Project Surya will deploy inexpensive solar and other energy-efficient cookers in rural India and document their role in reducing emissions of carbon dioxide and soot. Carbon dioxide and elemental carbon in soot, two by-products of fossil fuel combustion, biofuel cooking and biomass burning contribute as much as 70% to the global warming through a proccess call global dimming. In addition, soot has well-documented detrimental effects on human health, agricultural productivity, and water budgets at local, regional and global scales. Surya in Sanskrit stands for Sun or Solar.

On March 25, 2009, Project Surya was launched in northern India, in the village of Khairatpur

Articles in the media

• November 2008: Project Surya: Cooking Solar Power for The Masses - The Green Optimistic

• May 2008: Solar-cooker project could cut air pollution - San Diego Union Tribune

• May 2008: New stick to beat developing countries on GHGs - Down To Earth

See also

• Global dimming

External links

• March 2007: Project Surya White Paper

• Project Surya In Progress

Contact

Project Surya Office: Center for Clouds, Chemistry & Climate
Chemistry and Climate at SIO-UCSD (C4)
Principal Investigator: Dr. V. Ramanathan (vram <at> ucsd.edu);
Tel: +1 (858)-534-8815