Solar energy can be the main power source for heating, lighting, hot water, telephoning, and even cooking! By Georges Lauzin & Thibaud Paya

Seizing solar power: click HERE to watch the video!

Everybody knows that the Earth is in a bad way because of global warming. You should use a bicycle rather than a car, etc., etc. We are going to show you how to do your bit to save the planet by using the sun’s energy to cook at home; it’s easy and costs very little!

The first solar oven to be built was the solar furnace of Mont-Louis in 1949 in the Midi-Pyrénées, France. Today, this furnace is used to make pottery.

The biggest is the solar furnace of Odeillo, also in the South-West of France, used to produce electricity. Two mirrors, one which can move to follow the sun and the other, which is curved and unmovable, faces the first mirror. It’s very simple to understand how it works. The first mirror guides the solar rays on to the other one which, with its concave shape, concentrates the solar rays to the spot where it crosses with the rays coming from the first mirror. It is called the “hearth” and the temperature can rise to over 3000°C inside!

Odeillo

There is a type of oven that you can build yourself that you can use on sunny days. It’s simple to make and it uses solar energy to cook your food. It’s more economical and less polluting than conventional ovens. You need two cardboard boxes, another piece of cardboard for the cover, 300 grams of glue, a roll of aluminum foil, a bomb of black paint, a plastic bag for the baking and that’s all.

Instructions for your DIY solar oven: 

Put the smallest box in the larger one (fig. 1), having put crumpled newspaper in the bottom of the outer box to leave a space between the two boxes.

Cut the corners to fold the sides over those of the bigger box (figs. 2 and 3).

                    

Then take the other cardboard and cut the corners and fold it (fig. 4) to make the cover.

To build the reflector, cut a rectangle in the cover, open it and glue aluminium foil on it to reflect the sunlight (last fig.).

Place your oven in a sunny spot and start cooking!

That’s it! You can go to this website to perfect your oven: http://solarcooking.org/francais/minimum-fr.htm

The NGO Bolivia Inti-Sud Soleil fights poverty in South America and in Africa. It has made more than 30,000 solar cookers that are used all over the world. Go to their website (http://www.boliviainti-sudsoleil.org/) and make a donation, that way you can help people in developing countries as well as fight global warming!