"Now we have the oven here", and it gives us direct income. The impact is that we used to use the charcoal oven which gave us hard times. We only use the sun, the rays from the sun..
Martha Ochieng, Baker, Misire Group
Shawn Connell of GrowNYC, after one year of operation:
The solar cooker still works well. When we can we use it with students and the public, it is an impressive and popular tool. Making popcorn with it or stir-frying from the garden are the most common ways that we use it.
Shawn Connell, Staff at GrowNYC
Autodesk Foundation: We’re impressed with Solar Fire’s design-driven approach to bringing commercial-scale solar thermal to Kenyan small businesses. A simple but powerful design + technical rigor + end user feedback = true impact.
Autodesk Foundation
That, more than many other save-the-world gizmos actually looks like it might work.
M. Johnstone
"Instead of buying charcoal, we use the sun", great to see such a simple solution with so many applications - including commercial food production - in so many places (many in Africa, but also the video features Switzerland and Finland).
J. Turner
A revolution in cooking. This can literally change the world - where trees are cut in their millions to cook food every day, every family, town and city. Billions of us eat from wood and charcoal fires. Where there’s sun, there’s no need any more. And you can build this system from local materials you can find wherever you are. Can’t wait to try.
M. W. Murray
When you’ll see these nice breads baked by solar energy, you will feel the change is coming.
W. Poix
For a country like Nigeria that is struggling to generate and transmit electricity through the national grid, a natural alternative would be a viable independent off-grid solar power system like this. This is what the innovative Lytefire solution offers especially for rural dwellers. This saves cost, time and guarantee power for economic endeavours as long as the sun shines. It is tested, trusted and reliable.
SF Green Resources
350.org Suomi: Watch this amazing video where concentrated solar energy is used to solve real issues of the people! It is exceeding their requirements! Great work Lytefire!
350.org Suomi
Great innovations that can change the quality of lives.
Gianna Schicchi
Treehugger: A more sustainable and accessible form of solar energy is using it directly as heat, and Lytefire is moving this rather simple technology forward by leaps and bounds.
Derek Markham, Treehugger
Users Abiodun Alabi and Funsho Folabi, Nigeria:
The successful utilization of the Lytefire4 guide to construct the solar applications (dehydrator and cooker) in Nigeria signifies the end of the energy poverty nightmare. The Lytefire technology is an innovation that has come to stay and solidifies the bright future of renewable energy. Ability to locally source the required materials, fabricate and couple the parts correctly even without any prior training certifies that it is truly a transferable technology that will be easy to replicate in any part of the world.
Language is definitely not a barrier to competently use the guide by artisans in any part of the world. The end results of the Lytefire applications surely makes the machine affordable and viable alternative to fossil fuels. We are excited that this technology will improve the agricultural processing capacity of our local farmers and eliminate post-harvest losses in the shortest time possible. »Abiodun Alabi and Funsho Folabi, SF Green Resources
My confidence level is very high. Some of the women we trained had never used a spanner before but they learned extraordinarily quickly and we calibrated the machine before I could believe it.
Lytefire Chief Builder Lorin Symington, Canadian, organizing the project on the ground in Kisumu, Kenya
User Kurt Baumann, Switzerland:
These tools are quick to build and effective for the job. As indicated by the Lytefire team it really did take us 2 hours to calibrate the mirrors but then our surprise was great once the water started boiling and the veggies and burgers started to sizzle in the pan!
Kurt Baumann, Building Teacher, Switzerland
User Jenipher Amollo, Chairlady of Yier Ngima Cooperative, Kenya:
My work will be easier, more than it was before, and I know that people are going to like it because we are going to make ground nuts that have no smelling like fire or whatever and they are fresh because energy of the sun is on them. I’m very grateful and thank you for those who thought of making this machine for us and I would urge every group to come and see and support us in any way and we also give the other groups support and we reduce the way of cutting trees so the trees will be many and we’ll have rain.
Jenipher Amollo, Chairlady of Yier Ngima CBO, Kenya
User Bilal Gondal, Pakistan:
Your design is easy to understand and straight-forward to build. We achieved the advertised temperatures in the first try with none of the complications experienced by other students that used a different solar concentrator design.
Bilal Gondal, Engineering Undergraduate, Pakistan
User Shawn Connell, Staff at GrowNYC, USA:
We made popcorn as a snack this morning, (look how hot the cooker got at 9am). Then this afternoon the students used it to make a stir-fry using ingredients from the garden (collard greens, garlic, onions, eggplants, and herbs).
Shawn Connell, Staff at GrowNYC, USA
Having followed the development of Lytefire and SolarFire, I think solar concentrators could be a valuable, environmentally-friendly tool. A communal, village concentrator could free up local people from having to walk further and further to collect wood and allow them to start small enterprises, such as selling food products made using the concentrator. Children who are also involved in collecting wood might be freed to attend school which may be currently denied to them because of the demands of the daily domestic chores they have to perform.
In remote areas or areas of great deprivation in the sun belt, a communal, solar concentrator could be the basis of small local enterprises such as cooking, drying fruit and beans and the generation of steam to power a small engine. As well as for general daily use in sun-belt areas, solar concentrators could be beneficial to communities in the aftermath of disasters like earthquakes and hurricanes. Being a low-tech product, solar concentrators can be cheaply made with local materials and easily maintained by local people trained as operators, as the Haiti project shows.Jean Bell, UK
I read about you in Treehugger. I think what you are doing is fantastic. I know in places like Bend Oregon they have 279 days of sunshine but it can get down to 20 degrees. I think what you have is ideal for people to build a home heating system. Heat an oven use clay pipe to transfer to a house. It may not be 100% but it could work for a lot of days.
Keep it up. I would get your membership but at 70 years old I think to old to start projects.J. Johnson
Lytefire have revolutionized solar energy.
Rather than creating solar energy for electricity, the concentrators will power solar thermal devices, giving usable heat energy to anyone in off-the-grid areas.Sustainable NZ Charitable Trust
Have a look at this solar bakery in Kenya! When you’ll see these nice breads baked by solar energy, you will feel the change is coming. You can roast, cook, sterilize and transform any local production. No pollution, no deforestation, and food price is totally independent from energy cost.
It come from Lytefire and it’s ready to spread and scale, there are construction guides available on the website and a "Direct Solar Economy" manifesto to present the change it can make.A. Smith
Watch this and be amazed. Sun energy. Solar, sustainable, inexpensive, accessible to all people. Thank you Intelligent Optimist for compiling these stories of solutions.
K. Murray
Are you accessing solar power yet? Buy the book to help support the cause.
M. Morningstar
Descentralizar la energía y ponerla en manos de la gente" Optimización al máximo de la energía solar en esta nueva generación de cocinas termo solares.
D. Rodriguez Aranaz
While Australia broke solar efficiency records this week (34%) with advanced technology, a decidedly low-technology solution was also born in Finland.
Lytefire brings simple, practical solar heat to Africa to build business opportunities while fighting deforestation. The solution works in northern climates also; just need a little sunshine.Pedro Gregorio
This is a large solar oven designed by Lytefire. Simple, powerful tool that could help many get off nasty coal.
R. Cruz
This is amazing. This, everywhere, please. I can’t help feeling that we’ll look back at ourselves in 100 years and be totally baffled as to why we ever used wood, charcoal and fossil fuels at all.
It’s the sun, it’s how life on Earth gets energy (including us) so um, yes, this is the future of Power!Positive Futures
