OUR PROJECT
Our project is to build an insulated solar electric cooker and a solar powered immersion heater to address the health and environmental issues due to biomass cooking in Nepal. With simple and affordable materials, we can apply an appropriate technology providing a solution and an innovation for the Nepali community.
WHERE WE HOPE TO HELP
Our group is working to develop and improve upon the immersion cooker design with the hopes of bringing our design to the people of Nepal. Due to continuous political instability and unforgiving terrain, Nepal remains one of the poorest and least developed countries in the world. Its untamed beauty also makes it a top destination for tourism which makes up its largest financial industry. Sadly, almost one third of the population still lives below the poverty line and struggles to get by.
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BACKGROUND
More than eighty percent of domestic energy of Nepal comes from biomass such as wood, cattle manure, and agricultural waste. Most households burn wood for fuel, and more than eighty percent of domestic energy is consumed in people’s homes. This results in two large issues that the country has been facing: respiratory diseases and rapid deforestation. Cooking in poor countries is mainly using coal and biomass, which is not sustainable and harmful to the human body, that’s why we are developing a solar cooker. The solar cooker has been designed by many groups before for different places around the world.
We believe our solar cooker would be extremely useful to the Nepalese living in the more remote regions where mountainous and hilly terrain make it difficult for them to access resources. Since wood and gas cooking are some of the most common cooking methods in Nepal, transitioning to our immersion cooker could provide numerous benefits to adopters. Users who normally cook with wood will have reduced smoke inhalation because of the cooker's safe design. A cooker that harnesses the sun's energy also means that users won't have to harvest as much wood for cooking which will be extremely beneficial to people living in mountainous regions. Additionally, with an unpredictable political climate, it's not uncommon for issues such as supply trades to be suspended, as was recently seen with India. If resources such as gas are cut off, solar cookers are a perfect substitute in these situations.
Realistically, we intend for our cooker to be an efficient and viable alternative to current cooking methods in the region. Due to the design's long cooking time, it would be a successful addition to families lifestyles if set up in the morning and allowed to cook during the day so that a full meal is ready by dinner time. Our design would be great for cooking the stable Nepalese foods such as rice, potato, buckwheat, and lentils.
NEPAL CONTACT
For our project, we will be collaborating with Tashi Ghale, a Nepali student with a direct connection to the people in Nepal. Tashi is a third year Statistic major, minoring in Actuarial Science and is interested in pursuing storytelling with data.
Manang, the birthplace of Tashi's grandparents, is a popular tourist destination in the foothills of the Himalayas. Tashi's parents currently live in Kathmandu which is the capital city, and one of his relatives also runs a hotel there that feeds thousands of tourists every year. Their main method of cooking is through wood and portable liquified natural gas (LNG), but Tashi believes this could be a good opportunity to transition to more sustainable methods such as solar power. Through Tashi, we will be able to get a better understanding of the people of Nepal and be able to design our cooker to address their specific needs. Overall, we hope to address the needs of the people in Nepal and use a multifaceted approach of innovation cultural competency and holistic consideration.
