Mexico

Last edited: 22 May 2024

Solar Household Energy profiles the Oaxacan 'Women of the Sun' introduction to solar cooking, and how it has affected their lives. Solar Household Energy has long played an active role introducing and helping to facilitate solar cooking in Mexico. They have been working closely with Lorena Harp to bring solar cooking to the rural women of Oaxaca. She introduced an affordable but durable panel-style solar cooker called the Haines Solar Cooker (HSC). Prior to the launch of the initiative, Lorena conducted local market research and optimized the HSC for local consumer preferences. She then trained three rural women to become “solar cooking ambassadors” to sell HSCs for 500 pesos (about USD 25) on a commission basis (earning 200 pesos, about USD 10) to members of their communities and provide follow-up support to maximize adoption of this alternative cooking model. Ambassadors quickly reached their pilot project goal for solar cooker sales.

Events[]

First Sunday of the month (Cuernavaca, Morelos): Cuernavaca Solar Cooking and Solar Drying Club - The club meets the first Sunday of the month for solar cooking, 11:00am - 2:00pm. You can bring ingredients and utensils to cook with the sun and share sunny food at the end. San Miguel Ecological Park Acapantzingo, Av. Atlacomulco No.14, Acapantzinga, 62448 Cuernavaca, Mor. Mexico. If you like to bring materials to build your solar kitchen or solar dryer, we will send you the plans and list of materials by mail. jm.hernandezjarquin@gmail.com

Featured international events[]

NEW: 11-22 November 2024 (Baku, Azerbaijan ): COP29 - The 2024 United Nations Climate Change Conference or Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC, more commonly known as COP29, will be the 29th United Nations Climate Change conference to be held at Baku Stadium. More information...

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[]

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 Mexico

Most significant projects[]

The HotPot solar cooker introduction in Mexico - Solar Household Energy (SHE), spent several years developing a solar panel cooker called the HotPot, a variation on Solar Cookers International's cooker, the CooKit. In 2003 SHE received a grant from the World Bank’s Development Marketplace to mount a HotPot promotion project in Mexico working with the Mexican nature conservancy, Fondo Mexicano para la Conservación de la Naturaleza (FMCN). By July 2004, 2,000 HotPots had been manufactured and trucked to eight local conservation NGOs that had agreed to participate in the HotPot distribution initiative. Solar Household Energy may be the global leader in promoting solar cooking. Lesson learned: Quality solar cookers are appreciated. However, demand may not be able to be met without significant financial support.

Sustainable Rural life Hot Pot, 2-13-13 — Workshop participants receive their HotPot solar cooker in **Mexico**.

See other significant solar cooking projects worldwide.

News[]

May 2024: Students applied the basic concepts of heat transfer - At the Federal Preparatory for Cooperation José Maria Morelos and Pavón in Temixco, Morelos, Mexico. Mtra. Ana Laura Sarracino Ortiz organized a "Solar Kitchen" learning event, where 15-17 year old students applied the basic concepts of heat transfer in solar cooking of food, for the subject Physics 2. Also shown are a few of the food items solar cooked at Fruits of the @1st Cooking and Solar Drying Meeting in November of 2023 in Cuernavaca Morelos of the Cuernavaca Cooking and Solar-Dried Club

Photo credit: Mtra. Ana Laura Sarracino Ortiz & Cuernavaca Cooking and Solar-Dried Club

April 2024: Chapingo celebrates 3rd International Symposium "Agriculture for Good Living in Coffee Regions" - During the symposium held at the CRUO Oriente Regional University Center, located in Huatusco, Veracruz; Emeritus Doctors Antonio Leucona Neumann of Carlos III University, Madrid, Spain, and Dr. Addul Karim Salón Allaf, professor of La Rochelle Université, France; exposed the latest advances in solar drying of groceries In addition, Dr. Eduardo Rincón Mejía, international expert in solar energy, gave a workshop on solar furnaces design, supported by Dr. Alvaro Lentz Herrera, both UACM professors. A sample of the technological development of the symposium, was the solar cooking workshop that despite 60 percent cloudiness, doctor Celestino Rodríguez Ruivo of the Universidade do Algarve, Portugal, and teacher Juana Maria Hernández Jarquin; cooked Veracruzana Fish, Chicken a la Tlanepa, Pasta with tuna, rice and vegetables. Read more...

Photo credit: Tzapinco- UACh Oficial

February 2024: Bank de Alimentos Querétaro gathering - Cocineros Solares invited Bank de Alimentos Querétaros members to join them for a solar cooked meal. The bank has a program to collect food donated by companies, and then deliver well-assorted pantries to thousands of families in the State of Oaxaca. Photo credit: Cocineros Solares

August 2023: Juana María Hernández Jarquín of Red Mujeres en Energía Renovable y Eficiencia Energética conducted a demonstration for children at a summer science school in Mexico.

Photo credit: Juana María Hernández Jarquín

November 2022: Solar cookers produce more than food for Mexican women - Sponsored by the Washington D.C., USA based non-governmental organization Solar Household Energy(SHE), women from 10 communities have received some 200 Haines solar cookers, including residents of the municipality of Villa de Zaachila with about 43,000 inhabitants. The village is near Oaxaca in southern Mexico. Local women explain their impressions of the program in the video below.

Solar_Cookers_Produce_More_Than_Food_for_Mexican_Women-2 — Solar Cookers Produce More Than Food for Mexican Women-2

Poli & Rodrigo of Delicias de Oaxaca, 1-18-22 — Poli & Rodrigo, founders of Delicias de Oaxaca *Photo credit: Low-tech Lab*

January 2022: Solar food drying company in Oaxaca - Delicias de Oaxaca is a solar food processing company located in Oaxaca, Mexico. Founders, Poli & Rodrigo, specialize in dehydrating various fruits and vegetables for sale. They collect unsold fruits and vegetables from many farmers in the region. They peel them, cut them into thin slices and expose them to the sun and wind on the roof of their house. The simplest drying room there is: shelves protected from insects by a mosquito net.

Mexico entrepreneurs, Mongabay, 10-27-21 photo — Gregor Schäpers, of Triniy Sol, runs a solar bakery in Cardonal, Mexico

October 2021: Mexican entrepreneurs are changing the future for solar cooking business in Mexico - Gregor Schäpers, of TrinySol, is one of a number of entrepreneurs convinced that solar cooking and distilling, as used by business, can help Mexico — and other parts of the world — leave the fossil fuel era behind. “Solar is very versatile, clean and reduces the need for firewood, thus protects forests. It is climate-friendly, saves money and strengthens small and medium-sized businesses in the region,” he concludes. Cooking with the sun: Entrepreneurs help launch Mexico’s solar revolution - Mongabay

La Sazón del Sol 2019 — Victoria Aguilera, founder of La Sazón del Sol, sells solar processed foods at the local market.

June 2021: Solar processed foods available near Oaxaca - La Sazón del Sol is located in the village of Tlacochahuaya, Mexico near Oaxaca. Victoria Aguilera, the founder, is interested in encouraging the use of solar energy to be part of daily life for local residents. She supports the area ecology, economy, health of the community, and also produces many of the solar dried foods herself. The facility operates a training center dedicated to women and provides workshops at the Oficina Solar Tlacochahuaya in do-it-yourself construction of solar cooking and drying appliances. With a primary focus on solar food drying, they prepare a variety of foods for sale.

SHE, Loretta Harp Haines cooker intiative, 1-13-20 — Rural customers from Oaxaca, Mexico, have adopted the Haines Solar Cooker. *Photo credit: Lorena Harp*

January 2020: Scaling up Lorena Harp's Haines Solar Cooker Enterprise in Mexico - Solar Household Energy is currently supporting Mexican solar cooking expert Lorena Harp in her dream to bring solar cooking to the rural women of Oaxaca State through a sustainable social enterprise. Prior to launching the initiative, Lorena conducted local market research and optimized the HSC for local consumer preferences. She then trained three rural women to become “solar cooking ambassadors” to sell HSCs for 500 pesos (about $25 USD) on a commission basis (earning 200 pesos, about $10 USD) to members of their communities and provide follow-up support to maximize adoption of this alternative cooking model. More information...

October 2019: Solar Cookers Produce More Than Food for Mexican Women - Inter Press Service

Techamos Una Mano - March 2019 — Ovens being demonstrated in Teotitlán del Valle

March 2019: During the second day of construction conducted by students of the Mount Sentinel school of Canada in collaboration with Techamos Una Mano and Gie Oaxaca, families of Teotitlán del Valle were trained and received a donation of Haines Solar Ovens.

Bernardo López Sosa, Mexican solar coooking advocate, 4-30-18 — Bernardo López Sosa, *Photo credit: Conacyt*

May 2018: Bernardo López Sosa is originally from the indigenous community of Naranja de Tapia in Michoacán. At 28 years of age, he is pursuing a doctorate in science in metallurgy and materials science at the Institute of Metallurgy and Materials Research of the Michoacán University of San Nicolás de Hidalgo. He studies how the advance of science does not always consider social implications. He participates with fellow innovators as a founding member of the Grupo Multidisciplinario de Investigadores Indígenas para el Desarrollo de Tecnologías Sustentables The group is experimenting with various thermal retention coatings for solar cookers, and providing demonstrations in rural communities.

History[]

Mexico has a rich solar cooking history, with several projects successfully implemnted since the early 2000's. Below is a summary of some of these programs.

Girl Scouts/Rotary

Girl Scout leader Barby Pulliam conducted training programs for Girl Scout leaders and other representatives of NGOs in a number of cities and towns. Rotarian Wilfred Pimentel has also conducted a number of pilot programs in various cities. In some of those places, Rotary and Girl Scouts joined forces. A number of missions and other religious groups have promoted solar cookers in various parts of the country. One example is the Mission Mazahua, in Atlacomulco, which produced around 600 cookers. Several university faculty members have conducted research on cooking devices as well.

Solar Household Energy: Sierra Gorda Nature Reserve project

A large project originated in an unusual venue, a nature conservancy area, the Sierra Gorda Nature Reserve. In the spring of 2003, Louise Meyer of Solar Household Energy, Inc. (SHE, Inc.) conducted a training program to test user acceptance of a then new solar cooker called the HotPot. The device uses a modified CooKit design, initially of a plastic material then mental, as opposed to the cardboard of the CooKit. A black pot is enclosed within a tempered glass "greenhouse" instead of the plastic bag used in the original CooKit.

Within the confines of nature conservancies in Mexico, as elsewhere, trees cannot be cut down for use as fuelwood. Households living within the area thus must find other sources of energy for cooking. Therefore, the managing group of the Sierra Gorda site, the Grupo Ecológico Sierra Gorda, was delighted to explore the potential of solar cooking. The town of Purisima and a village, Mavi, were selected as the site for the initial training program. The Director of the Mexican Fund for the Conservation of Nature, Lorenzo Rosenzweig, partnered with SHE, Inc. to plan and implement this project.

Ms. Meyer traveled to Mexico, and conducted training for Sierra Gorda women, who were given HotPots and trained in their use over a two-day period. After the training, Ms. Meyer visited the women in their homes as follow-up for days of further training and coaching. The women were all interested in what others were cooking, and eventually a throng of cooks accompanied Ms. Meyer on most visits, enhancing the group learning substantially. Two women from the group were chosen for additional training in "how to teach others". The new trainers were again visited and coached in the art of training.

This pilot project, growing into a large-scale follow-up in other areas of Mexico, was among the winners of the 2003 Development Marketplace competition, an annual event held by the World Bank.

Sun Ovens International: Institutional solar cooking

Sun Ovens International reports promoting both Sun Ovens and Scheffler-type parabolics in Cuernavaca and Mexico City. The parabolic portion of this work, conducted by the Grupo Scheffler de México installs large commercial and institutional cooking and water heating. The first institutional solar kitchen of Mexico (6 Schefflers reflectors of 10m²) was built in the Hidalgo State by Gregor Schäpers.

External links[]

April 2023: The poor woman’s energy: Low-modernist solar technologies and international development in India and Mexico, 1878–1966 - Cambridge University Press

Main article: History of solar cooking

Archived articles

Climate and culture[]

Mexico insolation — Insolation in Mexico

Mexico is the most populous Spanish-speaking country with over 100 million inhabitants. One-quarter of the population lives in Mexico City, the world’s largest city. Rapid population growth and industrialization in Mexico over the last few decades have put an enormous strain on the environment, economy and on individual health.

Less than 10% of Mexico’s native tropical rainforests remain today. These rainforests are limited to southeastern Mexico and are most threatened by subsistence activities—especially fuel wood collection. Fuel wood supplies 69% of the energy consumption in rural areas, particularly for cooking. As the supply of wood decreases it negatively impacts the lives of the people who depend on it.

For instance, women and girls are responsible for procuring fuel wood and they must travel farther from home as wood becomes scarcer. This task demands many hours and minimizes opportunities to attend school and participate in income-generating activities. In other areas, it is no longer feasible to gather wood. Families in these areas can spend 15% to 37% of their income on wood and/or gas.

In addition to the negative environmental and economic impact of fuel wood dependence, women and children suffer from health problems caused by cooking inside small, enclosed kitchens that often lack windows or other ventilation. They inhale toxic smoke for many hours each day, which can lead to pneumonia and respiratory infections, the biggest killers of children under five years of age.

Below are comments made by Kathy Dahl-Bredine on November 17, 2015 regarding the extent to which Mixtec families near Oaxaca, Mexico, who apparently have an ample supply of firewood to collect, continue to use their solar cookers:

After having done many solar workshops, I've always wanted to know the extent to which families are really continuing to use it. And after checking around a good deal, it seems to me that the technology is not really taking hold enough to change overall cooking habits. The participants are always very excited about the technique during the workshops, and I give them "homework" tasks afterward, which include teaching others to solar cook, et al. But in general, they do not seem to be continuing it long term, and I've tried to analyze the reasons:

Most of the solar cookers we use, including models being commercially made and sold, as well as designs we make on our own, are too small for an average family in indigenous or traditional communities. Generally extended families live and eat together, an average of 6-10 persons. The standard black enamel pots that we generally use hold enough for only a small family. The main exception to that is the "family size" version of the Ulog. We have made those, but they tend to be very heavy and a little unwieldy, so that's a drawback we haven't solved yet.
In our own village and many of the others in our mountain area, there is plenty of firewood, so there isn't the urgency for fuel that exists in many places. I've often thought that some of those places in Africa, where apparently the Cook-it has really caught on well, one of the main differences may be the lack of adequate fuel, where people have to either walk long distances in unsafe areas, or spend part of their scarce food money to buy wood or other fuel.
Also, something that is no doubt hard to fathom for all of us who were brought up on gas stove cooking, for people in this culture, there is something about the smell of wood smoke and a fire going that feels homey, familiar, and good to folks -- the warm and familiar sense of family, etc. Sometimes people even say that the food tastes better when cooked over a wood fire. (Although many folks also have said that solar cooked food has more flavor! I've heard that a number of times as a reason for not liking gas stoves. A few people around here even have small gas stoves, but they generally don't use them much - perhaps only when there's an emergency to get a fire quickly.

Besides the various types of simple solar cookers that I make with groups: Cookit, Windshield Shade Solar Cooker model, and others, my husband, Phil, and the teenagers he has trained in carpentry, make the Ulog box cookers. We're searching for a way to make a good reflector for that model, also a better version of the larger, family-size one. I keep thinking we need to find a way to make something as efficient as the Sun Oven. My son gave me one, and I use it nearly all the time. None of the ones we've ever made can measure up to that efficiency. And here in these mountains, known as "país de las nubes" (land of clouds), it is often at least partially cloudy, so a very efficient cooker would encourage folks to use it more. We need to find a way to make good extra reflectors. As models to use with the local people, we are committed to using only cookers that we can make locally, so as to be sustainable.

See Also: