Can Ugandan-made solar stove solve cooking needs?

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Approximately 95% of every 10 homes in Uganda, both rural and urban areas rely on charcoal, firewood or other forms of biomass for their household cooking needs.

The adoption of electric cooking (e-cooking) has been rather slow in Uganda despite government initiatives to increase coverage of the national electricity grid and e-cooking subsidies for those cooking on it.

For a home to prepare breakfast, lunch, supper, and drinking water on an electric cooker, they may spend between 2,000 and 6,000 shillings daily. In a month this is in excess of shillings 180,000 (shillings 2.16 million a year) which is a high recurring monthly prepaid expense amidst a multitude of bills for the majority of the population.

In an attempt to address this problem, through research, design, prototyping, production, testing and piloting were done by a local technology startup. Paul Soddo who pursued a bachelor's degree in agricultural engineering in partnership with Dr Peter Tumutegyereze of Makerere University, developed an energy-efficient cooker.

Paul Soddo at work

The project: Development, Production Scale-up, and Commercialisation of an Electric Solar Cooker (MakSol Cooker) to Reduce the Cooking Carbon Footprint in Households, was funded to address the significant health and environmental challenges posed by the use of inefficient, polluting fuels for cooking.

This was made possible with funding from the Government, through Makerere Research and Innovation Fund (MakRIF) in 2021 and the Secretariat of Science, Technology and Innovation in 2022.

The MakSol Cooker is an indoor cooking appliance that is 100% powered by solar panels and solar batteries. Since they are highly optimised for low voltage, a home with just one or two solar panels can prepare three to five meals a day. This makes it an environmentally friendly and sustainable alternative to traditional cooking methods.

Soddo is the chief executive officer of IntelliSys and the workshop is situated in Nansana on Hoima Road in Wakiso district where the cookers are assembled with the crew of 11 members.

According to Eve Mugabi, a user of the cooker and a resident of Nansana-Bujjuko in Wakiso district, it is cost-effective because it has saved her time and money. Also, it is hygienic and healthy since smoke does not escape from the cooker compared to charcoal or firewood which produces smoke that can be harmful to one’s health.

"However, the cooker is a bit slow because cooking a meal takes longer so the innovators need to upgrade it. During rainy or cloudy days, it does not work," she says.

Another client, Immaculate Makwo, a resident of Kyaliwajjala, Kira municipality in Wakiso, notes that there is no risk of burning when you cook food on the solar cooker. Unlike the use of gas. There are no ongoing charges related to it.

How it works

The MakSol Cooker is a standing-type domestic cooking appliance having two cooking zones on its cooktop. It is on these clearly marked zones that cooking pans having food, sauce or water is placed to cook.

Soddo explains the cooker has three levels on the inside, enclosed by a kitchen-grade aluminum casing. The levels are; the cooktop on top, the oven chamber mid-way and the battery compartment toward the bottom for storing the solar battery.

Solar access ports are located just below the cooktop and are positioned behind to prevent disruption between the person cooking and the cabling delivering solar power to the cooker. Just beneath the cooktop, the heating power is generated by a pair of locally developed electronic circuit having high-speed switching high power transistors that, in conjunction with a coil, induce a strong magnetic field over the cooktop to a ferromagnetic pan.

“No heat is transferred to the saucepan, only a strong magnetic field, which the saucepan converts into immense amounts of heat. To command the cooking the cooker has a Control Panel (Dashboard) where a user presses a button to either start cooking, increase cooking power, decrease cooking power or stop cooking.

“The display screen presents the current cooking power on each of the two cooking zones. When power is low, the power automatically warns and gradually cuts power on each of the cooking zones so as to conserve battery until the sun is up to charge it up, Soddo explains.

When the battery is full, the cooker again disconnects solar power to protect the battery from overcharge. When the cooker has been running for extended periods of time unattended to, it alarms and automatically goes off to wait for the user to come and put it on again.

Soddo says all these are safety measures they programmed into the cooker to maximise user experience of the cooker throughout its 5-years life span.

While in a month they can at best manufacture and deliver 4 cookers, Soddo notes the solar cooker takes about four hours to cook a meal.

Pricing and payment

The cooker cost shillings 2.8 million. An order for the solar cooker comes through a phone call, direct message on LinkedIn or other social media platforms. Soddo and his crew members first inspect the home to evaluate both the in-kitchen space and installed solar capacity on the rooftop, in order to establish the size and orientation of solar panels to be bought.

Soddo says the solar system is sized according to the budget of the customer; 1.6KWh/120Wp solar system for sh1m or a 2.8KWh/500Wp solar system for 1.8m or a 3.6KWh/700Wp solar system for sh2.4m.

After payment has been received (whether in full or a down payment on a Pay as You Cook model), the cooker is delivered to the home and installed in the kitchen where the user (client) will cook.

The cooker is plugged onto the solar system and the batteries are secured into the cooker body, leaving the appliance to just be controlled by a push of a button and the client is already to cook the meal on the cooker.

“We conduct regular check-ins with our customers to ensure they are having a maximum user experience and also to monitor any technical challenges if any,” Soddo explains.

Benefits

The project has created employment opportunities, especially the field team (engineers) who often inspect the technical challenges of the cooker and sales personnel.

However, Soddo says they still need financial support to ramp up the capacity and hire skilled people to produce more cookers in a shorter time. Capitalization constraints, limited production line and a shortage of warehousing space which all affect the productivity.

Also, Soddo explains the cost of making or building up a solar cooker is high which takes sh2m.

Plans

They have a vision of expanding the project from a small-scale industry to the large-scale industry to provide an opportunity of employing the youth.

Also, hope to continue on improving innovation technologies to increase efficiency, improve reliability and spread a better brand reputation for the project.

Merits of the cooker

Environmentally friendly because it is energy-efficient and it can reduce your carbon footprint.

A solar cooker does not cause pollution or produces no pollutants.

Easiest, safest, cleanest and most practical way to prepare food without the need of charcoal or firewood.

It improves the nutrition and hygiene of cooking and food cooked in solar cooker is nutritious.

With a solar cooker, when you no longer rely on electricity or gas, load shedding of those resources does not affect you.