Subject: SOLAR BOX COOKERS

From: [email-masked] (Jeff Ansley)
Date: 12 Dec 94 00:49:00 -0500

This article was written by Mark Hankins of Energy Alternatives Africa, 
a consulting and education firm based in Nairobi, Kenya.  Solar cookers 
are often talked about as the answer to Kenya's fuelwood problems.  
Here's a brief report of his latest activity, a survey of the use of 
solar cookers that have been placed in the field.

Solar cookers: an answer to the greenhouse effect?

"Stop deforestation! Stop the greenhouse effect! Stop pollution!
Save the environment!" These are the slogans with which solar box
cookers are being promoted and large sums of money are being raised
to bring this technology to the Third World. Solar cookers seem
like a great idea. But are people using them? Do they really stop
deforestation and the greenhouse effect? 
     GEF Small Grants Fund funded a survey of solar cookers in
Kenya to find out what is actually happening in five solar cooker
programmes in the field. The survey was carried out by Climate
Network Africa and Energy Alternatives Africa. Results show that
most cookers are not in use.
     Reasons are varied: the cookers built by Dan Kammen's
Earthwatch programme are literally falling apart; cookers are too
small for large Kenyan families; the three-stone fire is still
needed for all its other uses; women in urban slums and rural areas
cannot leave the cookers alone for fear the cooker will be stolen
or the food tampered with; most women are not sufficiently trained
in the use of the cooker and can't afford the risk of spoiling the
little food they have.
     The major problem, however, is in the way the cookers are
disseminated. Women are the last to be consulted, and some project
leaders said they were "bulldozed" into accepting solar cooking
projects. The cookers are highly subsidized, and the survey did not
find a single private entrepreneur selling stoves on the market. 
     In answer to the question, "are solar cookers saving trees?",
the answer is 'no'. The reason is that women are not the primary
cause of deforestation and ghg emissions in Kenya. If stopping the
greenhouse effect is the main reason for promoting solar cooking,
then the primary target group should be American and European
housewives who are cooking on fossil fuel-derived electricity.
     Does this mean we should give up on solar cookers? No, but we
should apply the lessons learned from technology transfer in the
past. Sustainable development starts with people, not with pieces
of equipment.

Contact: CNA or Energy Alternatives Africa, PO Box 76406, Nairobi,
Kenya. Tel: +254-2-565616.  Or [email-masked]