates the social and environmental impacts of solar cooker use in Nicaragua, and is researching the Kyoto Protocol system of carbon credits in hopes of offsetting solar cooker costs in the future. The ultimate goal of Amanecer is to travel to Nicaragua to implement their solar cooker designs, and gather feedback and data useful to future design modifications. [A note from Francis Vanek: I think you are giving me too much credit, and Tim Bond not enough! It is Tim who has been at the forefront of developing the project with Grupo Fenix, while I have been playing a supporting role.]
  • March 2006: Last year, 300 unassembled SPORT solar ovens were purchased by St. Edwards Catholic Church of Bloomington, Minnesota (USA) for the community of Jinotega. The cookers were assembled locally under the direction of volunteers Sue Kellet and Andrew Knutson, who were also responsible for trainings. SPORTs were sold to families at a subsidized price of $10. Staples like rice, beans and bananas were popular solar dishes. Other solar foods included chicken dishes, vegetable stews with milk, and cooked mangos. One solar cook commented that the mangos cooked better in the solar cooker than over a fire. More information...

The History of Solar Cooking in Nicaragua

The Central American country of Nicaragua has been active in promotion of solar cooking for some time. One of the organizations connected to the network associated with Bill Lankford's long standing work in Central America is located here, and has been active in training women in the construction and use of solar cookers for a number of years. The project here, known as Centro Girasoles Proceso, uses methods similar to those described above, that is, assistance to women to build their own solar ovens, carefully and exactly, to produce excellent functioning. Training is continuous, and follow-up is as intensive over an extended time period as any solar program aiiywhere. In the view of the Proceso groups in the Central American countries, solar cooking is a critical, but only one, element in the overall process of improvement of life for Central Americans. Girasoles believe that the cookers are used over 80% of the time, once the training and follow up has been completed. They continue to work in the community, extending their activities to other needs as indicated.

Centro Girasoles Proceso has also reached out to extend knowledge of solar cooking to other groups working in Nicaragua. A more recent arrival on the scene in Nicaragua is Grupo Fenix, an organization that provides a range of renewable energy resources in the country. Girasoles, as the knowledgeable group on solar cooking, worked with Fenix to pass on knowledge and experience. Fenix has in that manner developed skills in teaching low-income people how to build simple, effective, and low cost box cookers. The ovens are made of scrap cardboard, newspaper, aluminum foil and plastic in an afternoon, or over a week for a large and durable oven made of wood and other materials. They have learned, as all solar promoters must, that follow up for new trainees in solar cooking is an essential ingredient in the program, since the cooking method is quite different. They have also learned to pasteurize milk and water, and are working on other techniques for sterilization, using the most efficient of the oven types.

The group also promotes photovoltaic lighting, working with Terrasol, a US/Nicaraguan volunteer project. In addition, they are working to exploit the abundant rainfall, which feeds streams and rivers, ideal for small-scale generation of electricity to supplement that which comes from the national system and often fails before reaching remote rural areas. To assist local people with acquisition of this range of renewable technologies, Fenix is working to establish micro-loan programs like those successfully in place in many parts of the world.

Climate, Culture, and Special Considerations

We came across this paragraph, from a student service learning project, while researching an article for the Solar Cooker Review. The student was working with a solar photo-voltaic company in Nicaragua, where some solar cookers have been introduced. Judging from the description we assume the cookers are large parabolic or box cookers. In any case, this is a good reminder of one reason why solar cookers (especially if they are not the appropriate type for a given population) are not always as readily accepted and used as we promoters would like.

"A strong example of a renewable energy not working as it was intended was apparent in Nicaragua. Solar ovens were viewed as an answer to women cooking all day in the poorly ventilated and smoke filled kitchens. It was believed that solar cookers would allow the women to not spend as much time in the kitchen as well as eliminate the need to collect wood for the current stoves. The problem lay in the fact that the solar cookers did not fit into the culture appropriately for them to be utilized effectively. The culture of Nicaragua had always dictated that the social center for a woman to meet and talk with friends would always be the kitchen so that they could talk as they worked. Wood burning stoves gave this ability as they required a person to always be around cooking or tending to the fire. With solar cookers, the oven was outside and because food took longer to cook, there was more downtime where the women would end up sitting around in the kitchen anyways. The time to cook a meal with direct sunlight in a solar cooker was usually 50% to 100% longer and a much longer preparation time was necessary, because of this, the solar cookers had to be repositioned so that they were getting the most sun possible. This task was difficult for women who could not move the solar cookers on their own because they were too large, and the number of women, were few who knew how to move them so they would get direct sun. Dinner was served usually when it was dark out, as it is in most cultures, so the food would have to be prepared beforehand and somehow reheated for dinner. Because of these problems it became apparent solar cookers would not become a technology that would fit well into the culture of rural Nicaragua."[1]

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