Solar cooking in Kenya
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Entrepreneur Margaret Owino promotes the use of solar cookers in Africa. Solar cooking has become very popular, and young mothers are now buying "CooKits", lightweight panel solar cookers. (SCI photo)Solar cooking in Kenya is helping people improve their nutrition. Some inexpensive, but nutritious foods, require hours of cooking. One of the many advantages of solar cooking is that these may be cooked without the purchase or gathering of fuelwood.

Prior to the advent of the Solar Cookers International (SCI) Sunny Solutions project in Nyakach, Kenya, Seline engaged in small trade, which earned her very little income. With four children to feed, she found it very difficult to make ends meet. As a result, her family mostly ate ugali, or maize meal, and vegetables except on the few occasions when they could afford fish. Her children were chronically malnourished; her third-born child, Ras, was nicknamed "a quarter" because her husband said one could carry the child in one palm and not feel any weight.

Seline started solar cooking in March 2003 when the project began. She was one of the most active cooks from the Mbogo Women Group and was trained to teach others to solar cook. Life has changed for Seline and her family. She is now a solar cooker representative (SCOREP) in North Nyakach. Her husband says: "I now eat delicious meals. Look at Ras.... He looks very healthy." Seline says all her children are healthy. The children love solar-cooked foods -- they ask for it every day, she says.

Seline solar cooks on most sunny days. Solar cooking involves the use of a small, portable device that collects energy from the sun to generate heat. Fuelwood is used only at night and on cloudy days. Therefore, she now collects or buys fuelwood only once every three days instead of daily. She estimates she saves about $6.60 a month in fuelwood costs. With her fuel-wood savings and earnings from cooker demonstrations she was able to purchase a goat in early 2004. That goat so far has given birth to four kids.

Seline’s cooking and training skills are regarded highly. Young mothers who initially shunned solar cooking have changed their minds and are now buying CooKits, lightweight solar panel cookers. Neighbors say Seline’s family now has a higher standard of living. The family's food is better and family members have nice clothing.

Seline's husband is very proud of her and takes part in looking for customers and putting on demonstrations. He uses the CooKit to train others when Seline is busy. Customers come to them to ask how the cooker works.

As the result of public exposure in Solar Cookers International newsletters and through attendance at SCI events, Seline now has a lot of confidence. The previously shy woman has gained respect and fame in the village and is now an outgoing and fearless trainer.

Source article: Solar Cooking Solution Changing Lives in Kenya (public domain, U.S. Government source, originally Julius Ochieng’s article published by Solar Cookers International).


Category: Kenya

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Solar powered water desalination device for emergency relief similar

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The Solar Cube provides up to 3,500 gallons of clean drinking water per day from polluted water or salt water, plus electricity.
If a disaster strikes, clean drinking water and emergency electricity can now be made available through a new device its makers call the Solar Cube.

Portable and assembled on site, the Solar Cube is powered by sunlight and wind, and can provide up to 3,500 gallons of clean drinking water per day from polluted water or salt water — enough to sustain hundreds of families in an emergency.

The Solar Cube is a cooperative project by Spectra Watermakers, Inc., of San Rafael, California and Trunz Metallchnik AG of Switzerland.

The two companies say it can also provide enough energy for emergency disaster officials to power refrigeration for emergency medical supplies, keep a laptop on-line, or ensure that crisis communications equipment remains operational.

The Solar Cube works by placing a pump, which is attached to the machine, into a polluted water or salt water source. The water is pumped through a series of filters to remove large matter. At the final stage, the water is filtered through a reverse osmosis membrane, which is so fine that it dispels all bacteria, viruses, salts and dangerous chemicals.

Power for the Solar Cube’s operation is generated by 24 volt batteries which are charged by both the integrated photovoltaic solar panels and a wind powered generator. Once assembled, the system is easy to operate, cleans its own filters, and has a service life of at least seven years, the companies say.

Photo of the Solar Cube in action >>

During the past year, the Solar Cube has been introduced into remote areas of Asia and South America. Prototypes provided drinking water and electrical power to several villages in Pakistan after the major earthquake in 2005. Currently, the Solar Cube is being used in isolated villages in Venezuela, and Pakistan.

The Solar Cube ranges in price from $38,000 to $80,000 USD. Training and operational instruction is included in the purchase price.

It's the latest in a series of new products to employ green technology to serve in emergency relief applications. Only a few weeks ago, Ecosphere Technologies of Florida introduced its Ecos LifeLink (see New all-in-one disaster relief system.)


More: Solar | Spectra Watermakers | Trunz Metallchnik | Water



Kenya slum turns sun into energy
By Celeste Hicks
BBC News


One thing Kenya is certainly not short of is good weather.
In one of Nairobi's poorest neighbourhoods, people have started working to make the best of the free energy potential of the sun.


The panels can power radios
Orders are already beginning to flood into the Kibera Community Youth Project (KCYP) for solar panels built in a small workshop in the heart of one of Africa's biggest slums.

Using skills and equipment passed on to them by a British volunteer, the young people are engaged in the entire line of production, from slicing the silicon sheets, to wiring the connectors, to calculating the correct voltages.

"We've been making solar panels of different sizes - 12, nine and six volts," says Mills Shamoli, a regular attendee at the solar energy group.

"We've learnt that they can power different sizes of radio, as well as charging mobiles and rechargeable batteries."

No batteries

British volunteer John Keane had a hunch the solar panels could be a popular product, after an earlier experience of living in a Tanzanian village with no electricity.


What I want to see... real benefit trickling down to individual persons

KCYP's Fred Ouko
"Everyone here seems to have a radio, but many of them don't have the funds to continually buy batteries, as they often don't have a reliable source of income," he says.

Many of the young people working on the solar project have never had a job, or seen anyone in their families have a job.

The average wage in Kibera is $1 a day but a small solar panel which takes just a matter of minutes to put together can sell for around $5.

Investment needed

Just a few months after the group completed their first prototype radio solar panel, they are already drawing up a business plan to turn the project into a self-sustaining enterprise.


The young are also gaining confidence
If they are successful in attracting investment, they would like to expand their sales to rural parts of western Kenya, where the electricity supply is often sporadic.

Fred Ouko is the co-ordinator of KCYP and he says the young people are really starting to gain in confidence.

"What I want to see is real empowerment, real benefit trickling down to individual persons," he says.

"They're actually making something up to a full product and then selling it, and they know now they can do this for themselves."




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