USA

Last edited: 12 May 2025

In 2016, USA NGO Solar Cookers International and the International Solar Energy Society began the process of creating a solar cooker testing program called the Performance Evaluation Process (PEP) under the direction of Dr. Alan Bigelow. The project involves establishing a uniform method of testing and then providing information for interested parties to build their own testing station.

Events[]

Featured international events[]

See also: Global Calendar of Events and past events in USA

News[]

Solar potluck, 31 May 25, AZ — *Image credit:Solar Guild and Citizens for Solar*

April 2025: Joining forces in Arizona - The Solar Guild and Citizens for Solar are two non-profit groups now working together in the Tucson area. The Solar Guild concentrates it's efforts on solar power outreach and education projects the community, while Citizens for Solar organizes the Solar Potlucks and solar cooking demonstrations held in town at the Valley of the Moon, Catalina State Park and Mount Lemmon, just to name a few. More information...

Casey Hayes photo, 9-24-24 — Casey Hayes, grant recipient, *Photo credit: Voya Financial, Inc.*

September 2024: Desert Sky Montessori educator’s ‘Off-the-Grid Cooking’ project wins Voya’s $2,000 ‘Unsung Heroes’ grant - Voya Financial, Inc., a leading provider of retirement plans for educators, announced Monday that Casey Hayes, an assistant guide at Desert Sky Montessori School in Bend, Oregon has received a $2,000 grant as part of the company's 2024 Unsung Heroes awards competition. Students participate in hands-on learning about sustainability by building a do-it-yourself (DIY) solar oven out of aluminum foil and cardboard. They will cook bread, nachos or other agreed upon items in the solar oven and compare the results to cooking in an off-the-shelf solar oven and in an earthen "cob" oven. In tying this to math, they will conduct comparative analysis of objective data (e.g. temperature, cook time) and subjective data (e.g. taste, level of effort). Read more...

Student cooker challenge, 10-19-23 — Engineering students at the University of Arizona test their solar cooker, *Photo credit: EL INDIE*

October 2023: Engineering students try their hand at solar cooking - Around 650 first-year engineering students at the University of Arizona, USA came together to test the solar ovens they had spent the past month making in their beginning engineering classes. University instructor, Megan Bedinger, said careful planning and calculation went into building their ovens to keep them within the required guidelines and be creative. All of the teams were to try to bake the same biscuit mix. Projected achievable cooking temperatures may have been a bit optimistic, and some biscuit creations did better than others. Read more about the Solar Oven Throw Down. Another option is to listen to Byron Hempel, a professor of practice in the Chemical and Environmental Engineering Department at UA discuss previous years of the challenge. Byron can be contacted at byronhempel@arizona.edu

June 2023: The U.S. Senate introduces the Clean Cooking Support Act - Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) and Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) have introduced the bipartisan bill. Its intention is to improve global health and reduce climate-harming emissions, by helping people in low- and middle-income countries gain access to cleaner-burning fuels and stoves for cooking. “Our bill aims to address a serious global public health and environmental issue where leadership by the United States can make a real difference. It would directly benefit some of the world’s poorest people, including the women and girls who are disproportionately affected, and reduce harmful pollution that affects us all,” said Senator Susan Collins. Solar Cookers International welcomes the news and is listed as a supporter among a notable field of other environmental advocates.

October 2022: - EPA's 20th Annual People, Prosperity and the Planet National (USA) Student Design Competition (RFA): - The U.S. Environmental Agency is seeking applications from teams of U.S. college students proposing to research, develop, and design solutions to real-world challenges that respond to the needs of people across the U.S, including those in small, rural, tribal, and underserved communities. P3 highlights the use of scientific principles in creating innovative technology-based projects that achieve the mutual goals of improved quality of life, economic prosperity and environmental protection. Using a team approach, P3 empowers undergraduate/graduate college students to transform classroom learning through hands-on experience to create tangible solutions to environmental issues in their communities. The EPA is looking for research in the areas of: Clean and Healthy Air, Clean and Safe Water, Safeguard and Revitalize Communities, and Ensure Safety of Chemicals. Applications need to be submitted by February 1, 2023, and may incorporate climate change and environmental justice as appropriate. Application information... There will also be a free informational webinar about the program on October 25, 2022 at 2pm EDT. Webinar registration...

Free solar cookers, Bush beer, 8-24-22 — Cooking without open flames, *Photo credit: Busch*

August 2022: Free solar cookers - Beer company offering Coloradans free solar cookers to help prevent wildfires - OutThere Colorado For a limited time, a beer company will be offering solar cookers to Coloradans for free at fire departments in Estes Park, Red Feather Lakes, and Nederland.

Ken Armijo preparing to solar-roast his chiles using heliostats, 8-8-22 — Ken Armijo preparing to solar-roast his chiles using heliostats, *Photo credit: Randy Montoya*

August 2022: Roasting New Mexican chiles - On 21 October 2021, Kenneith Armijo, an engineer at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA was at the top of a 200-foot-tall tower at the lab’s Solar Thermal Test Facility. In his possession was a sack of 22 pounds of New Mexican chiles. His mission: to roast them using only the power of the sun. Each year, the state produces more than 150 million pounds of chiles, the majority of which are harvested and roasted in steel drums from the end of August through October. But chile roasters across New Mexico burn enough propane yearly to release 7,800 metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. By setting up a traditional steel-drum tumbling roaster at the top of the facility tower and focusing dozens of heliostats, or mirror-like devices, on it, he was able to maintain consistent roasting temperatures of around 482 °C (900 °F). The 22 pounds of chiles he roasted that day saved 2.68 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions compared to a similar batch roasted with propane. Read more at Gastro Obscura...

Hubbard Lib. grant photo, 1-6-21 — Public library in Hubbard, Ohio receives grant for solar cooker lending. *Photo credit: Solar Education Project*

January 2021: Grant for solar cooking lending at library - The Hubbard Public Library in Ohio has received a grant from Constellation Energy Resources, LLC to implement a solar cooker lending program. Specifically, the funding was used to purchase an All American Sun Oven and selected accessories. “Constellation’s Community Champions program is designed to support causes that are important to the community, especially those causes for which the project, organization, or initiative focuses on education, environment, or youth,”

Luther Krueger photo, 10-20-20 copy — Luther Krueger on his podcast tour 2020

October 2020: Luther Krueger is establishing himself as one of the foremost solar cooking enthusiasts in North America. He has created a solar cooker museum, with many of the cookers preparing meals in his Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA backyard. The goal is to have one of every solar cooker ever produced. He also recently completed a tour of the western United States to visit with a number of other enthusiasts and solar cooking professionals to record dialogue for his solar cooking podcast. On his trip Luther acquired a Villager Sun Oven, which he towed back home to Minnesota. Solar Today published a profile of Luther in their Fall 2020 publication Cookin' in the Sun.

June 2019: School of Engineering and Sciences developing solar cooking technology into their curriculum

May 2019: 37th annual solar cooking demonstration held in Tucson, Arizona - Citizens for Solar held their annual solar cooking demonstration in Tucson, Arizona. Pictures from the event...

See older news...

History[]

Some of the many solar cooking non-governmental organizations based in the US are Solar Cookers International (SCI), Rotary International, the Solar Oven Society, and Solar Household Energy, Inc.

Sacramento Municipal Utility District

No precise numbers are available, but estimates suggest that perhaps as many as 10,000 Americans use solar cookers regularly. The electrical utility of the Sacramento, CA area, the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD), has been a dedicated supporter of solar energy usage. SMUD serves an area of more than a million people. Under earlier leadership, it pioneered the development of cleaner electricity generation, including building the first solar-powered generating station in the United States. It has offered rebates for replacing old appliances with energy-efficient equipment, and it cooperated in planting trees to lower the cost of air conditioning to consumers, as examples. For purposes of this report, it is important to note the dedicated support of SMUD for solar cooking education, including outreach to schools and community organizations. They have placed solar cookers with Scout troops, offered workshops in 65 schools of the area, and made available plans to build cookers to customers throughout their service area. In 1991, SMUD even produced a solar cooking cookbook. Reducing the use of electricity is in everyone's interest; this interesting example of a public utility's contribution to solar cooking as one contribution to solving the problem was noteworthy.

George Loff

George Lof Unbroiler — The "Umbroiler" parabolic solar cooker designed by George Lof, in use with his daughter, Linnea, in 1955.

The late George Lof, a former director of the Industrial Research Institute at the University of Denver, Colorado, was an early pioneer of solar-powered technology, including solar cooking. In the fifties, he experimented with a parabolic solar cooker design that he dubbed the "Umbroiler" because of its umbrella-like structure. He marketed the design, but it was a commercial failure for the times.

Kerr-Cole Sustainable Living Center

Considerable activity can also be found in the state of Arizona, probably the sunniest of the U.S. fifty states. The most important solar cooking fact about Arizona is that the late Barbara Kerr, the foremost expert on solar cooking in the U.S., lived in a small community in this state. She created and lived in the Kerr-Cole Sustainable Living Center, which demonstrates a wide range of ways to live lightly, rather than destructively, on the earth. Barbara is the author of several books (The full text of one is here) and articles on solar cooking, the creator and marketer (with her colleague, Sherry Cole) of a cardboard box cooker, the refiner of the CooKit as the first inexpensive but efficient solar cooker, and a never-ending source of information to those who seek her knowledge on the internet. A visit to Taylor, Arizona, is a trip to an important piece of solar cooking history.

Individuals

Solar devices are also manufactured in this area. Early pioneers, the late Bob Larson and his wife Heather Larson, produced cookbooks and plans for solar dryers until their untimely deaths. Jay Campbell, a New Mexican engineer, has invented a range of cooking devices that won prizes for ingenuity and efficiency, though he is not a manufacturer but rather an idea person. One firm, Zone Works, makes and sells parabolics out of Albuquerque, NM.

Solar Oven Society

Unlikely as it may sound, the state of Minnesota has also made contributions to the development of solar cooking. Mike and Martha Port, founders of the Solar Oven Society, have worked in a variety of Central American and Caribbean nations on various projects. Recently, they completed research and development of a new cooker, manufactured from recycled soda bottles; the device will help to fill the gap between the very inexpensive (but not so long lasting) CooKit and the more expensive box or parabolic cookers. With the assistance of a small business development grant from the State of Minnesota, charitable contributions from a range of churches and organizations, and the dedicated volunteer labor of the Ports over many years, they have recently been able to begin the sale and marketing, both in the U.S. and abroad, of the Sport. A collectivity of Minnesota churches made possible the shipment of 400 unassembled cookers to Afghanistan for sale at a subsidized price to people whose need for cooking energy is great.

Nevada Solar Cookers Association

The Nevada Solar Cookers Association was formed to share recipes, ideas, and stories and to spread the news about solar cooking in their area. Solar Cooker Review, March 2003.

Solar Cookers International

The Sacramento, California NGO Solar Cookers International, the sponsor of this Wiki, has worked since 1989 to promote solar cooking around the world.

Main article: History of solar cooking

Archived articles

Climate and culture[]

The climate of USA - Wikipedia
Solar cooker dissemination and cultural variables

Resources[]

Possible funding[]

See Raising funds through grants and donations.

Facebook groups[]

Solar cooking blogs[]

Colorado Bob's Solar Oven
Utah Sun Ovens
Root Simple - Erik Knutzen and Kelly Coyne chronicle their adventures as urban gardeners, farmers, and solar cookers.
Little Homestead in the City - An American family in Pasadena living simply since 1985
Solar Cooker at Cantina West
Chef Tess Bakeresse
Chile Chews Up the Road
SunshineCooking
ARNies-SolarCooking, last entry in 2009, still contains good advice
Sun Sky Soil
My Sun Oven
Solar Cooking for Mainstream Cooks
Adventure in Solar Cooking

Solar cooking clubs[]

Solar Guild

Project evaluations[]

August 2006: Nogales, US-Mexico Clean Air Report Excerpts August 2006 - Report for the Thermal Construction and Alternative Heating and Cooking Technologies Project that outlines research conducted to assess the air quality along the US-Mexico border. Solar Household Energy collaborated with the research team to introduce solar cookers into the cities being studied.

Main article: Project evaluations