[[Video:Why Solar Cooking - Solar Household Energy|thumb|350px||Louise Meyer makes the case for solar cooking in this September, 2011 video.]] Groups involved in promoting solar cooking need to share more information, collaborate more and pool their voices to be heard by opinion-makers and decision-makers who could provide more resources to support the spread of solar cooking. Fostering these objectives is part of Solar Cookers World Network's mission. NGOs involved in other development work should consider whether solar cooking and the Integrated Cooking Method would make useful additions to their projects. Governments that currently inhibit the spread of solar cooking by heavily taxing imports of solar-related supplies while also subsidizing fossil fuel imports need to re-evaluate their thinking. Forward thinking businesses have a role to play by investing in the not-quite-yet-emerging solar cooker market, creating more manufacturing, distribution and sales facilities, and participating in spreading awareness. Schools can become involved in teaching solar cooking--both as a tool for teaching science concepts and as a practical matter of survival and home economics.
To a degree, these things are happening. Malawi has a renewable energy component in its school curriculum. Senegal has appointed a person to spearhead solar cooking work in the country. At least one government agency in The Gambia is charged with teaching solar cooking. There are other examples of small, seriously underfunded steps being made. Much more will have to be done. Many believe that there will be a tipping point where a critical mass of awareness in the right circles will greatly speed up the spread of solar cooking.
The conditions to bring about this tipping point seem to be forming currently. Food and fuel prices have doubled recently in many poor countries. Also some countries have recently reduced or removed their subsidies on cooking fuel. For example, in April 2008 the Indonesian government announced a reduction of fuel subsidies. As a result, the cost of kerosene, used for cooking, rose from 700 rupiah per liter to 2,000 rupiah, an increase of 186%.[1].
It is also important to understand that often solar cooking is best introduced as part of an Integrated Cooking Method where solar cooking is combined with heat-retention cooking (where food is heated to boiling for a short time at which point the cooking pot before being placed in an insulated box or basket to continue cooking) and simple fuel-efficient wood stoves. Soaking beans or even slightly sprouting whole grains and pulses/legumes[2], in addition to enhancing digestibility and nutritional values, will shorten cooking times, resulting in more efficient use of sun and fuel.
Dr. Dieter Seifert has pointed out that in most parts of the world, to cook a pot of beans, people put the dry beans and the cooking water into a pot and cook it over a wood fire for four hours. If people learn that they can soak the beans overnight first, they can save two hours worth of fuelwood. They save an additional one and a half hours of fuelwood if they learn to heat the soaked beans over a fire or in a solar cooker until the beans have boiled for 10-15 minutes. They can then put the pot into an insulated basket where it will continue to cook for 3-4 hours without using any fuel. The heat-retention cooker can be as simple as a basket filled with dry grass or hay. We should all consider the value of such simple changes before one launching into anything more complicated.
On the personal and local level, if you enjoy and benefit from using the sun to cook, talk to people about it. Talk to friends, family, teachers, students, store clerks, people you might sit next to on a bus or stand next to in a line at a store. If you carry copies of a small Universal Leaflet, you will have something to give to anyone who shows an interest, to direct them to further information.
Below are a number of resources that are helpful when setting up a solar cooking (or integrated cooking) project.
Recent news and developments
- December 2012: Alternative energy funding groups offer options for technology promoters - The International Renewable Energy Agency(IRENA) is welcoming online applications with project summaries for concessional loans worth USD 50 million from the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (ADFD) to facilitate renewable energy projects in developing countries, in the first of seven funding cycles totalling USD 350 million. Renewable energy projects must be government-led or government-guaranteed. Online applications close on 12 January 2013, 17:00 (Abu Dhabi local time). More information... The Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves is also offering funding possibilities for new businesses. The Alliance’s Spark Fund (Fund) launches its first round of funding with this Request for Proposal (RFP) as part of the strategy to strengthen supply and enhance demand in the cookstove and fuels sector through innovation and tailored entrepreneurial capacity development. Unfortunately the final submission date is January 10, 2013. More information...
Advocacy and Publicity
- How to teach solar cooking as part of the Integrated Cooking Method
- Leaflet for public promotion for illiterate cooks using Integrated Sustainable Solar Cooking
- Manual How to make CooKit and WAPI 2009
- Trainers Manual: Teaching Solar Cooking - Solar Cookers International'
- Field Guide: Spreading Solar Cooking - Solar Cookers International
- Solar Cookers: How to Make, Use, and Enjoy - Solar Cookers International
- What can one person or a small group do to promote solar cooking?
- Advocacy handouts provided for your use by Solar Cookers International
- What you can do to promote solar cooking (also in Catalan, French, Persian, Portuguese, Spanish, and Urdu)
- Presentations - PowerPoint slide decks that can be used to introduce solar cooking to groups
- Organizing Solar Cooking Events
- How to Promote Solar Cooking at Fairs
- Poster that can be printed very large at Kinko's (or other establishment) for display at fundraisers or demonstrations - Solar Cookers International
- Joining the Solar Cookers World Network
- Universal Leaflet
- Event Kit: Everything you need to promote solar cooking at events. Includes Suncookers DVD (with digital copy of Solar Cookers: How to Make, Use and Enjoy), educational posters, and 30 Solar Cooker Review back issues. Can be ordered online from Solar Cookers International.
Cultural Variables
- Main article: Solar cooker dissemination and cultural variables
- Obstacles to solar cooking
- Identifying the barriers to the deployment of solar cookers in the energy-poor households of sub-Saharan Africa - Sarah Cochetel
- Hard-won lessons
- December 2011: Some Big Solar Cooking Project in Asia - Dar Curtis, Solar Household Energy
- July 2006: Dissemination of Solar Cooker Information - Mamata Dutta
- July 2006: Why are Solar Cookers Still Unpopular Among Development Experts? - Paul Krämer
- July 2006: Integration of Local Culture and Perception in Marketing of Solar Cookers - Mahnaz Saremi
- July 2006: Integrated Approach for Promoting Solar Cookers in Rural Areas of Tamil Nadu - Dr. Sathyavathi Muthu and Ms. G. Anuradha
- Refugee camps with large solar cooking projects
- Foods requiring special handling (ugali, injera, sadza, etc.)
- The Special Challenges of Solar Cooking
- A Story Illustrating the Application of Solar Cooker Design Principles in a Field Project
- State of the Art of Solar Cooking: A Global Survey of Practices & Promotion Programs
- Solar Cookers and Social Classes in Southern Africa
- Solar Cooking Dissemination Approaches and Experiences in Nepal, Mongolia, and Peru - Allart Ligtenberg
- What can one person or a small group do to promote solar cooking?
Project Evaluations
- April 2011: NaDEET revisits five communities in Namibia that had received solar cooking training in 2009 - 2010.
- October 2008: Sunny Solutions Project in Nyakach Constituency, Nyanza Province, Kenya - Evaluation Report to Solar Cookers International
- September 2008: Sunny Solutions Program, Nyakach, Kenya - Evaluation Report to Solar Cookers International
- December 2003: Solar Cookit Project in Kakuma Refugee Camp, Kenya - Evaluation Report to Solar Cookers International
- January 2003: Aisha Solar Cooking Project, Aisha refugee camp, Ethiopia, - Evaluation Report to Solar Cookers International
- October 2001: Executive Summary of a Solar Oven Promotion Program In Ethiopia: 1997 - 1999 at the Aisha refugee camp
- August 1998: Summary of wood consumption study in Kakuma by Drs. B. Knudson and B. Lankford August 1998.
Academic Resources
- Main article: Classroom resources
Project Resources
- Microfinance Intervention for Financing Solar Cooking Technologies - Financing with Savings (Executive Summary) - Solar Household Energy
- Decision Tree Diagrams on Factors Affecting Choice of Fuel Strategy in Humanitarian Settings
- Sun Ovens International Seeks to Partner with NGOs to Promote Solar Cooking
- Statistics for the 25 countries with the greatest solar cooking potential - Solar Cookers International
- Predicting the usefulness of solar cooking in a given locality (also in Portuguese)
- Cooking for large groups
- Detailed information on pots, foil, cardboard, etc.
- Cooking famine foods in a solar cooker
- Solar cooking for the homeless
- Clean Development Mechanism
- Wholesale price ranges for various solar cookers
- Raising funds for your project
- Non-cooking uses
- The untapped market for solar cookers (also in Portuguese)
- Solar radiation maps
- Hot surface warning signs
Business Resources
- Income generation
- Mass-producing CooKits
- Solar restaurants and bakeries
- Turnkey manufacturing systems (Certain high-quality manufactured solar cookers are available for local production in developing countries.)
- Solar food processing
- Cost savings from solar cooking
- Microcredit
- Wholesale price ranges for various solar cookers
- Water Pasteurization Indicator production
- Success Story of the Development of a Solar Kitchen Using Scheffler Parabolic Cookers
- Ahead with Solar Cookers -- Acceptance and Introduction to the Market from GTZ
- All solar cooking manufacturers on Alibaba.com
- July 2006: Promotion of Employment Generation Through Solar Cookers and Dryers - Padmaja Reddy
Audio and video