Solar Cookers – Zaoyuan, Henan, China

Project Description

The project involves the distribution of 50,000 sets of parabolic type solar thermal cookers for rural households in Zhenping county, Henan Province

The rated output of each cooker is 894.6 W thermal with the total installed capacity of the project 44.73 MWth

The majority of the rural households in Zhenping use coal-fired stoves for water boiling and cooking and without the project, 50,000 households would continue to do so.

The project enables rural households to partly and efficiently substitute solar energy for coal used in daily cooking and water boiling, avoiding CO2 emission that would otherwise be generated by this fossil fuel consumption

Recipients must use coal as the main energy source, there should be more than 2 members of the household and annual household income should be low to mid-level.  Each solar cooker has a unique serial number which is linked to an individual household’s information.  Where one of the households in the project stops using their cooker, the project team redistributes it to another household in the same village and re-register related information

Sustainability Beyond Carbon

The project helps address 3 Sustainable Development Goals (7, 8 and 13)

The solar cooker uses the parabolic reflectors to gather direct solar radiation for cooking

It is generally composed of cooker body, pot rack, cooker rack and tracking and adjusting mechanism.  All of the materials and facilities engaged in the project are produced domestically

By using solar cookers, the households consume less coal and reduce their costs in purchasing coal, alleviating economic pressures on local residents.

By reducing coal use, less smoke is generated resulting in better indoor air quality

The households do not need to pay for the solar cookers which are distributed to them for free as a part of the project.  Additionally, solar energy is renewable, clean and free so the project ensures affordable access to energy while improving energy efficiency at the rural household level

The project has created 15 local jobs and provided training.  The region is an underdeveloped poor region and the majority of employment is agricultural labour or other heavy manual labour with very poor working conditions. These employees can earn money outside of agriculture and heavy works.  The project is helping stimulate the development of solar energy and create more technology and knowledge-based employment with good working conditions which is a significant improvement on local employment quality