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ESW at Cornell SolarCookerSolutions and Renewable Design Team - Fall20142015 |
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The Solar Cooker teamSolutions and Renewable Design team (SSRD) designs, builds, and tests solar cookers, solar dryers, water distillers and, water pasteurizers, solar panels and other solar powered or alternative energy driven systems. Our mission is to improve and optimize alternative energy solutions tofor cooking and other household needs in cooperation with Grupo Fenix, an organization at the Universidad Nacional de Ingeneria in Managua, Nicaragua, and Las Mujeres Solares de Totogalpa, a women's collective in Sabana Grande, Nicaragua and to work with groups in other countries on similar projects. Grupo Fenix works in Nicaragua to develop, implement and publicize renewable, sustainable solutions to energy needs. Las Mujeres Solares de Totogalpa has worked with Grupo Fenix building and using solar cookers, dryers, water distillers, biogas generators, charcoal production and, charcoal stoves and solar panels. TheyThe women have a Solar Restaurant, in which the food is prepared with solar cookers and other alternative energy cooking methods, including use of electricity from photovoltaic solar arrays and gas from bio-digested manure. Sabana Grande is in a region suffering from deforestation and concomitant erosion of topsoil and the loss of water retention. The use of Solar Ovens reduces the need for women to spend hours of their day gathering wood for cooking fuel and helps reduce the health risks from fires used for cooking and the smoke from open fires in the cooking areas, frequently within the house. The Solar Cooker Team works to evolve the cooker designdesigns of alternative energy solutions in use in Nicaragua and increase the use of Solar Ovens. New designs are careful to use materials and technologies available to our cooperators in Nicaragua. The team plans to visited Las Mujeres... and Grupo Fenix this springJanuary (2016) in Sabana Grande during spring break. Here is a short2 minute teaser for a video about Las Mujeres and here is the full movie called Adelante con El Sol that resulted from our Spring 2012 trip .Click the link for more information on our 2013 Nicaragua Trip. |
Current Research Projects:
- Design a dryer/roaster system for cocoa growers in Cameroon that doesn't smoke the cocoa beans.
- Design and build a larger direct solar food dryer than presently in use at the Solar Center.
- Design and build an automated solar tracker for one of the Fresnel lens collector/cookers
- Thermal Concentrator using Fresnel lens to focus sunlight for high heat.
- Develop and test testing procedures similar to ASAE S580: Testing and Reporting Solar Cooker Performance.
- Build and document a solar water distiller.
- Design and build a parabolic trough water pasteurizer/distiller.
- Design and build a dual axis solar trackerautoclave.Design
- develop and build deliver a solar autoclavepanel construction method with EVA film instead of SylGard as the cell encapsulant.Design and build an adobe block making mechanism
- develop and transfer techniques to use Mylar instead of glass in solar devices.
Team Members A list of current and past members of the Solar Ovens team
Solar Cooker Design ManualsClick the link for more information on our 2012 Nicaragua Trip. here for the 2011 Nicaragua Trip. Here are pictures from the trip.
The work on the SolarCooker wiki is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
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