Would you (solar) cook me lunch?

I'm currently taking a great elective class - "Strategic Environmental & Energy Entrepreneurship".

Last week we discussed a topic - solar cooking - which up to that point I had never heard of.
What is solar cooking? It does not involve solar panels (this is a common misconception), it purely harnesses the heat of the sun to cook various types of food. There are several types of solar cookers out there - heat-trap boxes, curved concentrators (parabolics) and panel cookers.

What stroke me is that there are currently no patents pending on any of these models, so basically anyone outthere can use the internet to find how-to guides on how to build them. Up to recently, a Mexican company was manufacturing solar cookers on a large scale, but it's not producing them anymore. This is a great opportunity for an entrepreneur to step in and to build an affordable , more efficient (currently there's a big tradeoff between price and quality that can be reduced) solar cooker and mass produce it. With the right marketing, this could really prove to be a successful venture.

Solar cooking helps in various ways : reduces the harmful effects of cooking smoke (which affects millions of people, mostly in Africa), it allows people to spend the time foraging for wood in other productive ways, and it helps reduce de-forestation - which is a huge environmental issue which is largely attributed to traditional cooking methods.

This website is a great resource:

http://www.solarcookers.org/index.html

I could go on and discuss a lot more about solar cooking , but spend some time yourself watching some videos on it, and you will be amazed. The potential truly is there for solar cooking. All it needs is better marketing put into place and a courageous entrepreneur to lift it off the ground.

Up on the the roof

First of all, I would like to say how excited I am about this new blog. I think it is a great forum for us to share ideas and I am looking forward to reading everyone’s posts.

For my first post, I wanted to share an experience that I had volunteering for DC Greenworks, a DC-based non-profit that advocates green roof construction. I volunteered with a group of students from GW on a green roof build at American University. It was a fun and fascinating experience, despite the cold weather.

The most interesting thing about the project was the medium that was used as a substitute for soil – a foam substance that I am told had originally been developed for use in airplane wings. The foam was wrapped in a white plastic to reflect light and heat, thus helping to keep the building cool. Since the foam is much lighter than soil, it helps minimize weight load on the roof.

I highly recommend volunteering on similar projects if you have the chance – especially if the weather is nice.