COOKING WITH SOLAR COOKERS INSTEAD OF CHARCOAL

ADES advocates cooking with solar energy in order to support the people in Madagascar and help protect the environment.

From time immemorial the people of Madagascar have been cooking their food on wood fires, which requires vast amounts of firewood in the shape of charcoal. A Madagascan family uses about 100 kg of charcoal every month, the cost of which amounts to a quarter of an average monthly income. Both the waste of wood and the expenditures are not necessary, since Madagascar has ideal conditions for the use of solar energy, above all in the southern parts of the island.

Solar cookers, therefore, are a great benefit to the population.

• Dependence on wood and charcoal and the resulting costs will decrease.
• A solar cooker pays itself off after only five or six months.
• Cooking with the solar cooker is free of emissions, there is no smoke that affects people’s health and reduces their life expectancy.
• There is no CO2, which is a major cause for the greenhouse effect.
• People do not have to tend cooking fires, which frees them for other, more useful tasks.
• Deforestation is slowed down, which contributes to the conservation of biodiversity.
• 100 solar cookers save 720 tons of wood a year, which translates into 320 acres of dry forest in the south of Madagascar. 

What are solar cookers?

A solar cooker is an insulated box inside which temperatures up to 150°C can be generated simply by the incidence of sunlight.

This temperature is sufficient for the preparation of practically all meals: Rice, manioc, maize, potatoes, vegetables, meat and fish. Bread and cakes can also be baked; even the sterilisation of water or medical instruments causes no problem.

There are other varieties of solar cookers, e.g. the parabolic solar cooker and the desiccating solar cooker. For more detailed information go to The different varieties.

Production, assembly and sales

The production of solar cookers is straightforward.

Local craftsmen produce the solar cookers in the ADES factory in Tuléar, Ejeda und Morondava in the south of Madagascar. Due to donations ADES can sell them to the people at modest prices. An essential part of ADES aid is to convince the population of the benefits of cooking with solar energy. Regular demonstrations on how to use the solar cooker take place in outlying villages and in urban areas. In Tuléar ADES also offers solar cooking classes in their own training centre, which are always well attended.