Terms of use

Privacy policy

In the global south the majority of people use either wood or charcoal as the fuel for cooking. Trees are being cut down at an unsustainable rate. Large areas of countryside that were once covered with trees are no devoid of all cover resulting in soil instability and erosion. For local people this means that they either have to go further and spend more time looking for wood or they are faced with the ever increasing cost of fuel to cook with as demand outstrips supply.

Current practice today

Cooking is done on open 3-stone fires which consume much wood. There are new designs of stove available which are more fuel efficient but they still rely on wood or charcoal.

Ambitions for a better solution

SOWTech have sought to design and develop an eCook stove that can use the sun harnessed by solar panels to provide the power to cook food and to preheat water.

The "SOWTech Design"

We have been taken part in a Modern Energy Cooking Services project run by Loughborough University and funded by UK Aid to devise an eCook stove suitable for use in rural households. The basis of the e-cook stove is that it can be made in country by local people with the minimum of parts imported. The stove uses solar panels which are connected via a power optimisation devise to the stove containing phase change material as a heat storage battery. This will enable to stove to be used when the food is needed to be cooked and not just when the sun shines.

Read more>>>

Solar powered cooking

This material has been funded by UK aid from the UK government and is implemented by the Department of International Development; however, the views expressed do not necessarily reflect the UK government’s official policies.