Sun Ovens International (SOI) is committed to providing an alternative to cooking with wood and charcoal in deforested developing countries that have been blessed with an abundance of sunshine. SOI makes high quality solar cooking technology that can bake, boil and steam food at high temperatures powered by the sun and has developed successful project models that incorporate the use of solar cooking into programs to improve the lives of people in the developing world. The Global Sun Oven is designed to meet up to 70% the cooking needs of a typical family, entirely with the power of the sun. Cooking temperatures of 360°F (182°C) can be maintained in this easy-to-use unit. This oven weighs only 9.5 kg and will last more than 20 years. A complete assembly system is available to transfer the technology to enable the ovens to be made in developing countries. The Villager Sun Oven is a commercial oven designed for large-scale feeding situations that require cooking great volumes of food. Cooking temperatures of 500°F (260° C) can be maintained with no fuel costs. The Villager is equipped with an LPG back-up unit. This oven weighs 980 lbs. 444 kg and comes mounted on a trailer. The Villager Sun Oven is available with an optional micro-sun bakery package. This turn-key package bakery enables the creation of self-sustaining micro-enterprise to turn out fresh baked goods while creating jobs and eliminating the cost of fuel.
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Our Focus
Afghanistan Australia Dominican Republic Ghana Haiti Honduras Kenya Nigeria Nicaragua Rwanda Sri Lanka South Africa Tanzania Uganda Zambia
Our Experience And Interest In The Four PCIA Central Focus Areas
The Global Sun Oven has been designed to overcome the cultural obstacles that have prevented solar cooking from becoming more wide spread in the developing world. The most often-cited reason for the failure of solar cooking projects is that many people in the developing world eat their main meal of the day after sundown. Food cooked in most solar cooking devices must be consumed immediately, or it will become cold. The Global Sun Oven is very well insulted, which allows food cooked in the afternoon sun to stay warm until it is ready to be consumed later in the evening, after the sun goes down. Another reason solar cooking has not been widely accepted is that most solar cookers require more time to cook than cooking over a wood fire. The GLOBAL SUN OVEN has been designed to cook in the same amount of time as cooking over a traditional three stone wood fire. NGO’s which have worked with Global Sun Oven have found they have had an easier time getting people to use them because the Sun Ovens work so well and maintain cooking temperatures significantly higher than other types of solar devices.
A major obstacle that must be overcome before solar cooking can obtain widespread acceptance is that the people who need them the most cannot afford to purchase them. we have developed a plan to make solar cooking devices available in the most cost-effective manner possible. This will be accomplished by opening a manufacturing/assembling facility in the areas in which the ovens will be used, and by providing financing, which will allow the poor to pay for the ovens with what they save by not buying other cooking fuels. Producing these ovens locally will significantly decrease the shipping costs, and using local labor for production will create jobs and reduce the overall cost of each oven produced. A revolving loan fund can be established to allow the purchase a GLOBAL SUN OVEN through periodic payments (using money, which is currently being spent to buy charcoal) until it is paid for. If the monthly payments are fixed at approximately 60% of what a family saves by not purchasing other cooking fuels, the high quality solar cooking devices can be successfully distributed in the developing world. By fixing the payment at 60% of the savings, the remaining 40% serves as an incentive to those using the ovens, and takes money that literally goes up in smoke and distributes it through the local economy.
We take a different approach to solar cooking than most organizations. We have taken a concept which has been around for centuries, and has combined it with more improved materials to make the most effective solar cooking devices in the world. The GLOBAL SUN OVEN has been designed to overcome most of the cultural barriers, which have restricted the widespread use of the sun for cooking. The Global Sun Oven is often compared with box cookers made out of aluminum foil and cardboard or homemade boxes of various sizes and shapes. While the energy conversion principles are the same, the materials utilized in manufacturing a GLOBAL SUN OVEN have been carefully researched to include the most efficient materials available. In order to capture the maximum amount of energy, achieve the highest possible temperature, and retain the greatest amount of heat possible, while minimizing the weight, the materials utilized have been selected based on efficiency and quality. The initial price of a Global Sun Oven is higher but due to its long life and ability to cook on partly cloudy days the cost per meal is lower than any other solar cooking device.
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Our Contribution to the Partnership
Sun Ovens International, Inc. has developed successful project models that incorporate the use of solar cooking into programs to improve the lives of people in the developing world. We are seeking to partner with NGOs, private sector entrepreneurs, and governments to successfully transfer the technology and culturally appropriate implementation strategies.
