SunFire Solutions

SunFire Solutions is the leading Solar Cooker promotion and development agency in Southern Africa for solar cooker technologies. SunFire Solutions is aimed at assisting Africans to integrate solar cookers into the social, environmental and cultural fabric of life.

Southern Africa enjoys the least access to grid electricity of any region on earth and thus conversely stands to gain the most from the introduction of high quality solar cooker technologies.

SunFire Solutions predominantly manufactures and supplies parabolic reflectors (or the SunFire Series) for clients in Southern Africa but has also sent solar cookers to the USA, Europe and Middle East and are prepared to send cookers wherever there is need.

Our range also includes high quality box cookers and the Papillion for larger feeding schemes, we hope to introduce the Scheffler model at the earliest possible opportunity (need a minimum of 200 mouths on a daily basis to justify building one).

Phase 2 of SunFire Solutions flag ship project completed in December 2006 saw 80 SunFire14's installed in a Zulu village (Masihambisane) near Pietermaritzburg as part of an off grid electrification project.

This project aims to convince the South Africa, Botswana and Lesotho governments to include solar cooker technologies in all communities reliant on fossil fuels to meet their basic cooking needs.

This is the first project of its kind in the region and we hope it will establish and highlight beyond a doubt solar cookers potential beneficial role to the region. SunFire Solutions is also involved in the formation of a regional network under the umbrella "Solar Cookers For Africa" aimed at assisting the Continents decision makers to use solar cookers in natural disaster or refugee situations

We are also looking into the CDM mechanism to attract local governments to invest in and so speed up the role out needed to reach the estimted 240 Million people still reliant on coal, parafin or firewood for their basic daily needs.

News and recent developments

• June 2007: Crosby Menzies of SunFire Solutions sends a report on the Masihambisane Solar Cooker Project.

This woman says she uses very little charcoal now that she is solar cooking

• August 2006: The organization Sun Fire Cooking is promoting Chinese solar concentrating cookers in northeastern Somalia. In 2003, 14 of these high-temperature "butterfly" style cookers were purchased and tested by households in the town of Bosaso, and user feedback was positive. The families, each with eight or more members, use the solar cookers to cook lunch and evening meals. One user said that her monthly charcoal usage dropped from 100 kg of charcoal each month to about 25 kg. Several others in the community expressed interest in purchasing solar cookers. With funding from the United Nations, and in partnership with the NGO Horn Relief, Sun Fire Cooking recently distributed solar cookers to all 550 households in the small fishing village of Bander Beyla on the Indian Ocean coast of Somalia. (Bander Beyla was damaged by the 2004 tsunami.)

  

  These El-Didhir villagers are not intimidated by the new technology; they are keen to start solar cooking

  A team of 12 individuals, led by Shukria Dini, assembled and distributed the cookers, and trained the new solar cooks. Several families have shared stories of improved quality of life with solar cooking. One young woman commented that her fuel savings allow her to send her 10-year-old daughter to school. Another solar cook reported improved health due to reduced smoke exposure. In some parts of town the cookers are in constant use, while in other areas they mostly sit idle. Project leaders expect usage rates to increase as the solar squad makes additional follow-up visits to households. Sun Fire Cooking is planning for expansion to three additional coastal villages, including Dhuur and El-Didhir. Sun Fire Cooking is led by Fatima Jibrell, founder and former head of Horn Relief. In 2002 she won a prestigious "Goldman Environmental Prize" for her work protecting natural resources in Somalia, particularly old-growth acacia trees that are burned to make charcoal for export. Sun Fire Cooking hopes to curb deforestation in the area through expanded use of solar cookers. Contact: James Lindsay

See also

• Masihambisane Solar Cooker Project

Contact

SunFire Solutions
Solar Cooker Specialists
Johannesburg
South Africa

Tel: +27 (0) 82 954 0144 or +27 (0) 11 624 2432

sunfire@sunfire.co.za
http://www.sunfire.co.za