Solar Cooking
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Last edited: 15 September 2022      
Solar cooking in the Dominican Republic, 3-16-14
A Dominican Republic workshop participant (right) is introduced to the Global Sun Oven version of a solar box cooker by Louise Meyer.

Events[]

Featured international events[]

SEforAll logo, 7-25-24
  • 12-14 March 2025 (Bridgetown, Barbados): Sustainable Energy for All Global Forum - Building on Prime Minister Mottley’s Bridgetown Initiative for the reform of development finance, the Forum will address the challenge of how we can mobilize sufficient finance on the right terms to meet global goals, especially for the most underserved communities, countries and regions – such as Small Island Developing States. The event wil be co-hosted by Sustainable Energy for All and the Government of Barbados, led by Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley. Project site visits will take place Friday, 14 March. More information...

Requests for proposal[]

CONSOLFOOD 2025 logo, 4-28-24
  • The deadline for receipt of abstracts is 15th December 2024 - Advances in Solar Thermal Food Processing (CONSOLFOOD2025) is being planned for the 5th, 6th and 7th of May, 2025 in Marseille, France. The gathering expects to attract, once again, top experts from all over the world to present and discuss topics related to advances in solar food processing and solar cooking. An exhibition of solar cookers will be available for viewing during the conference at the nearby the solar restaurant Le Présage. The solar restaurant, along with the demonstration cookers, will produce a solar lunch. The whole conference program will be delivered in hybrid format, so those who register, but are not present at Marseille, will be able to participate online. Your abstracts should be sent via email to Celestino Ruivo at cruivo@ualg.pt in .doc, .docx, or pdf format. You should limit your abstract to 400 words, and follow these guidelines. All abstracts will be reviewed and assessed by members of the scientific committee. The organizing committee will inform each author whether their submitted abstract has been accepted. The committee encourages all authors to write an optional full length paper for inclusion in our conference proceedings. Successful authors should pre-record their presentations, using Powerpoint, or similar software. They will be invited to submit either a) a short presentation, of about 7 minutes duration, or b) a longer presentation, of about 25 minutes to cruivo@ualg.pt by 30th March 2025. The expected conference fee is 200 euros before 1st April 2025. Interested people facing financial difficulties should contact the organizing committee.
See also: Global Calendar of Events and past events in Dominican Republic

News[]

Solar Oven Partners, Dominican Republic workshop, 4-3-18

Solar Oven Partners UMC volunteers watch over young children while their parents attend a solar cooking workshop in the Dominican Republic. - Photo credit: Deb Holland

  • April 2018: United Methodist Volunteers introduce solar cooking in Monte Cristi - Solar Oven Partners UMC is based in Brookings, South Dakota (USA), and their history includes nearly two decades of solar cooking introduction in Haiti. They began a similar program in rural heavily deforested areas of the Dominican Republic in 2016. The team helps residents modify their approach to cooking to be able to cook traditional foods. Workshops participants who sign up to receive a solar cooker must pay $1,000 pesos, or about USD 20. Slowly, people are warming to the benefits of solar oven cooking. On a recent trip in March, 70-80 interested participants registered for the workshop, while that number had typically been 10-20 people. 162 solar ovens were sold at the workshop, a new record. Read more...
Dominican Republic solar cooking 2016, Yahoo News

Children wait for a solar cooked meal to finish cooking. Photo Credit: Yahoo News

  • September 2016: How Solar Ovens Are Changing Lives in the Dominican Republic - Idalia Batista bought her solar oven about six months ago and starts preparing lunch by 8 a.m. She’s adjusted her schedule to cook for her family of eight, preparing rice, beans, corn, and occasionally meat in the oven. While the food cooks, she does other chores around the house. She said she’s used the solar oven almost every day since she bought it. “There never was a day when it was too cloudy,” she said in Spanish through a translator. Before she bought the solar oven, she said, she would buy a 15-gallon tank of gas, costing her up to 1,600 pesos, or about $35, each month. Now that she uses a solar oven, she only buys a nine-gallon tank of gas to prepare other food on her gas stove, saving up to 380 pesos, or about $8, each month. Read more...
  • February 2016: Solar Oven Partners has published its February 2016 newsletter which details their recent solar cooking work in the Dominican Republic. Read more...
Solar Oven Partners December 2015

Solar Oven Partners with loaded shipping container

Sun and Ice, cookers headed to Dominican Republic, 8-18-14

Sun and Ice sent off 100 parabolic solar cookers to the Dominican Republic in June 2014.

  • March 2014: Recent use of solar cookers in the Dominican Republic - The USAID –TNC’s Environmental Protection Program are working together with the US Peace Corps volunteers and PRONATURA (a local NGO) to buffer the energy demands of rural communities. The goal is to reduce poverty, improve the quality of life for rural residents, and restoring the vegetation cover within the country. See more...
  • November 2011: Kevin Adair of El Fuego del Sol, reports they are working on a major proposal for USAID for Haiti featuring solar cooking. The request for proposals from USAID appears to be terribly skewed in the direction of low pressure gas (LPG), at the expense of considering other alternatives. There are currently active programs in Haiti and the Dominican Republic promoting solar cookers used in conjunction with alternative fuel-efficient stoves. This approach is explained in the Integrated Cooking Method. Read the USAID for HAITI Request for Proposals.
Solar cooking in the Dominican Republic, 3-16-14

A workshop participant is introduced to the Global Sun Oven version of a solar box cooker.

  • May 2011: Solar Household Energy (SHE) has begun a cooperative relationship with Grupo Jaragua, a highly respected non-governmental organization in the Dominican Republic, to support a solar cooking initiative. Grupo is aided by a Dominican eco-tourism and solar cooking advocate El Fuego del Sol, which conducts the local assembly and subsidized sale of Sun Oven box cookers in rural communities near the Haitian border. They are also supporting The Nature Conservancy’s office in the Dominican Republic to add the integrated cooking method as a component of their reforestation project in Haiti. Read more in the SHE spring update 2011.
Keven Adair with trainees 4-25-10

Kevin Adair with trainees

  • April 2010: Kevin Adair hopes to distribute an additional 300 Global Sun Ovens in the Dominican Republic and Haiti by mid-2010 (photo: Kevin Adair) While shuttling between jobs at a number of resorts in the Dominican Republic, entertainer Kevin Adair witnessed the daily struggles many women go through to collect cooking fuel and the health problems incurred by them and their children due to continuously breathing in smoke from cooking fires. Adair also sensed that the resort vacationers he was entertaining were not being offered opportunities to really experience the people, culture, history, and food of the Dominican Republic. Adair began to address these issues in 2005 when he purchased 40 acres of lush land near Higuey, Altagracia, and formed El Fuego del Sol — a “GeoTourism EcoVillage” that offers alternative travel experiences for individuals and groups looking to delve a bit deeper into the geographical character of the area and its people in an ecologically sustainable way. Partnering with Sun Ovens International, Adair opened Force of the Sun, a Global Sun Oven® manufacturing facility that serves the Dominican Republic and Haiti while providing local jobs that meet fair-trade standards. Visitors to El Fuego del Sol are served traditional meals cooked using a non-traditional fuel source — the sun. They not only taste how wonderful solar-cooked food can be, but also learn about the many health, economic, and environmental benefits of solar cooker use in the region. A requirement of staying at the center is the purchase of a Sun Oven that will be made available to a development organization or a local family in need. In 2007, to expand the reach of this solar cooker distribution program, Force of the Sun began working with Grupo Jaragua, a Dominican nonprofit organization that operates a number of community centers. They developed and continue to use a solar cooker training and purchasing system that involves subsidies and/or volunteer credits. Before a family can purchase or earn a solar cooker, they must learn to use it and cook several meals at the community center. According to Adair, potential solar cooker recipient families must “first cook with the Sun Ovens, preparing food for other volunteers, and do additional community service. … This keeps the Sun Oven from being taken for granted, and familiarizes the recipient with solar cooking techniques well in advance of their receiving a Sun Oven.” Next, a reasonable price is set for the subsidized solar cookers. Families are given the opportunity to lower that initial price by keeping a month-long log of wood and propane cooking fuel purchases. A payment plan is then established, wherein the families receive their solar cookers, and pay a weekly amount that is less than the amount of money saved in cooking fuel costs. If the family continues to log fuel purchases, along with solar cooker use, they can submit the journals for additional credits towards the purchase price based on the number of months tracked. The purchase price is further reduced or even waived by volunteering at the community center through activities like reading to children or planting trees. All family members can volunteer, but the men are especially encouraged to participate because they have been shown in this project to be the most hesitant. By requiring that community center meals be cooked with Sun Ovens whenever possible, families that volunteer become accustomed to the food and the solar cooking process. Volunteering to cook at the community center is a great way for families to become familiar with the technology and earn a Sun Oven. Using this distribution model, Adair hopes to provide an additional 300 Sun Ovens by mid-2010. Visit http://www.elFuegodelSol.com to learn how to buy a Sun Oven for a Dominican or Haitian family & Buy a Sun Oven of your own.
Sun oven in Dominican Republic
  • All American Sun Oven® — the durable box-type solar cookers developed by Sun Ovens International — are now being assembled in the Dominican Republic for use there and in Haiti, the Caribbean, and Central America. Kevin Adair, owner of Force of the Sun, says his company offers the ovens for sale at a significant discount to nonprofit organizations. He predicts the company will distribute 50,000 solar cookers regionally in the next three years. Force of the Sun began full production of Global Sun Ovens® in May 2006, and shipped its first cookers to Haiti in June. The factory was designed by solar cooking expert Jack Anderson. Additional space is available for rent to other nonprofits and manufacturers of ecologically sensitive products. Adair believes that by networking with other groups in the Dominican Republic, he will be able to spread the solar cooking idea faster. The company offers training to nonprofits that will distribute solar cookers. Force of the Sun is seeking volunteers to teach solar cooking skills in the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Contact: Kevin Adair, Force of the Sun, Higuey, Dominican Republic. E-mail: KevAdair@aol.com

History[]

For some years, Sophie Jakowska, an associate of the World Conservation Union, has demonstrated the use of solar cookers, in connection with children's exhibits at a new national park. The cookers generated much enthusiasm. Another individual has created a small organization, Estufas Solares Dominicanas, in several towns, with the purpose of demonstrating and promoting cookers. No large-scale project in the nation has been reported.

Archived articles

Climate and culture[]

Haiti solar radiation map

Solar Cookers International has rated Dominican Republic as the #24 country in the world in terms of solar cooking potential (See: The 25 countries with the most solar cooking potential). The estimated number of people in Dominican Republic with fuel scarcity but ample sun in 2020 is 1,700,000.

See also:

Resources[]

Possible funding[]

Facebook groups[]

Reports[]

Articles in the media[]

Audio and video[]

  • February 2021:
Solar_Oven_Partners-_Marj_Evans-de-Carpio_and_Gene_Bethke

Solar Oven Partners- Marj Evans-de-Carpio and Gene Bethke

discuss the organization's latest oven fabrication and training program with Luther Krueger

  • July 2011:
  • August 2009:
Haitian_Sun_Ovens

Haitian Sun Ovens

Visit the Dominican Republic and Haiti with Force of the Sun. Donate Sun Ovens to people in need.

External links[]

Contacts[]

The entities listed below are either based in Dominican Republic, or have initiated solar cooking projects there:

SCI Associates[]

NGOs[]

Manufacturers and vendors[]

Individuals[]

Government agencies[]

Educational institutions[]