In Trelew, Chubut, the students from the local Technical School have installed a new wind-solar hybrid system, capable of providing opportunity for energy self-sufficiency in the rural community.
Cooking without firewood in Madagascar
Deutsche Welle is featuring a video report about solar cookers in Madagascar and the activities of ADES, one of our current project partners. In Madagascar only 6% of the population has access to electricity and generally diesel generators are used for supplying energy. Solar cookers can help save dwindling forests as well as power electric gadgets.
Madagascar, once a lush, green island in the Indian Ocean, has seen vast swathes of valuable forestland disappear in recent years. The destruction stems from the growing demand for firewood – families on the island depend on it for cooking and heating. Each year, around 200,000 hectares of forestland are cut down in Madagascar.
Now, a Swiss aid organization called ADES is hoping it can convince the local population to use solar cookers to cook food. ADES is hoping to wean residents off firewood and restore the island’s beautiful forests at the same time. The latest solar cooker models even offer batteries that can be hooked up via USB cable to a variety of other devices, powering everything from radios to lamps.
You can watch the film by Christian Kober here.
Read more about our associated project here: Introduction of the ADES Electro-Solar cooker (E-cooker) in Madagascar (SEPS 8)
