Solar Cookers For a Clean Cooking Revolution in India

We are after all consuming sun’s energy in various forms such as light, heat, food. Prashnopnishad, one of the sacred texts of India, says that breath of life comes from the sun. Vedas also lay supreme emphasis on the sun based on which all life forms exist on earth. In this article, Sri Ragunath Venkatramakrishnan talks about using sun’s energy directly in solar cookers for cooking and saving domestic energy requirement.

- Sri Ragunath Venkatramakrishnan

Sun is the primary source of all the energies on earth. Thermal energy generated from the sun can be utilized for generating hot water, steam, hot air, electrical power, etc. A tropical country like India is blessed with abundant solar radiation. Some pockets in western and southern India, and Ladakh in north India are major global hotspots for solar radiation the year around, with average insolation of 5.5–6 kWh/m 2 /day. Parts of central India and Indo Gangetic plains in north India receive high radiation intensity during summer and low to moderate intensity during winter, making the average insolation to be 5–5.5 kWh/m 2 /day. Most parts of northeast India, and Jammu, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand in north India receive moderate insolation of 4.5–5 kWh/ m 2 / day. So in a country like India blessed with abundant energy solar cookers can be utilized to meet the domestic cooking energy requirement.