Solar Cooking in Malawi
Problem Statement
The Solar Electric Cookers design and functionality has been studied by previous groups with much success, but it’s application has been limited for producing food that the target communities enjoy and cherish as much as their traditional methods. Our goal is to work with Dr. Robert Van Buskirk to provide a low cost solar cooker that can prepare authentic Malawian meals to our target communities.
Meet Our Team
Peyton From
Peyton is a third year Business major from Roseville, California. He is an avid golfer and planning on starting his career in public accounting after getting a degree. His experience with development is limited but he holds much interest in continuing the solar cooker project for communities in Malawi.
Jonathan Babu
Second year Physics major from Dublin, California. In his free time he loves playing basketball and playing the saxophone. He is a dedicated, out of the box thinker, who loves to provide new insight on problems. He feels strongly about development because he has lived in poverty plagued areas in India, and knows the difference a little helping hand from anyone can make.
Harry Yan
Harry Yan is a Second year Mathematics major from Chengdu, China. As an international student, I have been in United States for 4 years. Before coming to Cal Poly, I went to Capital Christian High School in Sacramento. During the years in high school, I joined the Mission Program which we took several mission trips within Sacramento to serve homeless, special needs, and etc. And we visited elderly community every other week. It helped me develop a greater awareness of volunteerism and service to others who need help. Now, I am working on the ISEC for the rural Malawians with my group.
Andre Harnack
Andre Harnack is a fourth year Environmental Management student from Los Angeles, California. Grew up in Los Angeles California, have been studying environmental studies since freshman year in highschool. Concentrated in watershed management. Currently working on solar cookers for lower income communities specifically Malawi Africa.
Our Goals
Objective
As a group, we know a lot of the hardware has already been in pre-production for a while. Prototypes already exist that have shown the capabilities to function as promised but minor road bumps still exist in the form of recipes and making it more familiar for local Malawi families. Though they have been accustomed to their way of life for generations, we must help them in many ways, not just technologically. If this hardware can make food taste similar to what they are used to, using ingredients local to their land, it will make the transition for them much smoother. We are trying to think of new innovations to help advance the manufacturing of this product, and help organizations like Kuyere advance their goals.
Support
Dr. Van Buskirk was a Physics Professor  at the University of Asmara and his close friend Bereket who was one of the top Physics students at the University both are in charge of Kuyere. Kuyere is a project dedicated to the idea of affordably and sustainably providing solar electricity to the poorest rural households in Africa. They are currently working on a solar powered stove to help the communities cook at a much cheaper cost. Together we are working on a more efficient stove that can also be more affordable.
Proposal
We can see through this graph that the GDP of Malawi is extremely low, so as an important aspect we have to design an affordable Solar Electric Cooker for them.
Another important aspect of this project is focused on their health as you can see in the graph that Malawi is one of the countries which has lowest life expectancy. We have to make food they would actually eat which is Nsima. Since they have no experience with cooking Nsima with a solar electric cooker, so as a part of our project, we want to test out a best way to cook this type of food and have the original taste of Nsima.
Plan
Our goal for the solar cooker is to perfect the process of cooking Nsima, and compare that to other solar cookers on the market. These range from $80-$200, and being able to show how our solar cooker is cheaper and/or does a better job for less will help the marketing and usage of these. We will look to add our ideas to the solar cooker and take a different approach than past projects. We will also be looking to add or remove current options, which include a portable phone charger and battery charger. We know the project will be successful with or without our input, but if we can collectively use our knowledge to push innovation, the product can make even greater impacts.
11/7: Have a working prototype of the current solar cooker that Jonathan can provide with lab time on wednesday. Order a lower-end solar cooker. Form a recipe and/or instruction set for properly making Nsima.
11/14: Use both solar cookers to perform a qualitative analysis on the functionality and usability of both. This should pertain to people in both Africa and America. Send recommendations for possible changes to Solar Cooker Schematics, for adding or removing features.
11/21: Use lab time to actually test and make any new additions, and add to prototype solar cooker. Continue to check against other models.
Malawi
Background
Malawi is a landlocked country that lies east of Zambia, north and west of Mozambique, and south of Tanzania. Its area is 45,747 square miles (118,500 square kilometers). The major topographic feature is Lake Malawi, a freshwater lake that is home to hundreds of fish species found nowhere else in the world. Twenty percent of the landmass consists of water. The topography varies from the high Nyika plateau in the north to the Shire River valley in the south that is an extension of the Great Rift Valley. In the far southeast corner is Mount Mulanje, which is among the highest mountains in Africa.
The Solar Cooker
Background
The Solar Cooker is an idea that came up when trying to solve two problems at once. People in Malawi suffer from some of the highest energy costs in the world, while consuming the least per capita. People also have to cook food outdoors in a different structure than where they live, which due to weather or other outside conditions can be impacted. In an effort to solve these, the Solar Cooker combines a portable curved heating rod and a phone charger in one. Due to new technology involving super efficient heating diodes in a sand cement composite, a Solar Panel connected to the cooker can successfully insulate a large cooking chamber, with enough power left over to charge a phone or battery. This whole device costs less than a hundred dollars but can end up saving a family thousands over their lifetime.
Stakeholder Analysis
In order to conduct a proper experiment, we assessed all the stakeholders relevant to the solar cooker. The communities of Malawi receiving the the solar cookers are looking for a product that cooks their traditional dishes efficiently and properly which makes them the most important stakeholders. The service workers providing the solar cookers are also looking for a product that fits the requirements and needs of the communities receiving them. Furthermore, our collaborator Robert Van Buskirk is an important stakeholder due to his requirement of the solar cooker being able to produce authentic tasting nsima. On the other hand power companies serve as a negative effect based on interests due to the competition we will be providing with our energy efficient cookers. Our group members serve as  important stakeholders as well since we are looking to contribute to future groups success with the solar cookers. Finally, our last stakeholder is Professor Schwartz based on his relationships with contributors attempting to improve and help communities in Malawi.
Next Steps
We advise future groups to take our work and build on it to increase solar cooker integration in Malawian communities. Our objective was to show that the solar cooker can be used to produce authentic dishes for Malawians. Specifically, we have found that the solar cooker is ideal for preparing dishes like Nsima because it allows slow cooking with low heat, which yields the proper consistency when adding flour over longer periods. Now that this is complete, future groups can hopefully raise awareness about the solar cooker and its benefits, ultimately increasing their use throughout Malawi and other appropriate regions. We are grateful to have had this opportunity to aid Malawians by applying the solar cooking technology to better represent their culture, and encourage future groups to further leverage technology to solve humanitarian problems.
Resources
Links to Learn More
https://www.peacecorps.govhttps://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-13864367
https://tradingeconomics.com/malawi/access-to-electricity-percent-of-population-wb-data.html
http://appropriatetechnology.peteschwartz.net/appropriate-technology-development-fall-2018/
https://sites.google.com/site/distributedsolar4africa//home
Contact Us
Peyton From
Email: peytoncf18@gmail.com
Phone: (916)316-0483
Jonathan Babu
Email: jonrbabu@gmail.com
Phone: (925)719-3676
Harry Yan
Email: zyan06@calpoly.edu
Phone: (916)833-0733
Andre Harnack
Email: andreharnack@ymail.com
Phone: 3102808917