Solar Cooking
Solar Cooking
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Last edited: 29 June 2020      
Fabiola Cuvi3
Solar cooked food is tasted at an IECAIM solar cooking workshop.

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 Ecuador

News[]

Cooker workshop, Funacion Inti Uma Ecuador, 1, 6-9-16

Workshop participants assemble a solar box cooker in Cubiche, northern Ecuador in June 2016. Photo credit - Fundación Inti Uma Ecuador

Cooker workshop, Funacion Inti Uma Ecuador, 2, 6-9-16,

Prof. Rodrigo Carpio, on the right, and participants display their assembled solar cookers in 2016. Photo credit - Fundación Inti Uma Ecuador

  • June 2016: Prof. Rodrigo Carpio reports that Fundación Inti Uma Ecuador continues to organize solar cooking workshops for community groups, schools, and universities. They began in earnest in 1990 and are going strong. He feels because the government of Ecuador subsidizes traditional fuels, it makes it more difficult to make the case for solar cooking, but he is seeing a shift in this thinking of "living behind reality". The April 2016 earthquake in Pederanales, Ecuador brought tragedy, but it also showed how off-grid technologies can play a role in meeting the future energy needs of the country.
Inti Uma November 2012
  • November 2012: At the invitation of Solar Cookers International, Rodrigo Carpio of Fundación Inti Uma Ecuador built a "Minimum Solar Box Cooker" and exhibited it for the first time on Earth Day in 1990. Thus began the "Green Decade" (1990-2000) in Ecuador. We took the path of the sun and created the foundation INTI UMA, Quechua words that evoke, for our actions, the illumination of the mind in the warmth of the heart. We attended the International Congress of solar cookers SCI sponsored and organized in Cuenca, Ecuador and the Second Conference for Latin America and the Caribbean in 1997. We have conducted 230 rural and community workshops to teach the making and using of solar cookers. We have taught students at the College Benigno Malo (approx. 5,000) and the University of Cuenca. We investigated appropriate designs equatorial sun oven Inti Churi (Son of the Sun), fruits and food dehydrator; Three in one hub - paraboloid - furnace, "Sunflower" hub; Oven José Sol, multi reflector, and recreation of the Solar CooKit. However, we have not developed self-sustaining projects due to lack of funding. In Ecuador LPG is subsidized, masking the real cost of cooking gas. The current petroleum bonanza in our country results in the inability of our government to understand the urgent need to replace fossil fuels with renewable energy.

History[]

Instituto Ecuatoriano de Investigaciones y Capacitación de la Mujer
IECAIM September 2008

IECAIM solar cooking workshop

In Ecuador, solar cooking has had support from the government, largely through the involvement of representatives of a semi-official unit known as IECAIM, or the Ecuadorian Research Institute for Women's Training. The group was organized to serve as a focal point for the country in connection with the work of the United Nations agency called the International Research and Training Institute for the Promotion of Women (INSTRAW), a specialized agency focused on the issues of women. One of its areas of interest was the use of new and renewable forms of energy, which encompassed solar cooking and solar drying of foods. IECAIM took up that challenge and has been the most active promoter of solar cooking in Ecuador, under the leadership of its Director, Fabiola Cuvi Ortiz. IECAIM has been active since 1986 in providing training courses for women on building and using solar cookers. Workrooms were established for meetings and training courses. Initially, 300 solar cookers were built, mostly women themselves, who were also trained in the new mode of cooking. Both newspapers and television media were used to publicize the efforts and results of this work.

Fabiola Cuvi2

IECAIM solar cooking workshop

After the pilot efforts proved to be very successful, promotional activity was carried out in many places where women and girls congregate, schools, factories, and women's groups. In a situation of unrest (a border dispute with Peru), cookers were provided for the displaced families. In the course of this work, four small production industries have been started, building cookers to sell to others, with work done by women. In total, nearly 1,000 cookers have been disseminated in Ecuador. The Institute has also published two books, one on solar oven construction, and the other on cooking.

Archived articles

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

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