Summary

Cooking with Solar Electricity

atmosfair provides solar electric cooking systems through subsidized and affordable long-term financing to schools and other institutions (e.g. hospitals) in Tanzania. This enables the schools to completely replace firewood and charcoal for cooking with solar electricity.

The solar system produces more electricity than is consumed for cooking over the year and is typically sized to meet the institution’s total annual electricity demand included the additional demand from electric cooking.

In case of grid-connected schools the solar and battery systems provide a stable electricity supply while excess energy is to be fed into the national grid through net-metering (e.g. during school holidays). This reduces costs for the schools and increases the renewable energy share in Tanzania’s electricity grid.

The electric cooking systems include, depending on the size of the institution (number of people cooked for per day), among others, induction cook stoves (up to 100l, 15kW), heat retention baskets (“Wonderbaskets”) and rice cookers (up to 42l, 4.5 kW). Rice cookers can, despite their name, cook a vast variety of dishes besides rice. Due to their high thermal efficiency and heat insulation they are one of the most energy efficient cooking appliances.

Impact on Health and Environment

Firewood and Charcoal are the main drivers for forest degradation in Africa[1] and are after agriculture an important driver for deforestation in Tanzania[2] where they constitute 90% of the cooking fuels used[3].

A recent World Bank Report[4] estimates the global external costs from cooking with polluting fuels at $2.4 trillion: adverse impacts on health ($1.4 trillion), climate ($0.2 trillion), and lost productivity ($0.8 trillion). Studies conducted by MECS (Modern Energy Cooking Services) have shown that efficient electric cooking as realized through this project can be a clean and affordable solution to this problem[5].

Current Status

We are currently installing the first pilot systems in Sanya Juu, Kilimanjaro Region, in northern Tanzania and have already conducted electric cooking workshops with the local cooking staff. These confirmed that the commercial rice cookers provided are suitable to cook the school’s menu. A scale up to at least 100 schools is envisioned during which the installment payments from the school will be used to finance pre-finance further systems.

Our Partners

Ensol Ltd. Is a 100% Tanzanian company with headquarters in Dar es Salaam. It was founded in 2001 and is a member of the Tanzanian renewable energy umbrella organization TAREA. It is specialized in the installation of off-grid and grid-tied solar systems (up to 120 kWp) and is responsible for the design and installation of the project’s solar systems.

Watu na Umeme Ltd. (WUL) is a subsidiary of Ensol and was founded in 2015 for the development, design, management and operation of renewable energy projects. WUL is responsible for the operation and maintenance of the solar electric cooking systems as well as the facilitation and management of the installment financing for the schools.

[1] Kissinger 2012: Drivers of Deforestation and Forest Degradation, https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/65505/6316-drivers-deforestation-report.pdf

[2] Nike Doggart et al. 2020, Agriculture is the main driver of deforestation in Tanzania, https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ab6b35/pdf

[3] United Republic of Tanzania (URT). 2019. Tanzania Mainland. Key Indicators Report, https://www.nbs.go.tz/nbs/takwimu/hbs/2017_18_HBS_Key_Indicators_Report_Engl.pdf

[4] The State of Access to Modern Energy Cooking Services, https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/energy/publication/the-state-of-access-to-modern-energy-cooking-services

[5] Cooking with Electricity – A Cost Perspective, https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/34566

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