Solar Cookers – Heqing, Gansu, China

Project Description

The rural area in Zhangye is an underdeveloped region and is an ideal region for utilizing solar energy.  Located at high altitude, the region has many sunny days and is one of the most suitable regions in China for utilizing solar energy

49,000 focusing type solar thermal cookers were installed for rural residents in remote areas.  The rated power of each solar cooker is 910 W thermal and the total installed capacity is 44.59 MW thermal.  No construction is required to utilise the solar cookers

Without the project, rural residents use coal-fired stoves for their daily cooking and water boiling as cutting wood and vegetation is illegal (no firewood is used) and electricity is only used for lighting.  Also, the availability of straw is limited so straw is used for feeding animals and animal wastes are used for fertilizers in the fields

The project enables approximately 196,000 villagers to efficiently utilize solar energy and substitute it for coal.

The project does not generate electricity nor is it connected to any power grids.  It is clean energy project which avoids adverse impacts to the local environment and no pollution is produced

Sustainability Beyond Carbon

Project serves as a model for other projects and helps stimulate investor interests in solar thermal projects.  It educates and trains the rural population on solar energy technology while users get a clean and reliable energy supply for cooking.

It improves the indoor air quality of rural residents by avoiding the need to burn coal, reducing smoke from traditional stoves which helps their living conditions

It mitigates GHG emissions and reduces natural resource depletion

It diminishes the risk of fire caused by coal-fired stoves

Surveyed stakeholders included representatives from different gender, age groups and education background with all participants expressing support for the project and considering that it would cause no negative impacts.  Stakeholders considered it would help improve local social, economic and environmental development

Solar cookers are not easily available in the local retail market and local villagers indicated that they would not purchase a solar cooker by sourcing from other markets outside their living region

The lifetime of solar cooker is at least 10 years during which the solar cookers can maintain its technical specifications