Lots of people want to change the world. The Solar Oven Society in Minneapolis wants to do that with a simple tool: a dark, heat-trapping box with a clear lid. For developing countries, it offers the promise of cooking with sunlight instead of wood.


By Mary Losure, Minnesota Public Radio
May 27, 2003


excerpts -

"For all of his working life, John Roche was a research engineer with a passion for solar technology. At 3M, he developed high-tech films to collect sunlight. When he retired, he thought about where in the world solar energy could be used most effectively. The answer seemed clear. . . .

. . . Since its first production run last fall, the Solar Oven Society has sent about 700 cookers to some 25 developing countries. But there are formidable obstacles to their widespread use. They cost $50 apiece, so in poor countries they must be donated rather than sold to poor families.

Food takes several hours to cook, and a cooking failure can mean people go hungry. In the 1970s, efforts to introduce solar ovens failed, largely because of cultural barriers and poor design. . ."

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