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This article is about an entity that either no longer exists or that may no longer be active in solar cooking promotion. It is retained here for archival purposes.

Last edited: 13 January 2020      
SolSource cooker, 6-13

One Earth Design's SolSource solar cooker

The parent company, The Earth Public Benefit Corporation, has announced One Earth Designs will cease operations as of 1 January 2020. Existing customers will be provided support through June 2020.

One Earth Designs (OED) is a social enterprise located in Boston, Massachusetts, Hong Kong, Beijing, and Xining, western China. OED is an environmental technology company collaborating with Himalayan communities to promote environmental health and incubate local innovation and entrepreneurship. One of their primary projects is the SolSource, a portable, affordable, parabolic-type solar concentrator. It has been designed to cook, generate electricity, and heat materials for space heating. It can also be dismantled as quickly as a hiking tent and transported from home to field for the mid-day meal. Other work includes research into low-cost water testing, heat-retaining phase-change technology, and general support of education initiatives in the Himalayan Plateau.

OED has been widely recognized for its innovation by such prestigious awards as: the Dutch Postcode Lottery Green Challenge, U.S. EPA’s People, Prosperity & the Planet Award, MIT’s IDEAS and $100K Social Entrepreneurship Competitions, the Muhammad Yunus Innovation Award, and the Lemelson Foundation’s International Technology Award.

Events[]

News[]

News


  • January 2020: One Earth Designs cease operations - The parent company, The Earth Public Benefit Corporation, has announced One Earth Designs will cease operations as of 1 January 2020. Their non-profit branch will continue to carry out their global social impact mission through humanitarian projects and the continuing evolution of solar-thermal technologies alongside our partners worldwide. Existing customers will be provided support through June 2020. More information...
  • February 2018: Shark Tank: One Earth Designs’ SolSource Accepts $500,000 Offer from Mark Cuban
SolSource Sport, OED, 5-27-17

The SolSource Sport Photo credit: One Earth Designs

  • May 2017: One Earth Designs introduces compact cooker: - The company has begun production of the SolSource Sport solar parabolic cooker. It weighs just 4.5 kg(10lbs) and packs in a small carrying bag. The new model is aimed at a market that desires portability with an affordable price. Availability information at One Earth Designs.
  • December 2016: Effective November 7, 2016, One Earth Designs and Morpho Solar mutually agreed to shift their partnership in a new direction. Instead of merging the two companies, they will collaborate on product development projects that will bring clean energy to emerging and developed markets worldwide. “We look forward to our new and exciting phase of collaboration.”, says Guro Grytli Seim, CEO of Morpho Solar."
  • August 2016: Guro Seim, co-founder of Morpho Solar, is now the COO at One Earth Designs and fellow co-founder, Even Larsen, is the Chief Marketing Officer for One Earth Designs.
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Chef José Andrés (left) and his team demonstrate solar cooking at the Bite conference in Silicon Valley. Photo credit: BiteSV Instagram

  • June 2015: Chef José Andrés demos solar cooking at Bite conference in Silicon Valley - World-renowned chef and solar cooking advocate, José Andrés, held a solar cooking demonstration at the Bite conference in Silicon Valley using several SolSource ovens, a popular parabolic solar cooker developed by One Earth Designs. Chef Andrés' goal was to convey the importance of clean cooking technology, especially in developing countries where the availability of cooking fuel is limited and respiratory disease from cooking indoors is prevalent. During the conference, Chef Andrés spoke to attendees about increasing investment is clean cooking technology development.
Morpho Solar, IEEE Spectrum, 10-9-14

Guro Seim, the CEO of Morpho Solar, and Catlin Powers, COO of One Earth Designs, prepare a meal on a SolSource solar cooker. - Morpho Solar

  • October 2014: Norwegian start-up tackles heat storage for solar cookers - Guro Seim, CEO of Morpho Solar, announced a breakthrough in the heat storage capabilities for solar cookers. They hope to have a production model ready within a year and a half. The breakthrough was recognized with an $8,000 USD award from the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy this past August. The company will begin selling the cooker in Europe, and under an agreement with Cambridge, Mass.-based One Earth Designs in the United States. Read more...
  • Soulsource successful

    SolSource: Kickstarter Project a Success

    August 2013:
    One Earth Designs successfully concluded its Kickstarter campaign to promote the SolSource solar cooker, raising a total of $142,413 out of a goal of $43,000 (331% of the goal) and meeting three stretch goals, with 507 people backing the project. Delivery of the cookers will happen in October 2013. Kickstarter page
  • June 2013: One Earth Designs aligned with Kickstarter to promote the SolSource parabolic solar cooker. An article in gizmag explains that those wishing to help this fledgling company are offered the opportunity to purchase a cooker for $249 USD, with free shipping in the continental USA. The projected retail price will be $399 USD, so this was a great way to help them out, and get a great deal. More information...
  • April 2013: Solar cooking advocate, Pat McArdle, and John Linquist of One Earth Designs, demonstrated the companies' SolSource parabolic cooker at the National Sustainable Design Expo., held each year in April on the Washington D.C. mall. John had the opportunity to demonstrate the cooker to Jacob Moss, senior State Department coordinator for the Clean Cookstove Initiative. EPA officials who were running the expo. told us the SolSource is their greatest success story.
  • November 2012: One Earth Designs (OED) introduces their new parabolic solar cooker - Working with rural communities in western China, One Earth Designs, a Beijing/Hong Kong-based company, founded by Americans Catlin Powers and Scot Frank, has developed the SolSource, a portable parabolic solar cooker designed for use by nomadic communities. The SolSource can boil a liter of water in ten minutes. Durable and weather resistant materials ensure a longer lifespan. It has a total weight of 18 kilos including a sturdy base design capable of withstanding the high winds typically encountered in the Himalayas.
Sol Source 3-in-1 photo 2-8-11

Latest version of the SolSource solar appliance, Feb. 2011.

  • February 2011: A photo of a recent version of the SolSource parabolic cooker.
  • February 2011: A team led by inventor Scot Frank has landed a spot in an entrepreneurial boot camp hosted by a group called the Unreasonable Institute. With the help of sixty world-class investors and entrepreneurs at this summer’s institute in Boulder, Colo., Frank hopes to bring the SolSource stove to a mass market. Worldwide, pollution from combustion stoves used indoors sickens and kills more than 1 million every year. Many victims are children. More Information...
  • September, 2010: The SolSource solar oven wins 500K EU in the Green Challenge. Once again the SolSource has impressed the jury, and won the Dutch, Postcode Lottery Green Challenge. The Postcode Lottery Green Challenge award is a startup competition run by the Dutch Postcode Lottery with 500,000 EU ($666,200 US) up for grabs for the winner and 200,000 EU ($260,500 US) for the runner-up. All entries must have the potential to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions in a measurable fashion. From an impressive field of young entrepreneurs, the jury chose 25-year old Scot Frank of One Earth Designs as the winner for his company’s SolSource solar oven. The SolSource 3-in-1 combination is a solar cooker, heater, and electricity generator. It was inspired by the time Frabj spent in the Himalayas (the product has been tested there for 3 years), where women spend many hours a day collecting dung and wood fuels for cooking and heating. This process leads to deforestation, and many tribes in the Himalayas are rapidly running out of their traditional fuel sources. Families also breathe toxic indoor air pollution from the fire. Indoor air pollution is one of the world’s biggest killers of children under five, claiming 1.6 million lives per year. More Information...

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Articles in the media[]

Audio and video[]

  • June 2016:
Earth_Day_From_Woodfire_to_Sunlight

Earth Day From Woodfire to Sunlight

Catlin Powers makes the case to switch from charcoal to solar power for barbecuing this summer.

  • December 2015:
One_Earth_Design_vil_revolusjonere_energibransjen.

One Earth Design vil revolusjonere energibransjen.

One Earth Designs ønsker å revlusjonere verden med sin miljøvennlige solcellegrill. Har du en gründerspire i magen?

  • July 2015:
Catlin_Powers_of_One_Earth_Designs_On_Solar_Power_&_Solar_Cooker

Catlin Powers of One Earth Designs On Solar Power & Solar Cooker

  • July 2014:
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Powers “How I Solar” concept presentation

  • February 2014:
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Solsource Solar Cooker at BTCV India School

Solsource Solar Cooker Donated by Toby Bates of Portland Oregon to the teachers and students of FACT Academy in Bihar India.

  • October 2013:
  • June 2013
One_Earth_Designs'_Catlin_Powers_at_Unreasonable_Barcelona

One Earth Designs' Catlin Powers at Unreasonable Barcelona

Catlin Powers of One Earth Designs speaks about indoor air pollution and their solar cooker, the SolSource.

  • March 2013:
Scot_Frank_&_Catlin_Powers'_Earth_Hour_2013_IWIYW_challenge

Scot Frank & Catlin Powers' Earth Hour 2013 IWIYW challenge

Catlin Powers and Scot Frank of One Earth Designs challenge solar cooks and innovators to share their ideas for new approaches and uses for solar cookers.

  • May 2012:
Catlin_Powers_of_One_Earth_Designs_-_2012_St_Andrews_Prize_for_the_Environment

Catlin Powers of One Earth Designs - 2012 St Andrews Prize for the Environment

Catlin Powers provides an update on the development of their product range at One Earth Designs since winning the prize in 2009. The interview was held at the 2012 awards at University of St Andrews on the 25th of April 2012.

See also[]