Members of several Japanese environmental non-governmental organizations (NGOs) joined together to establish an organization called "Solar Cooker Japan (SCJ)" in February, 2007. The group aims to promote solar cooking in Africa with a new solar cooker prototype - an inflatable solar cooker invented by a Japanese industrial designer, Tomohiro Ohmura. SCJ started promoting the cooker in Kenya, demonstrating it at various places and to Kenyan governmental officials. The organization is also performing verification tests in cooperation with a local NGO.
Wood-fueled cooking is still popular in Africa, and logging for cooking fuel has become a serious problem, leading to rapidly worsening deforestation and desertification problems. Expectations are high for solar cookers, which allow cooking without fuel when the sun is out. This eco-friendly technology, however, has yet to be fully promoted. High condensing parabolic solar cookers are expensive because of the high-quality metals needed for light reflectors, while panel-type solar cookers are inexpensive but still of insufficient quality.
The newly developed inflatable solar cooker is made of rubber. When the cooker is inflated with air, light reflectors made of aluminum evaporated film stretch out on its concave orbicular surface. It gives high performance using low-cost light reflectors. It is also portable when deflated. SCJ plans to modify the product to meet local needs, expecting to manufacture the new cooker in Kenya in the future.
Please contact Mr. Toshikazu Mito, SCJ at mitotoshi@gmail.com for details.
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