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Last edited: 29 January 2021
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National Geographic Video covering work of SCI
National Geographic explains the case for solar cooking.
Solar cooking is the simplest, safest, most convenient way to cook food without consuming fuels or heating up the kitchen. Many people choose to solar cook for these reasons. For hundreds of millions of people around the world who cook over fires fueled by wood or dung, and who walk miles to collect firewood or spend much of their meager incomes on fuel, solar cooking is a clean, economical alternative.
For the many people who lack access to safe drinking water, and become sick or die each year from preventable waterborne illnesses, solar water pasteurization is a life-saving skill. The World Health Organization reports that in 23 countries 10% of deaths are due to just two environmental risk factors: unsafe water, including poor sanitation and hygiene; and household air pollution due to burning solid fuels for cooking.[1]
See The 25 countries with the most solar cooking potential.
Benefits to households
Health and nutrition
- Main article: Health benefits of solar cooking
Carrying fuelwood in Nepal
- Moderate cooking temperatures in simple solar cookers help preserve nutrients.
- Those who otherwise could not afford the fuel to do so can cook nutritious foods—such as legumes and many whole grains—that require hours of cooking.
- At times many families must trade scarce food for cooking fuels. Solar cooking can help them to keep more food and improve their nutrition.
- Smoky cooking fires irritate lungs and eyes and can cause diseases. Solar cookers are smoke-free.
- Smoke from cooking fires is a major cause of global warming.
- Cooking fires are dangerous, especially for children, and can easily spread if not contained — causing damage to buildings, gardens, etc. Solar cookers are fire-free.
- Millions of people routinely walk for miles to collect fuelwood for cooking. Burdensome fuel-gathering trips can cause injuries, and expose people, primarily women to danger from animals and physical assault. Solar cooking reduces these risks and burdens, and frees time for other activities. In the Iridimi Refugee Camp in Chad, the necessity of leaving the camp to gather firewood was reduced by 86% through the introduction of tens of thousands of solar cookers (CooKit model).
- With good sunlight, solar cookers can be used to cook food or pasteurize water during emergencies when other fuels and power sources may not be available.
See also
- Health benefits of solar cooking
- Kids are safer with solar cookers - Solar Cooker Review Board and Staff Team
- Solar cooking and health
- Health and safety
Economics
- Main article: Economic benefits of solar cooking
Each group of food items costs the same as the pile of charcoal shown in the middle. By using a solar cooker, a family is able to use the money saved on fuel to purchase more food.
- Many poverty-stricken families worldwide spend 25% or more of their income on cooking fuel. Sunlight — solar cooker "fuel" — is free and abundant. Money saved can be used for food, education, health care, etc.
- Solar cooker businesses can provide extra income. Opportunities include cooker manufacturing, sales and repair, as well as solar food businesses like restaurants and bakeries.
- Even residents of developed countries can save a great deal of money on cooking and air conditioning costs. See Cost savings from solar cooking.
Convenience
Women collecting wood for cooking
- At moderate solar cooking temperatures food doesn't need to be stirred and won't burn — food can simply be placed in a solar cooker and left to cook, unattended, for several hours while other activities are pursued. In the right circumstances it is possible to put a solar cooker out in the morning and return home in the late afternoon to a hot meal ready to eat.
- Pots used for solar cooking are easy to clean — a fact especially valuable for people who must walk many kilometers to collect water.
- Many solar cookers are portable, allowing for solar cooking at work sites or while pursuing outdoor activities like picnics, trekking or camping.
Other household uses for solar cookers
- Main article: Non-cooking uses
- Heat water for household chores.
- Preserve ("can") fruits and tomatoes.
- Sanitize dishes and utensils.
- Kill insects in grains and other dry food staples.
- Solar food processing
Benefits to healthcare
- Main article: Health benefits of solar cooking
- Household air pollution from cooking fires often leads to respiratory disease which is responsible for over seven million deaths per year. Solar cookers are smoke-free. [2]
- Preventable waterborne diseases are responsible for 80% of all illnesses and deaths in the developing world. Solar cookers can be used at the household level to pasteurize water and milk, making them safe to drink. Pasteurization uses approximately half the fuel that would have been used to achieve sterilization.
- Many solar cookers can be used to disinfect dry medical supplies such as medical instruments, bandages and other cloth materials, as well as to heat compresses.
Benefits to the environment
- Main article: Environmental benefits of solar cooking
- Two billion people rely on wood and charcoal for cooking fuel. Solar cooking alleviates the conflict between their basic needs and the need to preserve earth's dwindling forests.
- Biomass and petroleum fueled cooking fires pollute the air and contribute to global warming. Solar cookers are pollution-free, and, when used in large numbers, may help curb global warming and dimming. See Global dimming.
- Kitchens remain cool while food solar cooks outdoors. This reduces the load on air conditioners and refrigerators in summer months, saving fossil fuels (and lowering utility bills).
Benefits to businesses
Solar cooker business opportunities
- Solar cooker manufacturing and sales
- Solar cooker repair
- Solar food businesses such as restaurants, bakeries or catering
- Main article: Business development
Other business uses
- Sanitize dishes and utensils
- Boil rice straw to make paper
- Extract wax from honey
- Dye fabrics
- Pasteurize potting soil
- Remove husks from rice grain
- Main article: Non-cooking uses
See also:
Benefits to governments
- Reduce imports and subsidies of biomass and fossil fuels.
- Where forests are disappearing, and many people suffer from fuel shortages, solar cookers reduce families' fuelwood needs by 30-50%.
- Electric companies that have trouble meeting peak hour demand because of heavy use of stoves and air conditioners can reduce that demand by promoting use of solar cookers.
Benefits to humanitarian, development and relief organizations
- Address clients' fuel shortages affecting local health, nutrition and education.
- Budget savings for institutional cooking fuels and disaster relief situations. See Refugee camps.
- In some regions distribution of biomass and fossil fuels are subsidized by aid agencies. Broad use of solar cookers can decrease these costs so that more people can benefit from these humanitarian funds.
- Solar cooking addresses all of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
See all non-governmental organizations (NGOs) currently promoting solar cooking.
Audio and video
- December 2022: Solar Cookers International at COP27: - Guest speakers Dr. Daniel M. Kammen, Advisor for Innovative Energy Solutions at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Jacquelyn Francis, Executive Director of the Global Warming Mitigation Project (GWMP) and the Keeling Curve Prize, attend a SCI press conference to explain the urgency of adopting strategies, which include solar cooking, to help "decarbonize" the global environment.
- June 2017:
Solar Cookers International All About Access
Household air pollution: causes and solutions 6th SCI World Conference 2017
- September 2011:
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Why Solar Cooking - Solar Household Energy
Louise Meyer of Solar Household Energy makes the case for solar cooking in this video.
