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[edit] News and Recent Developments

  • April 2008: Restaurant selling solar cooked pizza opens in Mill Valley, California
  • March 2008: As Rotary volunteers, Wilfred and Marie Pimentel travel the world organizing projects and promoting what they call “integrated solar cooking.” In this system, a solar cooker is used whenever possible, and a fuel-efficient stove is used the rest of the time. In either case, insulated heat-retention devices (“hay boxes”) maintain cooking temperatures after the pot is removed from the heat source. Water pasteurization is also encouraged, using a Water Pasteurization Indicator (WAPI) to determine when the appropriate temperature has been reached. Since learning about solar cooking in 1988 from Solar Cookers International, the Pimentels and the Rotary Club of Fresno, California, have worked with local Rotary clubs to spread these skills in nearly a dozen countries, including Armenia, Bolivia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. They are currently working on projects in Turkey, Uganda, Rwanda, and Mexico. In 2006 they trained 17 Peace Corps Volunteers who are promoting integrated solar cooking in Armenia. Last year, the Fresno club joined with Solar Household Energy (SHE) to conduct workshops in Mexico. Recently, 50 sewing machines were purchased for solar cooking associations in Rwanda to speed the process of making insulation for hay boxes, which are then sold for a profit. Even youth are getting involved; over 100,000 WAPIs destined for overseas projects have been built by high school students in Rotary Interact clubs. In a recent on-line Rotary article, Wilfred Pimentel described the process of working with local Rotary clubs. “We go to a country at the invitation of a Rotary club president and ask him or her about Rotary club support, possible help from nongovernmental organizations, and the availability of foil and cardboard needed to make a simple cooker.” The Pimentels have been solar cooking promoters for a long time, and show no signs of slowing down. Maybe it’s because they know how important their message is to so many people around the world. “I've seen women take pots out of the cooker, and the steam hits them in the face, and they can't believe that the food is cooked,” said Marie Pimentel. “Many of the women don’t know what Rotary is, but they take your hand in both of theirs and look at you, and they say, ‘Thank you for coming.’”
  • March 2008: Last October, Pat McArdle hosted a two-week working demonstration that featured a variety of solar cookers, fuel-efficient stoves and heat-retention devices during the Transportable Infrastructures for Development and Emergency Support (TIDES) exhibit at the National Defense University (NDU) in Washington, DC. Several hundred military and civilian officials from area agencies visited the exhibit, which was held at Fort McNair. McArdle, a board member of Solar Cookers International (SCI), demonstrated the three common types of solar cookers: panel, box, and concentrator. The exhibit included posters on solar cooker technology and displays of Dr. Bob Metcalf’s Portable Microbiology Laboratory and SCI’s Water Pasteurization Indicator (WAPI). McArdle tested Anacostia River water and used an AquaPak™ to solar pasteurize the contaminated water. As often occurs at solar cooker exhibits, visitors had to burn their fingers on the steaming pots before they could believe what they were seeing! The weather was excellent, and food was solar cooked and served to visitors every day. On two partly cloudy days, fuel-efficient wood stoves and retained-heat devices were used to finish the cooking of chicken stew, rice, and beans begun in the solar cookers. The TIDES exhibit was repeated for two days in early November at the Pentagon. Cloudy weather unfortunately made it impossible to solar cook. At both exhibits, McArdle explained to visitors the principles of integrated solar cooking: use solar cookers whenever the sun is out, save precious fuel for nights and cloudy days when fuel-efficient stoves are the appropriate technology, and in either case use heat-retention devices to maintain cooking temperatures in pots that have been removed from their heat source. Under the overcast skies at the Pentagon, McArdle was able to cook chicken tajine, lentil stew, and couscous with a fuel-efficient stove, a heat-retention device, and a few small twigs gathered on site. The TIDES exhibit is an effort by Dr. Lin Wells of the NDU to bring together a volunteer cadre of “experts” that can pool their knowledge of easily deployable energy efficient technologies that could be used in disaster and humanitarian situations. The team will be repeating their displays at future events around the country.
  • November 2007: Rowena Gerber, director of the Abess Center for Environmental Studies at Miami Country Day School, reports that her students’ solar cooking activities during Earth Day in New York’s Central Park were quite successful. At 6:00 a.m., Paul Munsen, president of Sun Ovens International, set up one of his company’s giant Villager Sun Ovens® as a teaser to draw a crowd. ABC television broadcast solar cooking updates throughout the day, at various stages of the process. During one segment, the anchor man was served a solar-cooked breakfast of sausage, eggs and cinnamon rolls! As the day progressed, thousands of people filed by to taste the food and learn about solar cooking. Gerber’s students brought some of the solar cookers they had made from recycled materials, and cooked chicken, sausage, hotdogs, corn-on-the-cob, fondue, cookies, bread, and lots of other goodies. Gerber’s students collected donations throughout the day as part of an ongoing effort to raise funds to send a Villager Sun Oven® to Mekhe, Senegal, for a program run by Abdoulaye Toure.
  • July 2007: Michael and David Hartkop have been selling organic, fair trade, solar-roasted coffee since 2004. Their company — Solar Roast Coffee — recently opened its first cafe, located in Pueblo, Colorado. Using a 7 sq. meter solar concentrator called Helios 3, they can roast 2.5 kilograms of coffee grains in 22 minutes. According to Solar Roast Coffee, their solar roasting prevents about 2 tons of carbon dioxide each year.
  • July 2007: The film "Suncookers," by filmmaker Catherine Scott, was selected for exhibition at Ithaca College’s 2007 Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival (FLEFF) in Ithaca, New York. According to its mission statement, FLEFF "embraces and interrogates sustainability across all of its forms: economic, social, ecological, political, cultural, technological, and aesthetic. The festival is in the spirit of UNESCO’s initiative on sustainable development." "Suncookers" documents the efforts of Solar Cookers International (SCI) to spread solar cooking and water pasteurization skills in Kenya. The festival describes the film as follows: "‘Suncookers’ follows SCI’s Margaret Owino as she trains people to use solar cookers in Nyakach, Kenya, and at the Kakuma refugee camp in northern Kenya. Small cardboard solar cookers are clean, smoke-free, and better for the environment. Deforestation for cooking has contributed to soil loss through erosion." The film received rave reviews from FLEFF co-directors Patricia Zimmermann and Tom Shevory. Says Zimmermann, "I simply loved 'Suncookers.' It’s amazingly engaging, and we found that our faculty in the health school were delighted to find a piece on this topic with such moxie and guts. Everyone wants a sun cooker. … The work has edge and discipline — plus, unlike so many films out there today, we learned so much from it." The film was also selected for inclusion in the 2nd International Film Festival on Water, in Bangalore, India. "Suncookers" is scheduled for DVD release later this summer. Visit FLEFF on the Web at http://www.ithaca.edu/fleff.
  • April 2007: Former Solar Cookers International Executive Director Bev Blum demonstrated solar cookers and built solar CooKits at a conference titled "Killer in the Kitchen: Indoor Air Pollution and Appropriate Technology Solutions" held last November in Alabama. The purpose of the conference was two-fold: to spotlight the global problem of indoor air pollution related to smoky cooking fires, and to explore proven appropriate technology solutions. Several technologies were presented, including fuel-efficient Rocket stoves, heat-retention cookers, and solar cookers. Solar Oven Society’s Martha Port provided additional information on solar cooking and solar water pasteurization. "There was a strong consensus that the ideal way to address smoke hazards is integrated introduction of fuel-efficient stoves, solar cookers and heat-retention cookers," Blum writes. "It was a great experience." The conference was sponsored by Servants in Faith and Technology (SIFAT), the Sparkman Center for Global Health, and the University of Alabama at Birmingham Framework Program. SIFAT offers courses on a range of topics -- including appropriate technology, international health, and microenterprise development -- from a Christian perspective.
  • April 2007: ClearDome Solar Thermal is adding a new product to its line of solar cookers: the SolaReflex Pyramid. As its name implies, the cooker is shaped like a pyramid. It consists of a base, three sides, and an adjustable front reflector. The removable, washable base is made of a non-toxic, heat-absorbing black plastic. Two of the three polycarbonate sides are lined with ClearDome’s highly-reflective SolaReflex foil, while the third side remains transparent. The cooker’s designer, Deris Jeannette, calls the cooker “an enclosed panel-type solar cooker.” Like most panel-type cookers, the SolaReflex Pyramid does not have to be rotated frequently since it accepts sunlight from a wide range of angles. Unlike most panel-type cookers, however, it is fully enclosed and therefore does not require the use of a transparent cooking bag. The SolaReflex Pyramid comes in two sizes: a one-liter model that stands 30 centimeters tall, and a four-liter model that stands 45 centimeters tall. Both are available in collapsible and non-collapsible forms. Larger models may be available in the future. Contact: ClearDome Solar Thermal
  • January 2007: CNN Money features Sun Ovens, January 26, 2007
  • November 2006: Veteran solar inventor Carroll Hampleman recommends aluminized polyester film (Mylar®) blankets as material for solar reflector applications. He tested the 52-inch x 82-inch blanket available for $2.50 from American Science and Surplus and found that, "The material is paper thin, can be cut with household scissors, yet cannot be torn by hand." He measured the material’s reflectivity and says, "It is as good as a clean mirror, approximately 86% or higher." Some aluminized polyester films do not retain their reflectivity very well, some melt when used as reflective surfaces inside solar box cookers, and some are difficult to glue to other materials. Solar Cookers International recommends testing samples of these products before committing to production using them. Contact: Carroll Hampelman. E-mail: trackthesun@yahoo.com
Christopher Nyerges with high school teacher Joan Stevens
Christopher Nyerges with high school teacher Joan Stevens
  • March 2006: Christopher Nyerges reports that solar cooker classes are offered at the School of Self-Reliance, an institute that has taught various aspects of solar use for over 30 years. The school offers classes and educational materials on a number of other self-reliance topics, including wild food foraging, primitive tools, orienteering, gardening, and conservation.

[edit] The History of Solar Cooking in the USA

Some of the many solar cooking non-governmental organizations based in the US are Solar Cookers International (SCI), Rotary International, the Sun Oven Society, the Solar Oven Society, and Solar Household Energy, Inc.

While much of the climate of North America is not suitable for year round solar cooking, a substantial portion, particularly the American Southwest, is very appropriate. Therefore, most activity in the use of solar cooking is reported from that area, and in California. The American southeastern states would also work, though the weather is somewhat less predictable and less activity has developed there.

No precise numbers are available, but estimates suggest that many households in Sacramento, California, home of Solar Cookers International, may at least occasionally use solar cookers. The electrical utility of the area, the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD), has been a strong supporter of solar energy usage. SMUD serves an area of more than a million people. Under earlier leadership, it pioneered the development of cleaner electricity generation, including building the first solar powered generating station in the United States. It has offered rebates for replacing old appliances with energy efficient equipment, it cooperating in planting of trees to lower the cost of air conditioning to consumers, as examples. For purposes of this report, it is important to note the strong support of SMUD for solar cooking education, including outreach to schools and community organizations. They have placed solar cookers with Scout troops, offered workshops in 65 schools of the area, and made available plans to build cookers to customers throughout their service area. In 1991, SMUD even produced a solar cooking cookbook. Reducing the use of electricity is in everyone's interest; this interesting example of a public utility's contribution to solar cooking as one contribution to solving the problem was noteworthy.

Considerable activity can also be found in the state of Arizona, probably the sunniest of the U.S. fifty states. The most important solar cooking fact about Arizona is that Barbara Kerr, the foremost expert on solar cooking in the U.S., lives in a small community in this state. She has created, and lives in, a Kerr-Cole Sustainable Living Center that demonstrates a wide range of ways to live lightly, rather than destructively, on the earth. Barbara is the author of several books [The full text of one is here] and articles on solar cooking, the creator and marketer (with her colleague, Sherry Cole) of a cardboard box cooker, the refiner of the CooKit as the first inexpensive but efficient solar cooker, and a never-ending source of information to those who seek her knowledge on the internet. A visit to Taylor, Arizona, is a trip to an important piece of solar cooking history.

Solar devices are also manufactured in this area. Early pioneers, Bob Larson and his wife Heather Larson, produced cookbooks and plans for solar dryers until their untimely deaths. Jay Campbell, a New Mexican engineer, has invented a range of cooking devices that won prizes for ingenuity and efficiency, though he is not a manufacturer but rather an idea person. One firm, Zone Works, makes and sells parabolics out of Albuquerque.

Unlikely as it may sound, the State of Minnesota has also made contributions to the development of solar cooker. Mike and Martha Port, founders of the Solar Oven Society, have worked in a variety of Central American and Caribbean nations on various projects. Recently, they completed research and development of a new cooker, manufactured from recycled soda bottles; the device will help to fill the gap between the very inexpensive (but not so long lasting) CooKit and the more expensive box or parabolic cookers. With the assistance of a small business development grant from the State of Minnesota, charitable contributions from a range of churches and organizations, and the dedicated volunteer labor of the Ports over many years, they have recently been able to begin the sale and marketing, both in the U.S. and abroad, of the Sport. A collectivity of Minnesota churches made possible the shipment of 400 unassembled cookers to Afghanistan for sale at a subsidized price to people whose need for cooking energy is great.

The Nevada Solar Cookers Association was formed to share recipes, ideas and stories, and to spread the news about solar cooking in their area [1].

While use of the solar cooker is not unknown in the U.S. it is by no means widely used. Most work of American promoters appears to have been devoted to projects in other parts of the world.

[edit] Climate, Culture, and Special Considerations

[edit] Documents

[edit] Reports

[edit] Articles in the media

[edit] Web pages

[edit] Contacts

[edit] NGOs based in or working in the USA

[edit] Individuals

[edit] Manufacturers and vendors

[edit] Gallery of manufacturers and vendors

Cookit from Solar Cookers International (order)

Hotpot from Solar Household Energy, Inc. (order)

Sport oven from Solar Oven Society (order)

Villager from Sun Ovens International

Sun oven from Sun Ovens International

Cooksack from Soltac

Smokeless Cooking Products (order)

Molly Baker Solar Oven

Solar Oven 2000 from The Gray Area (order)

A Better Focus Co.

ClearDome Solar Thermal

SolarBake Ovens from The Clever Idea Company

Hammacher-Schlemmer

Safe Water Systems (order)

Solar Solutions

Tulsi-Hybrid solar oven Sun BD Corporation

[edit] See Also

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