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27 February 2011

solar cookers

This is an unusual blog.

I'm posting a file titled: solar cookers. They were first built for Africa (and the brochure I took the text for explains how and why they are used in Africa), but we are going to use solar cookers during the "day at the Centenario Park" when you are in Trezzano. It's a way to use "alternative sources of energy"

Here you can have an idea about how solar cookers work.


SOLARCOOKERS PROJECT



www.eg-solar.de
www.solarcookers.org





Aim:

Supply with solar energy the public health centres, schools and rural communities of the poor countries of Africa, Asia and South America.



Motivation:

Deforestation and desertification produced by the wood harvest and the breeding of livestock, added to the drought cycles and the climate changes, become a big problem in some areas of the world, especially in African countries.



The lack of wood (experts now talk about “wood shortage”) is so desperate that in some case is more expensive the wood used to cook the food than the food itself. Besides, the constant usage of wood and the consequent deforestation increase climate changes.

The desertification expands and the problem of water becomes bigger.

This problem can be reduced, in some part, by using renewable energies and, in particular, solar energy, abundant in the south countries.

Even if there in the gas (propane) and it's considered as an alternative, the natural free solar energy gives obvious advantages to those countries where there is a high amount of sunlight and, a few economic resources. Moreover using this “free” solar energy, the water sterilization becomes easier for everybody, and not like up to now a luxury for those who have enough firewood or kerosene to boil water.

We don't have to forget that the overage kilometres to walk, to collect some wood has increased from 20 to 40 kilometres.



Finally the women can't find no more dry wood, so they breath a big amount of unhealthy smoke produced by the green wood, with consequent breathing diseases.



Solar energy offers a chance to reduce conflicts between the density of population and the availability of natural resources (war prevention).



Solar energy kitchens. A low cost alternative.

Big improvements have been brought to the solar energy kitchens, and qualifications have been obtained for their distribution in all the world.

The challenge that we have to face is the need of 200 million kitchens to solve the problem of the lack of firewood.



The characteristics of the modern style of the solar kitchens allow to use them easily in the regions where there's a low level of development:

-low cost

-low weight and easy to transport

-easy assemblage

-low maintenance request



In particular the “parabolic” kitchens have been prepared for the Developing Help Group of the Professional School of Altotting, German. After several tests and trials in Europe and in South Africa, the improvements and developments made these kitchens very famous in the developing nations, as an alternative for the fossil combustible utilization.



The use of kit with prefabricated components helps the location production of solar energy kitchens.

Few hours are required for the assemblage of the kit components to obtain the high quality parabolic solar energy kitchen.

The kit is easy to handle and can be transported in all the parts of the world; they are prefabricated in big quantity and so they can be offered with sensible prices. The required manual work for the assemblage con be locally offered:

-directly from the buyer or by the final client following the manual instruction

-in small factories, creating new occupations for the local people

-at schools with practical lessons, explained by teachers

-in refugee camps, from the refugee people



Parabolic solar power kitchen use

The parabolic solar power kitchen needs sunlight and an open space protected from the wind.

The parabolic reflector concentrates the rays of sunlight on the pan and it heats.

Parabolic kitchens can reach the same temperature as the traditional kitchens (about 200°C=392°F), and then, besides cooking, allow to put in the oven and to fry too.

The pan is easy to reach. The cook can still cook his/her own ordinary recipes.



It's possible to cook from the morning until the afternoon, thank for the orientating reflector to the sun.

The solar kitchen can take advantage of short period of outburst of sunshine. Parabolic solar power kitchen is perfect for families, and in particular, for small institutions.

Considering the deep reflector curve, the heating point is located in a safety position, inside the kitchen parabolic.

It's recommended to use isolating cooking containers (for example hay basket) with the kitchen, because it's possible to finish the cooking inside them, leaving the kitchen free to cook other dishes.

The isolating basket maintains a hot temperature for several hours, giving the opportunity to serve the meal warm.



More than 15000 parabolic kitchens have been distributed in over 80 countries all over the world.

The fundamental benefits are:

Fast and no cost water sterilisation; the prevention of breathing diseases in women; the improvement of life quality for women and for all the families; instead of spending four hours to collect firewood women can spend their time looking after their children, and old people, and cultivating their kitchen garden, improving the nutrition value of the food, working or even have time to improve their education.

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