Solar Cookers for All

Summary

About 2.4 billion people in the world cook on wood, animal waste or charcoal fires because they lack sustainable fuel (solarcooker.org). While doing so, they inhale the smoke and soot known to cause health problems. This SI project wants to co-create solar cookers together with the most vulnerable communities in Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and further valorize the gained knowledge. Such cookers will harness free solar energy so that people can breathe clean air and drink safe water while preserving the environment. The specific goal of the project is to design inexpensive solar cookers for domestic use. Solar cookers are commercially available but often need to be imported and are very expensive. In addition, they are not necessarily adapted to the local needs. Therefore, an important requirement of our project is that the newly developed solar cookers are made locally from recycled material and responding to the local needs. At the same time a business plan for local small companies will be developed so that the final product can be manufactured locally and distributed at low costs so that the most vulnerable can benefit from it. To create these inexpensive solar cookers, the project will start-up a multidisciplinary research and development line within the University of Lubumbashi (UNILU, DRC), in cooperation with UHasselt, to test new prototypes. To achieve this, interdisciplinary expertise from many different faculties at both universities will be integrated to enable a maximum exchange of expertise. This project is considered successful when the team in UNILU reaches international recognition on R&D of solar cookers, with the assistance of the UHasselt team. We are convinced that our inexpensive prototypes will be fit for small businesses to produce and sell anywhere in DRC, Africa, or the world. Finally, the project will educate a new generation of students to come up with innovative solutions for many SDG’s, ensuring the sustainability of the project.

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