Solar cooking news archive 2009

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==December 2009==
*Prince Charles brings up "solar-powered cooking" in conversation with military personnel and their families.
*December 2009: Emancipated from the Smoky Kitchen by the Power of the Sun. Deborah Dao cooks her family three square meals a day - a responsibility which in this economy requires nearly constant preparation and cooking. Most women spend all day pounding millet, mixing the batter, chopping firewood and fanning the flames to cook their family's toh, but here there is no burning hearth, no fire, no smoke. On a closer look, you can see that Deborah is cooking with a solar oven - a wonderful appliance made by local carpenters with their own wood and just a few imported materials which harnesses solar radiation to collect heat energy. 
* Audio interview with Lamin Sawo where he discusses AHEAD's large-scale solar cooking project in The Gambia where 900 families are now regularly using solar cookers to cope with rising food prices and government restrictions of cutting trees.
* Mali: Solar cooking revolutionizes womens' lives in the kitchen - Deutsche Welle
==November 2009==
*Solar Cooker System as “Most Meaningful Carbon Offset” Campaign Launched - Sacramento Press
*The holidays are fast approaching. As in years past, Solar Cookers International (SCI) wishes to encourage its members and supporters to consider alternative gift-giving, the practice of making a meaningful contribution to a worthy cause in lieu of a traditional present. There are many great reasons to engage in this form of giving, including: promoting altruism, mitigating the effects of the holidays on the environment, and emphasizing the true spirit of the season. A popular way of participating in alternative giving is to make a donation in someone else’s name. For this we offer gift cards personalized with a hand-written message of your choosing. And for those who prefer to buy something that can be unwrapped, there’s good news -¬ the proceeds from sales of our solar cooking products support our nonprofit work, and the gift recipients are introduced to the wonderful benefits of cooking with the sun! To place your holiday orders, please visit the SCI Marketplace or contact SCI Office Manager and Marketing Coordinator Sierra Scott at (916) 455-4499. 
* Beyond Zero talks to Deepak Gadhia of Gadhia Solar (transcript, or audio)
*Solar cooking comes of age in Kenya - Al Jazeera
*New mobile solar bakery benefits the population of Méouane, Senegal (original in French) - Agence de Presse Sénégalaise (See also Solar restaurants and bakeries.)
*UN Environment Fund donates 140 solar cookers to the women of Ndoukoura, Senegal (French) - Agence de Presse Sénégalaise
* "Every [Indian] individual/household should have a solar cooker," says Arvind Virmani, Chief Economic Advisor, Ministry of Finance, Government of India. (Read interview) - Moneycontrol.com
*Beyond Zero Emissions interviews Wolfgang Scheffler: Audio and Transcript (Thousands of Scheffler Community Kitchens are now installed at hundreds of locations around the world. Wolfgang Scheffler has made his dish designs and associated intellectual property available for free to create a solar world.)
* A Reuters video shows an EcoAndina project in the village of Misa Rumi in Argentina where everything is powered by the sun. Pictured above is the town bakery where 5 kg of bread are cooked every hour.
==October 2009==
*Solar power gives Andean villages a new lease on life - Reuters
* The of Solar Cookers World Network's newsletter is now online.
* Kenya: Entrepreneurs Cashing in on Green Campaign - Business Daily (Nairobi)
*Hillary Clinton mentioned solar cooking in her remarks at the Global Philanthropy Forum Conference 2009: "...and women cooking meals over solar-powered stoves that produce less black carbon and soot. We see the cutting down of pollution and respiratory disease, and saving women from long trips to collect firewood, and save diminishing forests." (text, video)
*Solar Cookers at the National Defense University - Digital Video and Imagery Distribution
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* 60 Minutes clip about the great annual animal migration in Kenya and how it may be in danger due to charcoal production for cooking fuel
==September 2009==
*Solar Cookers International East Africa Office trainers traveled to the Kimilili District, Maeni Location, Kamusinde village of Kenya to train 36 community leaders involved with the Kamusinde Christian Community Based Organization in the use of solar cookers for cooking and water pasteurization.
* Solar Sport box cooker project launched in Uganda - All Africa.com
* Solar Cookers International is seeking a new Executive Director.
* The July 2009 issue of Solar Cooker Review is now online.
*Indian Government to back small manufacturers of off-grid solar applications
* Kiva is a website that connects individuals in developed countries with entrepreneurs in developing countries, facilitating person-to-person loans. If you are looking for funding for a solar cooking project, consider contacting the Kiva field partner in your country.
==August 2009==
* Indian government to increase funding for off grid solar power including solar cookers - Business Standard
* Former Peace Corps Volunteer Proposes Solar Cooker Project for Africa - U.S. News and World Report
* Senator Supports Solar Cookers in Darfur - The New Jersey Jewish News Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) says he will forward the results of President Obama's Special Envoy to Sudan General Scott Gration’s efforts to study and improve the efficacy of solar cookers, which, by reducing the need for women to leave refugee camps to gather firewood — where they are often attacked — can help decrease violence against them. 
* Solar cookers' Shine On at Sierra 2 - Sacramento Press (Press report about the Shine On event organized by Solar Cookers International)
* Dr. Bob Metcalf gave a very informative interview to Kirk Hamilton PA-C, of http://www.prescription2000.com, an online resource that delivers credible nutrition research to health professionals and to the public. Listen here. There is also a transcript available.
*National Defense University Project that Aims to Help War Torn Nations Includes Solar Cooking as one of its Recommended Deployable Technologies - Office of the Secretary of Defense Public Affairs
* Make a Parabolic Solar Cooker from a Bamboo Papasan Chair - The UberReview--Gadgets and Wired Madness
* Parabolic Solar Barbecue in Canada - The Standard
* Cooking with the Sun in Colorado - Washington DC Examiner.com
* Build a Solar Cooker from old CDs - Tree Hugger
* Students create Salud del Sol to market solar cookers as autoclaves in Nicaragua - State Department Federal Credit Union Brass Magazine
* Solar Cookers Help Maasai Women in Southern Kenya Lift Up Africa Newsletter Solar Cookers International and Lift Up Africa Form Partnership to bring solar cooking and retained heat cooking to Maasai women. 
* Minnesota Solar Ovens Help Feed the World's Hungry - CBS TV Affiliate WCCO Since 1988 the Solar Oven Society SOS Has Delivered Thousands of Solar Ovens Around the World.
* India's Largest Solar Cooker - Green Muze
==July 2009==
* CBS TV coverage viewable online: Solar cooking gaining in popularity and Sharon Cousins is championing the cause
* Solar Cookers International's Annual Report for 2008 is now available online.
* Solar cookers were featured on Good Morning America on July 29, 2009. Watch here.
* Solar Oven Chef is blogging/photographing what she cooks on every sunny day for one year.
* Solar Cookers International is now on Twitter.
*Solar Cookers International's annual Shine On event is fast approaching. Save the date: Wednesday, August 26th. This year's Shine On will be at Sacramento's Sierra 2 Center. Our featured speakers will be Dr. Bob Metcalf, who will give an update on the SCI Safe Water Project and Elaine Corn, Sacramento Bee food critic and Capital Public Radio personality. At last year's "Celebrating New Directions" Shine On we hosted 225 people who heard speakers, including Dr. Metcalf, talk about our recent successes and exciting new plans. Dr. Metcalf also showed off SCI's Portable Microbiology Laboratory (PML). Our guests feasted on hot dogs, veggies, and an array of delicious solar-baked desserts. We hope to see you again this year. Remember: Wednesday, August 26, 5:30 p.m. at the Sierra 2 Center, 2791 24th Street in Sacramento, California.
* Keep on the Sunny Side with a Solar Cooker - Cruising World (Boating family cruises off the Pacific coast of Mexico and cooks tamale pie with a solar HotPot)
* Saving the World One Falafel Ball at a Time - Huffington Post (Chefs learn to fry falafel balls in a parabolic solar cooker just before sunset)
* Solar Fueled Cookup A Hit - Stabroek News Georgetown (Guyanese observers and media were astounded to see that the cardboard and aluminum foil Cookit was able to cook a local chicken and rice dish in two hours using only sunlight.)
* Backyard BBQ with Sunshine - Mother Nature Network (After all the veggie dogs are scarfed, do backyard BBQs leave you with a not-so-green taste in your mouth? Give a solar oven a try.)
* Sun In the Oven - www.publicservice.co.uk. Karyn Ellis, Director of International Program Development at Solar Cookers International, explains how solar power can tackle disease.
* Economic Survey urges Indian Government to eliminate cooking fuel/kerosene subsidies and ensure rural households have a solar cooker and a solar lantern - The Hindu, Business Times 
*Discovery Channel Global Catastrophe Survival Series Participants Will Build Solar Cookers - Examiner.com
*FEDEX Delivers Solar Cookers to Myanmar Civil War Refugees in N. Thailand - Freight-Net
==June 2009==
*Utah Cooking Event Shines Spotlight on Solar Cooking - Salt Lake Tribune
* St. Petersburg Man grills in the backyard with a solar box cooker - 10 Connects.com
* Dan and Denise Rojas build a glass solar oven with scrap materials - DIY Solar Systems
*Ohio Engineering Students Build Solar Cookits and parabolic cookers for Africa - Mansfield News Journal 
*Solar Box cookers used for medical instrument sterilization in Nicaragua - World Changing
*New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine commends high school students for sending solar cookers to Darfur - Politicker New Jersey 
*Carbon Trade and Solar Cookers Benefit Farmers in NW China - China View. Poor Chinese farmers are benefitting from the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), a global initiative to reduce greenhouse gases. CDM is an arrangement under the Kyoto Protocol that allows industrialized nations to support projects to reduce emissions in developing nations as an alternative to more expensive projects at home. This CDM project is jointly conducted by a Ningxia-based company and the Environmental Center of Beijing-based Tsinghua University. Ningxia Fenglian Co. Ltd. will send out 120,000 free solar cookers to poor farmers in south Ningxia in 2009 and 2011.
* The Rotary Club of Jackson, California won gold with their international Integrated Solar Cooking Project during the 2009 Rotary District Conference of District 5190 in Reno. Teaching the Teachers" in Brazil during 12 weeks in 2008 was a succes. Their team held 12 hands-on workshop, teaching not only how to cook and pasteurize water with solar energy, but also how to make the solar cookers, rocket stoves and hay baskets (all elements of the Integrated Cooking Method). As a result in Brazil there is a team of 16 students perfectly able to teach how to use and make the solar cooking devices.
* Wellesley College senior wins $75,000 environmental prize - Wicked Local Welsley. In collaboration with Tibetan villagers and students from MIT,Wellesley senior Caitlin Powers created SolSource 3-in-1, an innovative solar cooker that also generates heat and electricity. The design, which won an additional $6,000 from the Clinton Global Initiative this month, is made from local resources.
==May 2009==
* Fighting Pneumonia - New York Times
* Google execs invite solar cooking NGOs to Mountain View campus for Earth Day event
* The March 2009 issue of Solar Cooker Review is now online.
==April 2009==
*How you can really use the power of the sun to cook - ABC TV - Phoenix (Jackie Harsha got 8 minutes on a popular Phoenix morning TV show to demonstrate the benefits of solar cooking. Video available online.)
*Solar energy cookers catch on - The Standard (Nairobi)
The current dry spell has been more severe in recent months leading to hunger in many parts of the country. [T]he main debate now in the public domain is how to harness solar heat into a worthwhile venture and channel the money meant for fuel into self- enhancement. Solar Cookers International (SCI), a non-profit organisation has come up with a new skill to help in tapping the natural solar energy for domestic purposes like cooking and water purification. Statistics indicate that nearly 25 per cent daily income of urban folks is spent on fuel. This money could be channeled into more pressing needs like education, medicine, housing or other investments if this new technology were to be embraced...
*Third-World Stove Soot Is Target in Climate Fight - New York Times (Includes discussion of solar cookers and fuel efficient stoves.)
*. Ceremony broadcast on Vietnamese national television.
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*SolarCycle, based at Brown University, Providence, RI, has developed a technology to convert waste plastic bags into panels that are then lined with reflective material from the inside of potato chip bags. They have also developed a trough-based water pasteurizer that can pasteurize 1000 liters of water per day. Micro-credit will be used to make these technologies affordable for the poor. Read more...
*Solar Cookers World Network (SCWNet) launches Canada/USA/Europe regional network.
*Inventor turns cardboard boxes into eco-friendly oven - CNN (Solar Cookers International alerted CNN that this invention is not new. CNN then updated the story to mention the work of SCI and others.)
* A stove powered by the sun is making a big difference in impoverished communities - National Geographic Video 
* Featured article: Promoting solar cooking in Afghanistan - In early 2009, Patricia McArdle was contacted by a large international agency about the possibility of providing large numbers of solar cookers for the population of Afghanistan. She set about gathering the advice of promotors with deep solar cooking experience in Afghanistan. This article details the results of her investigation.
==March 2009==
* The papers presented at the 2009 Solar Food Processing Conference in Indore, India are now available online.
*Lighting the way – Selco India - Financial Times
*How are solar cookers saving lives in Chad and Darfur? - HowStuffWorks
*The five fighters of climate change - Financial Times
*Featured article: Use these easy-to-remember shortcuts when sending links to people pointing to important articles on this wiki.
*Charcoal use burns up Africa's forests (Audio also available here) - Marketplace (NPR)
*Donate to solar cooking project online: Solar Cooking to Help Women Affected by War in El Salvador - Solar Household Energy
* The from Grupo Fenix shows how to cook Nicaraguan foods in a solar cooker. ( also available.)
*Simple Tool That Saves Women's Lives - Parade Magazine
*Shop online at GoodShop.com and a percentage of each purchase will be donated to support Solar Cookers International's work! More than 600 top stores are participating including Amazon, Target, Staples, Best Buy, and more! 
*Chad: After firewood ban, N'Djamena walk over burning coals
==February 2009==
File:Sun Scoop
*Featured article: The Sun Scoop, designed by Stephen Harrigan, is a light weight box type solar cooker. This waterproof cooker is made from plastic flute board (just like corrugated cardboard, but made of plastic). Large enough to accomodate multiple cooking pots, the Sun Scoop is designed to be manufactured in simple workshops in developing countries. It has a simple glass door with inner tube for the seal and hinges and clasps that are simple to make and easily replaced if broken. Snaps open and adjusts for the angle of the sun. No need to tip the cooker or have the food on a swinging tray. 
*Some Palestinians turn to solar cooking during Gaza siege - IslamOnline.net
*Audio interview with Patricia McArdle: After learning how to build solar cookers from plans downloaded from the Solar Cooking Archive during her service with the US State Department in Afghanistan, Patricia McArdle has taken on the task of moving solar cooking into the mainstream in US Government development agencies. This wide-ranging interview takes us through her successes and disappointments in this effort. Patricia also discusses her recent trips to Nepal where she demonstrated the HotPot solar cooker in remote villages, and India, where she attended two important conferences. Listen to this interview on Calling All Solar Cookers.
*Villagers go solar - Tuoi Tre (Covers recent work of Vietnam Solar Serve.)
* These cooks busiest when sun is shining - San Diego Union-Tribune (Discusses the San Diego Solar Cooking Club.)
*Just a note to remind everyone that we have discussion forum as a companion to this site: http://solarcooking.org/phpBB2/index.php
*Featured article: Cooking for large groups
*Sun Worship and Self Reliance from the blog HIV in Kenya.
==January 2009==
*Video: At the 2009 ETHOS Conference Dale Andreatta spoke about water pasteurization, the development of the WAPI (a simple device for determining whether water has been heated to a temperature that makes it safe to drink), flow-through water pasteurization devices, and strategies to pasteurize water with the waste heat from a wood-burning cookstove (Embedded video on right. Direct link to video here.).
*The Chad Government's ban on charcoal and fresh cut fire wood in N'djamena creates 'explosive' fuel shortage crisis in city: Here's what's happening in N'djamena this week after the charcoal ban went into effect: "'As we speak women and children are on the outskirts of N'djamena scavenging for dead branches, cow dung or the occasional scrap of charcoal,' Merlin Totinon Ngutan, head of the UN Human Settlements Programme (HABITAT) in Chad, told IRIN from the capital. 'People cannot cook. Women giving birth cannot even find a bit of charcoal to heat water for washing,' Mrs. Narmadji, with the Association of Women for Development in Chad, told IRIN." (Source: Banging pots and pans to end charcoal ban - allAfrica.com)
* Upcoming event: March 1-3, 2009: Workshop on Entrepreneurship in Renewable Energy" with special emphasis on manufacturing parabolic solar cookers in Dhule, India. 
*Miriam Kashia reports that in their training 60 recent Peace Corps volunteers were provided with solar cookers manufactured in Namibia. They each took these to their villages for use there. More information.
* The November 2008 issue of Solar Cooker Review is now online.
* Reader's Digest has awarded a $10,000 grant to Jewish World Watch for its landmark Solar Cooker Project.