Solar Revolution in...Kenya?
by Mairi Beautyman, Berlin, Germany on 06.28.06
Thanks to Solar Cookers International (SCI), a California-based firm we introduced to you in a previous post, solar cooking is spreading like wildfire in Kenya. According to an article on Yahoo! News, more than 10,000 Kenyans have now been trained to whip up meals with SCI's low-cost solar cooker, which uses parabolic mirrors. Kenya is part of "Sunny Solutions," a program initiated by SCI to introduce the cooker to East and Central Africa, and replace or at least reduce traditional wood-fired cooking with efficient energy from the sun.
In 24 months, says SCI, this alternative method will save huge amounts of firewood, money and long hours spent buying or collecting it, purify thousands of gallons of drinking water and prepare hundreds of meals. "From Sunny, I have bought household, a goat, a cow and am able to provide for my children," states Elizabeth Oranga, a 40-year-old widow in Nyakach. SCI is also one of the organizers for the International Solar Cookers Conference, to take place in July in Spain. Read more about solar cooking here. ::Solar Cookers International via ::Yahoo! News
I think this is an amazingly simple, yet brilliant way to solve a major problem.
This makes me think about trying a solar cooker on my own fire escape. Can anyone suggest a good system for urban dwellers that goes beyond making sun tea?
Sorry, I have to point out the obvious system for gathering information: search the internet.
Search for "solar oven recipes" and you can do stuff at home just as easy as in Kenya depending on your climate.