Sun in the box

Friday, 03 April 2009 00:00

Kyoto Box is a cheap, solar-powered cardboard cooker for use in rural Africa, estimated to prevent two tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per family per year.

The $5 cooker uses the greenhouse effect to boil and bake. It consists of two cardboard boxes, one inside the other, with an acrylic cover that lets the sun’s power in and stops it escaping and doubles as a ‘hob top’. A layer of straw or newspaper between the boxes provides insulation, while black paint on the interior and the foil on the exterior concentrate the heat still further.

The design is so simple that the Kyoto Box can be produced in existing cardboard factories. It has just gone into production in a Nairobi factory that can produce 2.5 million boxes a month. A more durable model is being made from recycled plastic.

This fuel-less stove aims to address health problems in rural villages as well as avoiding carbon dioxide emissions: it provides a source of clean boiled water, cuts down on indoor smoke inhalation and reduces the need to gather firewood.

"This is the simplest idea I could find ", says Jon Bøhmer, inventor of Kyoto Box. " That is the philosophy behind it. " The Norwegian had already spent five years developing a more high-tech solar concentrator, but explains: " I wanted people to look more closely at this very straightforward solution which was " discovered " 240 years ago. "

Mr Bøhmer envisions a network of women distributing thousands of the flat-pack devices from the backs of lorries to families across Africa and the developing world.

His hope is that the cooker will be eligible for carbon credits – hence the name Kyoto Box. The €20-30 yearly profit per stove would be passed on to the users, meaning the device pays for itself.

" It’s all about scaling it up, " sums up Mr Bøhmer. " There’s no point in creating something that can only help a few million people. The needs are universal – everybody needs to cook. "