Two billion people live in sun-rich regions of the world

Browse the countries on a globe or map; there’s a good chance that Solar Cookers International (SCI) has played a role in the advancement of solar cooking in many of them. You might be thinking that an impact of that magnitude is beyond SCI’s resources. It is, to a degree, but we’re stretching your donation dollars and multiplying their impact by providing several key services to solar cooking promoters across the globe. These services have enabled dissemination of tens of thousands of solar cookers worldwide. Often all it takes is a dedicated, energetic person or group, equipped with knowledge from SCI. The result? Healthier communities, greater economic and energy autonomy for families, and, of course, delicious food.

So, what are these key services SCI provides?

Let’s start with the Internet. The SCI-sponsored Solar Cooking Archive (www.solarcooking.org) is an unparalleled repository of solar cooking and solar water pasteurization information. It has been visited nearly 2 million times since its launch in 1996. On the Archive you can find construction plans for over two dozen models of solar cookers, an entire solar cookbook, and potentially life-saving resources for solar water pasteurization. If you’re new to solar cooking start with “Frequently Asked Questions,” which are available in several languages. In fact, large sections of the Archive have been translated (by humans!) into French, Spanish, Catalan, and Portuguese, and translations of articles can be found in languages as varied as Farsi, Chinese, Vietnamese, German, Italian, Urdu, and Arabic.

Also available via the Internet are several key booklets published by SCI to help solar cooking promoters succeed. Our plans booklet, “Solar Cookers: How to Make, Use and Enjoy,” provides step-by-step construction plans for panel-type and box-type solar cookers; our field guide, “Spreading Solar Cooking,” helps promoters plan solar cooking projects; and our trainer’s manual, “Teaching Solar Cooking,” helps solar cooking instructors stay on task and monitor their students’ progress. All three booklets are available for download on the Archive, or for sale — along with solar cookers, cookbooks and related supplies — inside the back cover of this publication and on SCI’s organizational Web site at www.solarcookers.org. Booklets are mailed free of charge to select individuals and groups in developing countries where Internet access is difficult.

SCI’s Solar Cooker Review is another tool aimed at helping independent solar cooking promoters everywhere. In it, promoters exchange stories about solar cooker technology and dissemination, and learn from the successes and challenges of others. Thanks to you, our members and donors, each Review is mailed free of charge to over 2,000 promoters and supporters outside the United States.

SCI’s international directory enables solar cooking promoters working in Mexico or Mali, Senegal or Sri Lanka, or most anywhere else, to communicate and collaborate with others in their area. The directory is updated periodically and posted on the Archive. The directory currently lists about 600 individuals and organizations from nearly 90 countries.

To hasten the global spread of solar cooking, SCI hosts regional and international solar cooking conferences, bringing promoters together to exchange strategies and explore collaborations. As reported in the August 2006 Solar Cooker Review, SCI recently spearheaded formation of an international association of solar cooking advocates and experts. As this association grows and its system of regional networks takes hold, promoters in many regions should find it easier to get regionally-specific information and guidance.

Last, but certainly not least, is SCI’s query response service. With custom responses to over 100 inquires each month, SCI has helped thousands of people answer important questions, find local experts, and access critical resources needed to successfully achieve their solar cooking goals.

Only with your continued support can SCI meet the ever-expanding needs of the worldwide solar cooking community.

The new Solar Cookers International Association, formed under the umbrella of Solar Cookers International, now has 19 organization members. This number will hopefully double by January 2007, when collective actions are launched. The volunteer steering committee is currently refining key advocacy messages and prioritizing policy makers to target.

Regional subgroups are expanding information exchange networks. The Asia network plans to meet in early 2007 in Kathmandu, Nepal. Action groups in humanitarian aid, health, business, education and youth, technology and food processing are also developing strategies for collective actions.

An Internet forum that will allow association members to freely share ideas and experiences has recently been launched at www.solarcooking.org/phpBB2/index.php. Association questions and comments can also be directed as follows:

• General: association@solarcookers.org (Bev Blum , USA)
• Africa: sci@iconnect.co.ke (Margaret Owino, Kenya)
• Asia and Oceania: solarnetworkasia@gmail.com (Jimmy McGilligan, India)
• Latin America and Iberia: pedro.serrano@usm.cl (Pedro Serrano, Chile)
• Europe and non-Latin America: joycejett@iprolink.ch (Joyce Jett, Switzerland)

Dear SCI Friends,

Thank you for your greetings, support, and patience during my initial months at Solar Cookers International (SCI). It has been a compressed period of travel and insights into SCI’s mission and programs.

One of my most enlightening experiences thus far was a visit to SCI’s Kenya programs, which are under the able leadership of Margaret Owino and her dedicated staff. Spokespersons we met in the rural communities agreed that solar cookers save hours of toil in searching for firewood, are safer than open fires that exacerbate the prevalence of illnesses and burns, and reduce destruction of diminishing tree resources. They also agreed that solar water pasteurization is reducing prevalence of diarrhea among children.

In one day, we ate three cake samples and turned down a fourth”

The thoughts about solar cooking, among community members, were consistent from village to village and were told with an enthusiasm and poignancy that was a direct result of personal experience. Every community generously offered solar-cooked foods such as ugali, fish, red meat, rice, potatoes, greens, eggs, and an assortment of vegetables. In one day, we ate three cake samples and turned down a fourth. Visits to these communities often started with a prayer, dancing, or singing, and sometimes all three.

Equally important are SCI programs that focus on education, advocacy and humanitarian assistance. In future editions of the Solar Cooker Review we will bring you more news of these efforts. For example:

• Referral information has been sent to individuals and organizations in 33 African countries since February 2006, and similar efforts have been made in other world regions.
• Teacher’s Kit information has now been sent to 22 countries and 40 U.S. states.
• SCI is partnering with KoZon Foundation to provide solar cookers and training to Darfur refugees in Chad.

Just as there are effective SCI advocacy groups on the eastern coast of the United States and in Europe, we hope to establish a counterpart group on the western coast of the United States to emulate some of the efforts of our Atlantic supporters. Approximately 80 countries are represented with consulates in California, to whom we will provide information about the practical use of solar energy to help alleviate conditions related to cooking fuel shortages and non-potable water.

There is a pressing need for an awareness effort across the United States and other world regions regarding the benefits of solar energy. One of the ideas we are exploring is a national or world solar day to demonstrate the use of solar energy for cooking and water pasteurization. It has been suggested that we start with efforts in state capitols and seek support from public utility companies as well as water distributors. We welcome your thoughts.

Priorities, consistent with SCI’s strategic planning, include:

• Development of new country programs;
• Expansion of our educational efforts; and
• Development of the Solar Cookers International Association.

Challenges include finding financial support for these efforts and collaboration opportunities with other organizations that manage complementary programs. Am I optimistic? Absolutely! We have a committed U.S. and Kenya staff, a dedicated group of supporters, and almost twenty years of experience to draw upon. I would like to offer special thanks to Bev Blum for her dedication.

A company in China reports that it produces 80,000 solar cookers per year, selling 50,000 in China and exporting 30,000 to countries such as Pakistan, India, the United States, and Brazil. Tom Rick, a spokesman for the Yancheng Sangli Solar Energy Co., Ltd., says that 1.84 million solar cookers have been produced by the company since it began manufacturing them in 1983.

The concentrator-type solar cookers are comprised of two reflectors totaling 1.5 square meters of collection area. The reflectors are made of thin cast iron with a highly reflective aluminum coating. Each reflector focuses a concentrated beam of light onto an area five centimeters in diameter under the cooking pot. The cooker is rated at 800 watts and is designed so that the reflectors are close to the ground, giving the cooker a low center of gravity for greater stability in wind.

The company reportedly was the first to standardize production of solar cookers in China, and its cookers were selected by the Chinese government for distribution in fuelapped Tibet. The sunny western provinces of China, such as Sichuan, Xinjiang, and Guizhou, are other important markets for the cookers.

According to Rick, most of the exported cookers are purchased by commercial dealers who re-sell the cookers to consumers.

For export, the unit price is about US $105 if delivered to Shanghai. The minimum purchase is 10 units at a time in a package that weighs about 500 kilograms (1,100 pounds). Shipping costs to other locations vary. For example, shipping 10 units to Karachi, Pakistan may only add about $18 to the price of the cookers, while shipping to Lagos, Nigeria will add close to $260. National governments might impose additional customs fees on imported cookers. The cookers must be assembled after delivery.

Readers of the Solar Cooker Review have seen pictures of the Sangli cookers in the August 2006 edition, as used by the Sun Fire Cooking project in Somalia (see photo at right).

Solar Cookers International’s eastern Africa director, Margaret Owino, has been to the Sun Fire Cooking project and has seen the Sangli cookers. She expressed some concerns about the size and weight of the cookers, noting that they would be hard to move into a small cottage or hut when not in use. Her conclusion was that they would be suitable for areas where people feel they can safely leave the cookers outside over night.

James Lindsay, one of the principles of the Sun Fire Cooking project in Somalia, is much more upbeat about the Sangli cookers. The choice of the Chinese cookers for the Somalia project, he says, “was the result of a search … over 10 years’ time to find an effective cooker that people in Africa like using.

“Somalis were interested only in using [this] type of solar cooker because its cooking speed is comparable to charcoal,” he adds. “The Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children, in its March 2006 report Beyond Firewood, reached a similar conclusion.”

Sun Fire Cooking has tested the dual reflector “butterfly” style cooker produced by Sangli in comparison with other concentrator-type solar cookers of parabolic shape. Sun Fire reports that the butterfly cooker boiled a liter of water in seven minutes, compared to 42 minutes for the parabolic cooker.

"Both solar cookers have been left outside in an open courtyard in Bosaso, Somalia for over six years,” Lindsay reports, attesting to both the durability of the cookers and to the fact that, at least in Bosaso, the cookers are not stolen if left out at night.

According to Lindsay, the weight of the cookers not only makes them more stable in the wind, but discourages theft. He notes they can also be chained and locked, but says that so far theft has not been an issue.

“The only limitation on the use of the [Sangli] solar cooker,” Lindsay says, “aside from rainy and overcast days, is where housing is so crowded that there is not sufficient room for the solar cooker to receive direct sunlight during the day. Most village and rural housing in eastern Africa does have sufficient space.”

Rick of Sangli says his company also produces a parabolic cooker that weighs 20 kilograms (44 pounds) instead of 50 kilograms (110 pounds). He adds that his company does more than just sell the cookers to wholesalers; it helps “open up the solar market together with the client.”

Contact: Yancheng Sangli Solar Energy Co., Ltd., No.8 Shenzhou Road, the New District of Yandu County, Yancheng, Jiangsu Province, China. Tel: 86-515-8552974 or 86-15951557758, fax: 86-515-8562977, e-mail: sljeans@yahoo.com.cn, Web: www.chinasangli.com/website/index.htm

Have you visited the Solar Cooking Archive lately? The Web site (www.solarcooking.org) has grown exponentially since its launch over a decade ago, and it is nearing a milestone: 2 million visits! This invaluable Internet resource, sponsored by Solar Cookers International (SCI), is undergoing some exciting changes aimed at enhancing its functionality. This is not an easy task given the sheer volume of content on the site, as well as the diverse needs of its end users.

During the coming months we will work to accomplish three goals:

1. Reorganization of the site for easier and quicker access to pertinent information

We have already begun this process. The first step was to develop a keyword system that represents solar cooking and solar water pasteurization concepts. Next, we grouped keywords into five major headings:

• Solar cooking: the basics
• Solar cooking: in depth
• Solar water pasteurization
• Related technologies
• Teaching and promotion

This structure serves as the basis for the new home page navigation. (See image.) Future content will be organized following this keyword system, allowing for quick access to relevant information. In addition, we are beginning to tag content with date, country, language, and author information, and hope to develop a system that allows content to be sorted by any or all of these designations.

2. Creation of centralized Internet forums for improved communication

The Archive has a diverse audience — solar cooks and potential solar cooks, solar cooking promoters and advocates, teachers and students, researchers, journalists, etc. One thing they share, however, is the need to communicate. They need a place to ask questions, to share ideas, and to collaborate.

Regional and topical discussion forums have recently been added to the Archive. Please visit www.solarcooking.org/phpBB2/index.php to register and begin contributing to these discussions. (Note: You do not have to register to simply browse the discussions.)

3. Expansion of content for greater usefulness

The Archive contains a wealth of knowledge, but inevitably there are some outdated materials and information gaps. We will work to fill those gaps by updating or adding a number of quality documents and multimedia files.

A recent example of expanded content is a series of audio interviews with solar cooking experts and promoters from around the world. These interviews, conducted by Webmaster Tom Sponheim, are on the Archive at www.solarcooking.org/media/broadcast.

Additionally, we are also liberating hundreds of documents from our file drawers and will gradually be uploading them to the Archive.

Though sponsored and maintained by SCI, the Solar Cooking Archive is a resource for everyone. It would not be what it is today without input and content from you, the end users of the site. If you haven’t done so already, we encourage you to spend some time using the Archive and to provide feedback as to its usefulness and ways it can be improved. Please also think about what you can contribute, in terms of content, time, and/or funds, to help make the Archive even better.

by Ed Carswell, film director/producer

Upon arrival in Accra, Ghana I was to meet a fellow named “Old Man.” I’ll admit I was a bit concerned, traveling alone and with all of my camera gear. However, Old Man greeted me at the airport with a wide Ghanaian smile and I instantly felt welcome and safe. Old Man insisted on calling me Mr. Edwin, and, although his real name is Ibrahim, he insisted I call him Old Man. As he drove he talked about his enthusiasm for solar cooking, and he invited me to stay at his home. Old Man led me through a maze of markets and helped me acquire materials to make CooKits (simple panel-type solar cookers). After a heart-warming stay in Accra, Old Man saw me off on a bus to Tamale, in northern Ghana.

In Tamale, Dr. Mercy Bannerman has been promoting solar water pasteurization with CooKits for years. Northern Ghana is second only to Sudan in the number of guinea worm infections, and Dr. Bannerman is trying to put a stop to it. Guinea worm is a parasite that effect humans through the contamination of drinking water.

Dr. Bannerman met me for a video interview and spoke of her successes and challenges. “When I first showed up in the region with the cooker, people had a good laugh” she said. “People would say if the sun could cook, we’d all be cooked by now!”

Dr. Bannerman’s tenacity gave me confidence to continue north to Bolgatanga, where Canada World Youth has an exchange program comprised of nine Ghanaians and nine Canadians ages 17 to 22. Together we built 10 CooKits and organized a solar cooking demonstration for educators and community leaders. “It’s very hot! Now, I believe!” exclaimed Joseph Azumah, of the Red Cross.

The community demonstration was a key factor in the success of the program. The youth and teachers alike were empowered, and gained the confidence to spread the message of solar cooking. After four months I returned home and produced a 27-minute film, "Thirsty Planet," about solar water pasteurization in West Africa.

[Editor’s note: “Thirsty Planet” and other products can be purchased on-line at http://65.108.108.197/catalog/thirstyplanetdvd-p-31.html?osCsid=ee7f2ed77bdb76a1cce73bc1342e8a59]

by Margaret Owino, SCI eastern Africa director

As development practitioners often quip, “A well designed project must have inbuilt phase-out systems.” Several elements of Solar Cookers International’s Sunny Solutions project in western Kenya will help provide a smooth transition at phase-out.

1. Solar Cooker Representative (SCOREP) empowerment. Each of the 14 locations in Nyakach, Kenya has a local SCOREP. She is a certified trainer, and she can give solar cooking demonstrations and speeches at all levels of the community strata. In her possession she has a training kit and food handling certification from the Ministry of Health. In addition, she has replacement solar cooking bags readily available.
2. Youth education. In partnership with their supervisors, SCOREPS teach local school children, enhancing knowledge of solar cooking and sustainable living.
3. Local production. The OYWA CooKit is assembled by SCOREPS in Nyakach at strategic locations for ease of access. This lifelong skill will enable the women to build solar cookers whenever materials are available.
4. Retail shops. Each of the four zones in Nyakach have an energy shop, staffed by a “stockist.” The shops serve as a meeting point for the SCOREPS in a given zone, and are mini factories for CooKit assembly. The shops stock all the supplies necessary for solar cooking and solar cooker construction, and even offer pot painting services to users. The shops are brightly painted with CooKit graphics and slogans of solar cooking and solar water pasteurization. For additional revenue, the shops offer certain fast moving items and other cooking products for sale. The shops are a wonderful resource for new solar cooks with questions about solar cooking or related technologies. (Photo to right shows local energy shops provide solar cooking products and resources to the Nyakach community
.)
5. Micro lending. Solar Cookers International (SCI) assisted the SCOREPS in registering with a local micro lending institution. With additional capital, the SCOREPS can expand their income generating activities by selling additional CooKits, solar-cooked foods, or other goods.
6. Local workforce. Since most of the SCOREPS have strong family ties to the Nyakach area, they will probably never relocate. This means their expertise in solar cooking will remain in the community. The goodwill the project enjoys from other development practitioners and government operatives further strengthens the local sustainability of the project.

SCI is poised to take Sunny Solutions to the next level by increasing the capacity of SCOREPS to serve areas neighboring Nyakach. Expansion of this initiative to two new sites is already underway. An evaluation of the Sunny Solutions project is forthcoming, perhaps in late 2007.

by Jose Albano, solar cooker promoter

Salete Salomoni, just a friend’s friend at the time, stopped by my house a few months ago for lunch. Salad aside, all of the food was cooked in my two solar box cookers. Salete was very excited to see how the cookers worked and amazed when told I had collected most of the construction materials from the garbage: cardboard boxes, sheet metal, broom sticks, newspaper, etc.

Salete, a social worker, had helped a group of “garbage collectors” that push carts in the outskirts of town (Parque Santa Rosa) to collect and sort recyclable materials for sale to recycling plants. Suddenly, an idea struck her: Would I be interested in teaching this group how to make and use solar cookers in their garbage sorting facility?

Besides their own benefit, she thought, using the cookers in their low-income neighborhood might get friends and relatives interested in solar cooking. The garbage collectors could sell solar cookers they make using abundant materials they pick up daily on the streets.

Immediately we saw the opportunity to teach solar cooking skills to a group that could benefit greatly. I agreed to cooperate, and Salete wrote a project proposal that was readily accepted by the social assistance agency responsible for the garbage sorting facility. The agency, Caritas, provided funds to buy lidded cooking pots, black paint, transparent plastic glazing, aluminum foil, and glue, as well as groceries for a training workshop. All other materials would come from collected garbage.

Salete researched solar cookers on the Internet. She downloaded information from the Solar Cooking Archive (www.solarcooking.org), the site that inspired me to make my solar cookers.

We conducted a four-day workshop for the garbage collectors, and ultimately constructed 23 solar box cookers, which the proud owners rolled home on their garbage collection carts. Each participant was given a couple of cooking pots (painted black), a few basic recipes and a set of practical instructions on solar box cooking.

We are eager to know whether the novelty will catch and spread in the outskirts of Fortaleza, in northeastern Brazil. Located less than 4° south of the equator, the sun shines most days in Fortaleza, making it one of the best areas in the world for solar cooking.

Contact: Jose Albano, Rua Mar del Plata, 265, Lagoa Redonda, 60832-300 Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil. Tel: (85) 3476 8625, e-mail: jalbanobr@yahoo.com.br

[Editor’s note: As reported in the March 2006 Solar Cooker Review, Vajra Foundation Nepal (VFN) was recently awarded nearly $1 million to expand its solar cooker program to six additional Bhutanese refugee camps in Nepal. What follows is based on a report of VFN’s decade-long solar cooking program by Dor Bahadur Bhandari of VFN; Maarten Olthof of Vajra Foundation Holland (VFH); and Ralph Lindeboom, a science and policy student.]

Maarten Olthof (left) with a refugee family and their solar cooker (photo: Vajra Foundation)

Bhutanese exiles have sought refuge in Nepal since 1990. Today, more than 100,000 Bhutanese refugees live in seven camps in southeastern Nepal. Cooking fuel shortages have led to rising deforestation in the areas around the camps. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has provided cooking kerosene to the refugees, helping to discourage the collection of firewood. But as kerosene prices rose, its delivery became uncertain. Each year, kerosene claimed a larger portion of UNHCR’s shrinking budget. Alternatives to cooking with kerosene had to be found. Over the past several years, Vajra Foundation has worked tirelessly to promote an alternative: solar energy.

In 1996, biologist Maarten Olthof launched a few small-scale solar box cooker projects in Nepalese villages. After initial enthusiasm among the local users, the cookers were neglected.

Looking for advice, Olthof attended the third international conference on solar cookers, held the following year in Coimbatore, India. Ramkaji Paudel, a Nepalese citizen, accompanied him. With advice from former Solar Cookers International Executive Director Bev Blum, as well as other conference participants, Olthof and Paudel drafted a plan to teach solar cooking to Bhutanese refugees living in Nepal and formed the Vajra Foundation Holland in the Netherlands.

In 1998 VFH received funds from the Dutch Refugee Foundation for a pilot refugee project. Vajra Foundation Nepal was established to monitor the activities locally, and several Nepalese engineers were selected to teach the refugees to build solar box cookers. Two hundred thirty-four box-type solar cookers and 14 parabolic-type solar cookers were distributed in Beldangi-I, one of the seven Bhutanese refugee camps in southeastern Nepal. To receive a solar cooker, refugees had to pay a symbolic fee and sign a use and maintenance agreement.

By 1999 Vajra Foundation had determined that the box-type solar cookers they were promoting were not holding up well — hinges were rusting, reflectors and glazing were breaking. Other solar cookers were tried, including cardboard CooKits and solar cookers made of earthen materials, but they were also vulnerable to damage and not as efficient as hoped. In the end, EG-Solar’s SK14 parabolic-type solar cookers proved to be a good combination of durability and efficiency, and a good match for traditional Bhutanese foods.

Parabolic cookers are generally more expensive, but their efficiency allows for sharing among families, which lowers the per-family cost somewhat. Though the reflectors were imported from Germany, the stands were manufactured locally, also helping to keep costs down.

The cookers proved popular, and demand quickly outgrew supply. Families that didn’t use their cookers, or didn’t maintain them according to signed user agreements, had to return their cookers to Vajra Foundation to be redistributed.

While exploring ways to expand the project, VFN worked on an awareness creation campaign that included regular solar cooker demonstrations and lunches for refugees, government officials, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) including UNHCR, Lutheran World Federation, Oxfam, and the Nepal Red Cross Society. Continued solar cooker use was encouraged through participation in cooking groups, as well as contests.

Hay boxes keep pots of food warm for several hours (photo: Vajra Foundation)

To keep food warm after sundown, when evening meals are commonly eaten, VFN introduced insulated “hay boxes” in which pots of food can be stored. These devices not only keep food warm for up to eight hours, but can also be used to continue the cooking process after pots have been removed from the heat source.

From 2001 to 2003 several hundred solar cookers, hay boxes and black painted pots were distributed, covering the main sectors of Beldangi-I camp. EG-Solar provided some of the cooker materials free of charge.

To reduce variations caused by the manual nature of the cooker construction process, two Dutch mechanical engineering students developed an assembly system using molds for production of the cooker stand, ultimately reducing production time as well.

Napalese locals began to take more interest in the project, as did UNHCR officials, and Vajra Foundation won awards in both Nepal and the Netherlands. This recognition paved the way for a future donation from the Dutch Refugee Foundation. During this period improvements were made in the training procedures for new solar cooks and refugee supervisors.

Three hundred SK14s and twice as many hay boxes were distributed in 2004. By the end of 2005 about 12,000 refugees were benefiting from the solar cookers.

In eastern Nepal, UNHCR began to consider supporting the project to help offset the rising cost of kerosene and their own shrinking budget. Two Dutch students from Utrecht University surveyed 100 refugees about their solar cooker, kerosene and firewood usage, and found that solar cookers could save 3.14 kilograms of CO₂ per meal compared to cooking with firewood, and 0.64 kilograms compared to kerosene. (Average firewood usage was 2.25 kilograms per meal.) Solar cookers could be used for approximately seven months each year in the camp, and their purchase cost could be recouped in kerosene savings in just over two years.

In 2006 both UNHCR and the Dutch Refugee Foundation asked Vajra Foundation to submit a proposal to expand the solar cooker program to the other six Bhutanese refugee camps in the area. Ultimately, the Dutch Postcode Lottery and the Dutch Refugee Foundation will provide nearly $1 million for the program, enough to disseminate 6,300 solar cookers and 12,000 hay boxes to families in the camps as well as provide extensive use and maintenance training. (Each cooker will be shared by two families.)

Project leaders Maarten Olthof from the Netherlands, and Dor Bahadur Bhandari and Ramkaji Paudel from Nepal, estimate that 100,000 refugees will benefit from the solar cookers by 2008. A new parabolic solar cooker from the German company Sun and Ice will be used to meet this large demand. The cooker — called the “LongLife Premium 14” — uses less material and simpler construction equipment than the SK14.

Vajra Foundation considers five factors as having been essential to its successes:

From the start Vajra Foundation has considered solar cookers to be an appropriate technology for the Bhutanese refugees. Whereas other solar cooking projects have folded after minor setbacks, Vajra Foundation has fully supported the project from day one. As stated in a Vajra Foundation report, “How can one expect local people to be in favor of solar cooking when the NGO introducing it does not support it fully?”

As the program has progressed, adjustments have been made to the solar cookers to better meet the needs of the users and assemblers. Local materials have been used when possible to help lower costs. Design modifications — like cooker frame adjustments — have been incorporated as needs were assessed. Perhaps most importantly, the hay box was introduced as a compatible technology, addressing the need for warm food after sundown as well as the need to share solar cookers between families. Vajra Foundation believes strongly in pairing hay boxes with solar cookers, stating, “They are two sides of the same coin: one cannot go without the other.”

Refugees have been involved in the project from the start, setting up user meetings, trainings, etc. Feedback from the users is incorporated into the project plans, helping to identify technological and programmatic areas for improvement.

The relationship between the Holland branch and the Nepal branch of the organization was critical. While VFH had access to funds and specialist knowledge, VFN knew how to best incorporate solar cooking into lives of Nepalese and Bhutanese refugees. While VFH solicited and organized volunteers, VFN hosted them with great care and was eager to learn from them.

The chairmen of both foundations, Ramkaji Paudel and Maarten Olthof, were the backbone of the project. Jointly, the two visited partner agencies, refugee camps, workshops, etc., and solved issues that arose. Importantly, responsibilities were given to staff members, such as Dor Bahadur Bhandari, and to the refugees, who did the fieldwork and organized solar demonstrations and lunches that ultimately convinced authorities that the project was worth supporting.

With proper monitoring, follow up, and evaluation, useful program adjustments are made continuously. Regular visits with the new solar cooks highlighted areas of need, as did feedback from user group meetings. Weather records were kept for purposes of determining actual solar cooker use versus potential solar cooker use. Funds were tracked and adjustments made to maximize their use.

Contact: Maarten Olthof, Vajra Foundation Holland, Oudegracht 246-B, 3511 NV Utrecht, Netherlands. Tel: 31302300741, fax: 31302300830, e-mail: olthof@vajra.nl, Web: www.vajra.nl

Barbara Kerr received the “Women in Solar Energy” award from the American Solar Energy Society (ASES) last July. The award “recognizes a woman who has contributed significantly to the acceptance and advancement of women in solar by any of the following means: advocacy, education, technical efforts, contracting or implementing social change.”

An early cardboard solar box cooker developed by Barbara Kerr (left) and Sherry Cole.

From an ASES news release: “Barbara Kerr is recognized as one of the primary founders of the solar cooking movement. In the early 1970s she designed a cardboard solar box cooker and an early solar wall oven.” She later helped develop a panel-type solar cooker known as the CooKit. The release continues, “Solar cookers are in widespread use in Africa and elsewhere, especially in refugee camps, both to cook food and to pasteurize water. [Her] designs are currently used and promoted by Solar Cookers International, of which Kerr was a founding board member. She co-founded the Kerr-Cole Sustainable Living Center in Taylor, Arizona (USA), at which numerous solar applications and sustainable practices can be learned.”

Ulrich Oehler, developer of a world famous solar box cooker and founder of the influential ULOG group of solar energy promoters, died peacefully on 6 August, 2006.

Oehler enjoyed a long, successful career in industrial engineering and design before moving with his wife Lisel in 1974 to Botswana, where they served as development aides. Oehler, believing that technical accomplishments would have no meaning if the earth was destroyed, sought to work for a better world environment.

In Botswana, a Canadian teacher named Richard Carothers introduced solar energy applications to the Oehlers. They tried promoting solar cooking in Botswana, but were met with skepticism from Botswanans who asked whether solar cookers were used in Switzerland.

In 1980, the Oehlers returned to Switzerland where they built their first solar cooker. By 1984, Oehler had developed a design for a sturdy, effective box cooker that was adaptable to a variety of materials and common hand-crafting skills. He also founded a group that would eventually take its name from the initials of Ulrich and Lisel Oehler. ULOG developed a variety of box cooker designs and a solar food dryer, and also promoted German SK14 parabolic-type cookers and Scheffler community solar kitchens.

This lightweight, ULOG-style solar cooker is designed for portability.

ULOG members have spread thousands of solar cookers in many countries, including Argentina, Burkina Faso, Guinea, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Mali, and Sudan. The Cuisine Solaire website notes that “ULOG clone” solar box cookers are sold over the Internet.

ULOG members follow their founder’s counsel to “practice what you preach” and endeavor to reduce their own ecological impacts in the world and to promote solar cooking in Switzerland. Over 10,000 solar cookers have been sold in Switzerland, making that nation one of the highest per capita users of solar cookers in the world, despite its distance from the equator.

Oehler was as much a great collaborator as a greater designer. Many of the people he inspired and has partnered with are among the leading names of today’s solar cooker movement, such as Wolfgang Scheffler, Michael Götz, and Christine Lippold. Organizations such as Globosol, Solare Brucke, Solar Energy for West Africa, VER-Solaire and others are closely associated with ULOG and many others have felt its influence.

Kawesa Mukasa of Uganda was a graduate student in Switzerland in the early 1990s when Oehler introduced him to solar cooking. Mukasa now heads one of the leading solar cooker organizations in Africa. Jean-Claude Pulfer, once a protégé of Oehler, now works in Paraguay where he is a partner in one of the most successful solar cooker programs in South America.

With so many people following in his footsteps, the impact of Oehler’s work will not only live on, it will grow far, far greater in years to come.

According to Darwin Curtis (in photo with HotPot), founder and president of Solar Household Energy (SHE), World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz recently singled out SHE’s “HotPot” solar cooker as an example of a product that “helps poor people seize the opportunities they need to transform their lives and to create better futures for their children.”

Speaking at World Bank headquarters in May, at a ceremony for the latest round of Development Marketplace grant winners, of which SHE was a grant recipient in 2004 for work in Mexico, Wolfowitz said that some grant winners like SHE “have gone on to achieve remarkable results,” citing SHE’s HotPot project in Mexico as one of two projects worthy of mention.

Noting that one-third of the world’s population still relies on firewood for cooking, and that sufficient sunlight exists in 67 countries to facilitate solar cooking, Wolfowitz told the Washington, DC audience that SHE “brought those two facts together to make an affordable, efficient, healthier solution … the HotPot.”