China

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Solar cookers shown in use in Tibetan areas of China help reduce the difficult task of gathering cooking fuel.
==Events==
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*December 2012: Large solar cooker program in Zhangye - 49,000 solar cookers have been distributed to low-income residents in Zhangye, through the Heqing Solar Cooker Project! In this rural area, coal has historically been the primary fuel source. The high altiude location of Zhangye makes it ideal for solar cooking and a carbon offset program. Read more...
*August 2018: Solar cooker demonstration in Dezhou - Two dozen chefs with white aprons and hats prepared soups, baked "baozi" pork buns, and boiled rice porridge at a festival designed to demonstrate the potential of solar cookers that organizers claim can help reduce climate-changing greenhouse gas emissions. As hundreds of people strolled by, chefs armed with oven mitts scaled ladders to uncover piping-hot cooking tubes arrayed on nearly 2-meter (6-foot)-tall industrial racks. Smaller-scale vendors used 1-meter (3-foot)-long solar cookers designed to fold up for picnics. Read more...
*September 2017: The 2017 2nd International Conference on Advances in Energy and Environmental Research (ICAREE 2017) organized by the Global Scientific Research Association (GSRA) was held on 11-13 August 2017 in Guangzhou, China. Representing solar cooking, Shyam Nandwani, Ph.D., was one of the keynote speakers. There were about 40 participants, mainly from China, the rest from Taiwan, Indonesia, England, and Dr. Nandwani from Costa Rica. 
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(Information for this section was taken originally from by Dr. Barbara Knudson)
The world's largest solar cooker programs are found in China. One contemporary
spokesperson for this issue in China is Chen Xiaofu, Deputy Secretary General of the
China Association for Rural Energy. He writes that China has been active in designing
devices, in materials technology, in establishing technical standards for industrial
production, and in dissemination and sales for over 20 years. An earlier spokesman,
speaking at the First World Conference in Solar Cooking, held in 1992, provides an even
longer history. Wang Xiping, a participant in that meeting in Stockton, California,
outlines the use of light-collecting and focusing devices in China back into antiquity. He
tell his audience that solar cooking had appeared in China before the beginning of the 20th
century, with Peking duck roasted in Xiao's Duck Shop, ChengDu, China, in 1894
(Pejak, ed., 1993, p. 12).
Both gentlemen and other reporters tell of a number of efforts within China in the
1980s and 1990s. Following up on an initial meeting in 1973 on solar cooking as a new
technology, the first China National Solar Energy Congress was held in 1975, a second in
1979. From initially using principally circular parabolics and simple box cookers, new
and improved designs were introduced during this period, and materials for several new
designs were explored and tested. In 1982, at the national level, a United Key Task Team on Solar Cooking was created, under the auspices of the Ministry of Agriculture, since
the technology was particularly needed in rural areas where fuelwood was increasingly in
short supply. The work of the Task Team was to begin the rigorous assessment and
establishment of standards for solar cooking devices to assist consumers and policy
makers in comparing the efficiency and consumer acceptability of solar stoves. Even as
this was occurring, solar cooking was spreading rapidly through the countryside as the
new designs emerged. The need for mechanisms to evaluate cooking equipment became
clear; by 1990, National Standards for examining and testing focusing cookers were
ratified by the China State Standard Agency. Over time, these beginnings have led to
movement from experimentation to industrial production, and from strong government
support to semi-commercial dissemination strategies.
Most of the effort has been focused on rural areas. Districts with cooking fuel
shortages have shown strong support for cookers using the sun's energy. Even as
subsidies have been reduced, sales have continued to grow. Factories supply most of the
cookers, which are made of metal or concrete, with glass as reflecting mirrors. Others are
made by hand, and in both modes, new and improved designs continue to be developed
and tested. Government sources continue to provide technical and financial assistance,
both to active and potential manufacturers and to low-income consumers, through
subsidies and tax reductions.
The most recent estimate of cookers in use in China is 560,000. While there is
considerable variance by region, each cooker is believed to have saved from 600-1,000
kg (somewhat under 300 to 500 pounds) of fuelwood per year, important benefits
to both economic and environmental circumstances.
Tibet appears to be a special case in regard to solar cookers. The Solar Energy
Research and Demonstration Center of Tibet, in Lhasa, indicates that approximately
70,000 solar cookers, mostly of the concentrator type, have been sold in Tibet. Initially,
these sales were heavily subsidized, but that seems no longer to be the case. The cost of
the devices is roughly USD 60, but fuel savings amortize the cost quickly. The devices are
more popular in rural areas than in cities, as agriculturalists and herders are eager to save
animal dung for use as fertilizer rather than as cooking fuel.
An example was seen recently by American subscribers to the National Geographic magazine. Many were startled when they opened the January 2002 issue of 
National Geographic to find a picture of a woman making herself tea beside a modest
house in the middle of China's Alashan Plateau, an isolated high natural desert in the far
north of China, bordering Mongolia. The surprise was the stove she used, a mirrored
solar collector. The brief story said that she was a widow of Mongolian heritage, 72
years old, living alone since the death of her husband almost 30 years ago, existing on
earnings from herding camel and sheep. The lonely life meant she saw few people and
had few opportunities to spend her small income. She therefore decided to invest in some
"creature comfort" for herself and purchased a parabolic solar cooker for about USD 150.
She uses it regularly to cook her meals, make tea, and prepare food for occasional
visitors in this area where the sun shines most days. She was very pleased with herself
and her purchase.
Many reports of correspondence from manufacturers, research institutes, and social
organizations confirm the steady interest in China in solar cooking. Perhaps this interest,
expertise, and promising experience with solar cookers might be harnessed in some way
to assist other nations of the region.
To that end, a September 1994 International Solar Energy Applications Training
Workshop was held for citizens of other Asian nations, sponsored by the National Energy
Research Institute of Gansu Province, Academy of Science, and aided by the Ministry of
Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation. The workshop is one excellent model for
dissemination of the technology in Asia. China was also represented among those
demonstrating solar cooking at the 2002 Johannesburg World Social Summit.
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Solar Cookers International has rated China as the #2 country in the world in terms of solar cooking potential (See: ). The estimated number of people in China
with fuel scarcity but ample sun in 2020 is 98,100,000.
See also:
* 
*
* Solar cooker dissemination and cultural variables
==Carbon credit projects==
*Federal Intertrade Hong-Ru River Solar Cooker Project
*Federal Intertrade Pengyang Solar Cooker Project
==Resources==
===Websites===
===Reports===
*April 2014: Market Research Report on Global and Chinese Solar Cooker Industry, 2009-2019 (report costs USD 2400)
*February 15, 2014: - Trish Sheehan (Solar Household Energy)
*August 2013: 2013 World Bank Assessment of Solar Cooking in China
*September 2013:  - World Bank
*October 2009: Tibetan Development Trust Project: Solar Cookers for 1,656 Rural Tibetans
*April 2009: 
*July 2008: Solar Cooker Project for Asyid and Duoca Villages - Shem Women's Group
*July 2008: Solar Cooker Projects for Tajie Village - Shem Women's Group
*April 2008: Solar Cooker Project for Ragongma and Dzelungtang Villages - Shem Women's Group
*November 2007: (original German text with photos), 
*September 2007: Development and Application of Solar Cooker in China - Caihua Dorji and Kevin Stuart
*September 2007: 140 Solar Cookers for Thuwa Tsang and Agong ChunwaThuwa Tsang Tibetan Villages - Lerjiater and Kevin Stuart
*November 2007: 43 Solar Cookers for Hualongkou Village - Songji Zhaxi (Ha Mingzong, Lionel) and Kevin Stuart
*July 2007: Solar cooker project for Chalitong Village - Shem Women's Group
*February 2007: Solar Cookers for Heluoshi Village - Shem Women's Group
*December 2006: Solar Cookers for Yehe Village - Shem Women's Group
*July 2006: - Chen Xiaofu and Han Tingcun
*April 2006: Solar Cookers for Tawa Gongma Nunnery - Shem Women's Group
*February 2005: - Chen Xiaofu
===Audio and video===
*June 2012:
::thumb|none|455px|Solar cookers shown in use in Tibetan areas of China help reduce the difficult task of gathering bushes for fuel.
===Articles in the media===
*June 2009: China and Kenya setting up a joint venture for solar energy products - Chinaafrica.asia
*May 2009: SolSource 3-in-1: An Alternative Energy Solution - WorldChanging
* February 2009: Senior wins Gates scholarship - MIT News
* June 2008: Portable Solar Cookers For Tibet - Lucky!
* March 2008: Black carbon pollution emerges as major player in global warming - Scripps Institution of Oceanography
* November 2006: Chinese company makes, exports thousands of solar cookers
===External links===
*Frequently-Asked Questions "Chinese"
*Theories behind a Chinese Reflective Solar Cooker - Li-Yan Zhu
Category:Countries
Category:China
Category:East Asia
Category:Asia
Category:Countries with the greatest solar cooking potential