Vietnam Solar Serve

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Vietnam Solar Serve is a Nongovernmental organization that promotes solar cooking in Vietnam. Many people in Vietnam still depend on coal, straw, leaves or wood for cooking. Open fires contribute to air pollution and cause lung and eye diseases owing to people spending time in hot and smoky kitchens. This traditional cooking method also compels women and children to walk for hours each day to find wood for daily cooking.

Vietnam receives 1400-2000 hours of sunshine per year in the north and 2000-3000 hours per year in the central and southern part, but not many people take advantage of solar energy for daily cooking.

Environment Day in Ninh Thuan - 2006

Since 2000, simple solar cookers for cooking food have been introduced by Solar Serve in Vietnam. 1200 families have been provided and almost 79% are using these solar cookers frequently. People have been able to save money, time and even improve their health.

The use of solar cookers requires changes in cooking habits, food, and food preparations. Therefore a solar cooking training program was set up by Solar Serve. The aim is to provide teaching and training through workshops, home visits and group meetings.

Over the years, local people have progressively adopted solar cooking as an alternative cooking method. Therefore Solar Serve hopes to benefit more people in cooking with free solar energy in the coming years.

[edit] News and recent developments

April 2008: In our last newsletter we told you that we finished the foundation of the building. We felt that the factory was just a part of the building, so we renamed it Solar Serve Center. After the walls and pillars were built and the second floor was laid, things happened fast and if you see the pictures, maybe you will not believe your eyes. It’s wonderful and so exciting. We made an agreement with the contractor to finish the construction work within 6 months. That will bring us almost to the end of May.

April 2008: In cooperation with the Danang University we would like to establish a village near our Solar Serve center to become the first solar cooking village in Vietnam. We will provide at least 50 box cookers and 20 parabolic cookers in the coming weeks and hope to add more in order to establish a good model.

March 2008: In early 2007 the non-profit Solar Serve (SLS) organization was prematurely evicted from its solar cooker factory in Tamky. Though unfortunate, the incident created an opportunity to move the factory to Da Nang, which is more suitable for transport, materials acquisition, marketing, and access to labor. A search for a suitable building was unfruitful, and the financially difficult decision was made to purchase land for a new factory. In August, SLS acquired a 420-square-meter tract of land big enough for a factory and additional space for research and storage. It is located behind the Marble Mountains area, along the beach and the new road to Hoi An. SLS worked with an architect to design the building, which will house the factory on the first floor, and a show room and training rooms on the second floor. Construction of the building began in November, and by the end of December the foundation had been laid and the exterior walls framed. Work continues on the interior walls and fixtures. SLS has a small budget, and didn’t have the funds necessary to purchase the land or pay construction costs. Though SLS doesn’t solicit donations directly, it received financial support from a variety of sources: “Friends and unknown people, individuals like a handicapped person, a former drug addict, an embassy worker, a single mother, an older couple who gave their anniversary gift, leaders from an organization, a church, support of a fair and secondhand sale, a sponsor walk, dozens of companies, poor, rich and also children.” SLS was overwhelmed with the generosity, and “felt like solar cookers bathing in beams of warmth and love. It was a miracle.”