1 Tahrcountry Musings: Kenyan Inventor Develops Cheap Efficient Solar Cooker and Wins an Award

Friday, April 10, 2009

Kenyan Inventor Develops Cheap Efficient Solar Cooker and Wins an Award

I was delighted to hear about this news about a new solar cooker with enormous potential. A Kenyan inventor has won the $75,000 prize for his solar cooker made from cardboard. The cooker is made from two cardboard boxes, which use reflective foil and black paint to maximise absorption of solar energy. The temperatures inside the pot can reach at least 80C. The device can be used for cooking and for sterilising water.

The competition was organized by the organization Forum for the Future in association with Financial Times newspaper and technology company HP. The aim of the competition was to support concepts that have "moved off the drawing board and demonstrated their feasibility" for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but have not gained corporate backing.

The inventor says the device will help to reduce dependence on firewood thereby putting a brake on deforestation. According to him it will also give a boost to health as it has the potential to reduce the ill effects of smoke. Nearly two billion people in the world use firewood as their primary fuel. So the potential is enormous.

I did not give you the name of the inventor. Here it is. He is Jon Bohmer, who founded the company Kyoto Energy in Kenya. Hats off to him for developing a simple device that has the potential to reduce deforestation in developing and under developed countries.









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