Cooking with solar ovens in sub-Saharan Africa

Although sub-Saharan areas may seem perfect for solar ovens, many people use wood or coal as the main source of energy for cooking, especially in areas that are not connected to the power grid.

As part of a series of Norad programs, NTNU professor Ole Jørgen Nydal has been working on developing various technological solutions to the problem with a group of African universities. Nydal has been at the forefront of a long-standing NTNU collaboration with universities in Uganda and Tanzania on developing the use of solar energy for cooking.

Recently, Nydal has written a summary and assessment of the various concepts that have been tried in an article published in the Energies journal. He points out that cooking with solar energy has a long history and involves many solutions—from can cookers to solar concentrators.