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Last edited: 2 September 2025
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 The Bethel Business and Community Development Centre has built a prototype parabolic trough system that he is using to operate a steady cottage bread and pastry baking business. The device can bake 25-40 kilogram loaves in a day (and even a bit more on a perfect day). It also does pastries beautifully. The solar bread baker works so well, that he has invested in a 20-liter dough mixer, which also operates off his house’s PV system.
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Events[]
Karabo Motsamai, founder of the Walker Solar Bakery, Photo credit: Walker Solar Bakery
- Training program to begin on 1 September 2025 at the Walker Solar Bakery (Matsoatlareng village, Maseru) - Each two-week class will be open to twenty students, typically youth and women, at the Walker Solar Bakery. Learn to use and care for the solar ovens and basic business skills. The program is set to run September through November 2025. Contact Karabo Motsamai at the bakery or at motsamaikarabo51@gmail.com to learn more.
Featured international events[]
- 3-7 November 2025 (Fortaleza, Brazil): Solar World Congress 2025 - The Solar World Congress (SWC) is the official congress of the International Solar Energy Society (ISES), held every two years since 1970. It is the world’s largest event for scientific and technological dissemination in the field of solar energy conversion technologies, along with other renewable energy sources. The congress gathers professors, researchers, students, public managers, company representatives, and other professionals in this field. SWC 2025 will take place at a crucial time for global discussions on the advancement of renewable energy, as COP30 will take place in Belem, Brazil only a few days after SWC 2025 closes. (Early bird registration by 7 August 2025) More information...
- NEW: 10-21 November 2025 (Belém, Brazil):The Conference of the Parties (COP30) - The largest global United Nations event for discussions and negotiations on climate change. COP is held annually, with the presidency rotating among the five UN-recognized regions. In 2025, Brazil will have the honor of hosting the 30th Conference of the Parties (COP30). The chosen city will provide the world with a unique platform to discuss climate solutions, firmly rooted in the heart of the Amazon. The event will gather world leaders, ministers and representatives of international organizations to discuss how to tackle the climate crisis through fair and sustainable energy transitions, as well as forest and biodiversity conservation. Solar Cookers International's, Executive Director, Caitlyn Hughes, Science Director, Dr. Alan Bigelow, and Strategic Partnerships Manager, Keith Wingeard, will be representing the solar cooking community. The SCI team will showcase the success of new programs in Mali and the Central African Republic, along with progress from the Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya. See the schedule of SCI's participation and presentations...
- See also: Global Calendar of Events and past events in Lesotho
News[]
- September 2025: Classes have begun at the Walker Solar Bakery! - Bakery founder, Karabo Motsamai, reports that the first set of classes have begun in Lesotho. During which, participants learned the importance of clean cooking and baking, and the benefits of cooking and baking with solar technology. Two teams are currently participating, one is from Lesotho and the other is from Botswana.
Participants gather to check out the solar trough cookers
Gathering to review material and exchange notes
July 2025: New solar bakery in Maseru - The Walker Solar Bakery is a solar‑powered community bakery located in Matsoatlareng village, Maseru, Lesotho. It was launched in 2023 by Karabo Motsamai, with a mandate to combine a love for baking with green energy to create a sustainable business that will benefit both the environment and local economy. To help tackle youth unemployment in the area, the bakery offers on-site training for small groups, typically a two-week program with hands-on experience learning to bake with solar ovens and learn basic business skills. With over 300 days of full sun per year in Matsoatlareng, natural gas ovens are rarely required for back-up. Karabo would like to expand the production capabilities of the bakery and is seeking interested partners.
Karabo Motsamai checks on the solar trough cooker
Loading the solar box oven
Assistants display the wares
- June 2016: The Bethel Business and Community Development Centre has won the 2016 Energy Global Award for Lesotho.
The Sunstoves are ready to begin baking bread.
- February 2014: Margaret Bennett reports on a SunStove training that took place earlier this month in Lesotho. The workshop was run by two ladies from Quebec, Canada, and funded by the Raging Grannies of Vancouver. Twenty-five SunStoves were set out with tiles to preheat with soup dishes placed in the sun to warm the water/oil mixture for the Bohobe (bread) recipe. While the bread baked, we talked - repeating the lessons of the week and answering questions. Everyone is keen to dry fruit in the SunStove & we are excited to hear the results. Keke informed us that fruit buyers in Mohales Hoek pay 50 rand a kilo for dried fruit, so this could be an income-generator for some of these grandparents and children. Many thanks to Carol and Christine, trainers, solar cooks, and carpenters.
Parabolic trough cooker bakes 10 loaves of bread at one time.
- April 2008: Ivan Yaholnitsky has built a proto-type parabolic trough system that he is using to operate a steady cottage bread and pastry baking business. The device can bake 25-40, 1000g loaves (depending on the season) in a day (and even a bit more on a perfect day). It also bakes pastries beautifully. The solar bread baker works so well, that he has invested in a 20 liter dough mixer, which also operates off his house’s PV system.
History[]
A. A. Eberhard reported in the 1994 Proceedings of the Eighth Biennial Congress of the International Solar Energy Society, that a group of South Africans attempted to introduce solar cooking in the mountains of Lesotho. The project was not a success from Eberhard's perspective, confirmed by two others on their return from a Peace Corps assignment and academic work in the country. Their analysis of reasons, cast in terms of Rogers' 1983 theory on the diffusion of innovation, concluded, innovation basically cannot be introduced by foreigners. They then proceeded to discuss successful introduction of devices by others with foreign sounding names, like Yaholnitsky and Scott, who have, in fact, been more successful. (Scott, though not a Basotho, was born there.) Their approaches to introducing solar cooking were very practical, such as teaching women how to cook the basic staple of the country, and using local people as aides and trainers. All of this was a precursor to the current situation in Lesotho.
The Bethel Business and Community Development Centre has been the center of solar cooking activity for this small nation. It is located in Moorosi, Lethotha. The Centre, which began in 1998, provides adult education of many applied types, attempting to inculcate practical skills and teamwork in its young adult student body. The center has demonstrated by its own use, topics such as water resource development and utilization, improvement of rural infrastructure, enhancement of village design, solar energy utilization, and environmental regeneration. Some of the courses of study have given students professional training and skills; others are short courses for refreshing already learned skills and exposure to new ideas in the various fields. The campus included residential quarters for both the full time and the short-term students.
The unit that has focused on solar technology is called Solar Soft. Representatives of the group were present at the world meeting in Kimberley, South Africa. The design they were using was a box cooker mounted on a heavy pipe set into a ground base, which allowed it to be turned to follow the sun. Solar Cookers International personnel made certain they had a CooKit to take home and experiment with.) A small but steady demand for cookers, which were made by craftsmen at the Center, has been generated. Their strategy has been to target a better-educated, middle-class audience, touting environmental arguments rather than fuel savings. They demonstrated that cookers can be sold to this audience. Students at the college prepared lunches every day of the school week using solar cookers. A strength of the program has been situating solar cooking firmly in the range of other solar and renewable modes of operating, thereby providing students with multiple and integrated lessons for their later life.
- Main article: History of solar cooking
Archived articles
Climate and culture[]
- The climate of Lesotho - Wikipedia
- Lesotho Energy Situation - Energypedia
- Solar cooker dissemination and cultural variables
Resources[]
Possible funding[]
Reports[]
Articles in the media[]
- February 2018: Solar cooker donations help Lesotho grannies - The Citizen
- February 2016: Lesotho’s 'green drought' pushes thousands deeper into hunger - The Guardian
Facebook groups[]
Blogs[]
Audio and video[]
- November 2023: Evacuated tube box oven
- January 2020:
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Stromboli Solar Baked 29 January 2020
Stromboli being solar baked by the Bethel Business and Community Development Centre
Contacts[]
The entities listed below are either based in Lesotho or have initiated solar cooking projects there: