Solar Cookers International

Solar Cookers International

Founded	1987
Location	1919 21st Street, Suite # 101, Sacramento, California, 95811, USA
Area served	Worldwide
Focus	Solar cooking and Water pasteurization
Revenue	$912,831 (2010 fiscal year)
Endowment	$25,000 (as of June 30, 2010)
Employees	5
Motto	Harnessing the power of the sun to benefit people and the environment.
Website	http://www.solarcookers.org/
References: Member of Solar Cookers World Network

Solar Cookers International (SCI) is a California 501(c)(3) nonprofit, non-governmental organization (NGO) that spreads solar cooking awareness and skills worldwide, particularly in areas with plentiful sunshine and diminishing sources of cooking fuel. SCI has been working in Africa since 1995.

SCI sponsors the Solar Cookers World Network, an association of approximately 500 NGOs, manufacturers, and individiuals involved in solar cooking. It also publishes Solar Cooker Review. SCI won an Ashden Award in 2002 for their work with solar cookers in Kenya. SCI is headquartered in Sacramento, California, USA.

History

Solar Cookers International was founded in 1987 as Solar Box Cookers International by several supporters residing in the Central Valley of California. Among the founders were:

• Bev Blum: first president and executive director of SCI from 1989–1999 and 2003-2006. She developed a mass-producible, foldable box cooker in 1992, and coordinated the development of the CooKit solar cooker. In 2009 she was the secretariat of the Solar Cookers World Network.
• Barbara Kerr: co-developer of the Kerr-Cole solar box cooker built from two nested cardboard boxes. She co-founded the Kerr-Cole Sustainable Living Center in Taylor, Arizona, USA. She received the "Women in Solar Energy" award from the American Solar Energy Society in July, 2006.
• Bob Metcalf: professor of microbiology at California State University at Sacramento and was selected as the 2000-2001 Outstanding Teacher in the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics. He is known for his work on solar water pasteurization.

SCI produced and distributed manuals describing construction and use of solar box style cookers. They became advocates of how solar cooking could be incorporated into development and relief agency programs. SCI's role evolved into networking with other solar cooking organizations worldwide. They hosted forums for dialog including co-sponsoring three international solar cooking conferences with the University of the Pacific, USA in 1992, the National University of Costa Rica in 1994 and the deemed university, Coimbatore, India in 1997.

SCI also administered a series of solar cooking field projects. Since 1995, SCI has managed or co-managed solar cooking projects in the Nyakach district, Kenya; in the Kakuma refugee camp, Kenya; in the Aisha refugee camp, Ethiopia; in various communities, Zimbabwe; and in Dadaab refugee camp, Kenya.

SCI supported the development of the CooKit, a mass-producible, foldable solar cooker in the 1990s.

Programs & projects

SCI's Water Pasteurization Indicator. The tube on the left shows the state when it is placed in a pot of water to be pasteurized. When removed from the water, if the wax has melted and moved to the bottom of the tube (as in the tube on the right), then the water has reached pasteurization temperature during heating

SCI was instrumental in the formation of the Solar Cookers World Network, which is an association of approximately 500 non-governmental organizations and government agencies, manufacturers, and individuals promoting solar cooking throughout the world. The Solar Cookers World Network wiki includes over 1800 articles categorized by country, individual, NGO, manufacturer, and solar cooker designs. Also included is information regarding related technologies such as heat-retention cooking, water pasteurization, solar food processing, solar food drying, solar autoclaving, and solar canning. The Network maintains a wiki-based website] that allows the network members to share information and experiences at scwnet.org. As of 2011, Network members have distributed more than one million solar cookers.

SCI has hosted regional and international solar cooking conferences, most recently the Solar Cookers International Conference held in Granada Spain in 2006. SCI publishes Solar Cooker Review three times a year.

CooKit

SCI developed the CooKit as an adaptation of a cooker designed by Dr. Roger Bernard in France. The cooker consists of a foil-lined cardboard reflector with a dark pot inside a plastic bag. This simple mechanism converts hundreds of watts of sunlight into heat and can cook one or two pots of food at a time.

SCI has set up local production of this cooker in Nairobi, Kenya and in Sacramento, California. The CooKit is used in scores of solar cooking projects around the world.

Cardboard, aluminium foil, and plastic bags for well over 10,000 solar cookers have been donated to the Iridimi refugee camp and Touloum refugee camps in Chad by the combined efforts of the Jewish World Watch, the Dutch foundation KoZon, and SCI. The refugees construct the cookers themselves, using the donated supplies and locally purchased Arabic gum, and use them for midday and evening meals. The goal of this project was to reduce the Darfuri women's need to leave the relative safety of the camp to gather firewood, which exposed them to a high risk of being beaten, raped, kidnapped, or murdered. It has also significantly reduced the amount of time women spend tending open fires each day, with the results that they are healthier and they have more time to grow vegetables for their families and make handicrafts for export.

Water Pasteurization Indicator

The water pasteurization indicator (WAPI) is a simple thermometer that indicates when water has reached pasteurization temperature and is safe to drink. It was invented by Fred Barrett and Dale Andreatta.

Pasteurization destroys all microorganisms that cause diseases from drinking contaminated water and milk. A small polycarbonate tube contains a wax that melts when water or milk is heated enough to be pasteurized (65 ˚C/149 ˚F). This saves much fuel by eliminating the need to boil water or milk to ensure that the pasteurization temperature has been reached.

Since water pasteurizes at temperatures well below the boiling point of water, WAPIs save time when solar pasteurizing, and save fuel when using traditional fuels.

WAPIs are often used in projects where solar water pasteurization is taught by SCI and other NGOs.^{[citation needed]}

See also

• Indian Solar Loan Programme
• International Renewable Energy Agency
• Kyoto box
• Renewable energy in Africa
• Renewable energy in China
• SolarAid
• Solar for all
• Solar powered refrigerator
• UN-Energy

External links

• Official website
• Solar Cookers World Network Wiki, an external wiki