DEVELOPMENT OF A NEW REFLECTIVE MATERIAL AND ITS APPLICATIONS TO VARIOUS TYPES OF SOLAR COOKERS IN LOW PRICE RANGE

Abstract

The  author  has  commercialized  several  products  of  solar  cookers  mainly  as  educational  tools  for  school children in cooperation with an aluminum foil company, a  carton case company and a trading company. In
2013,  we  developed  a  multi-layer  film  to  be  used  for  reflective  material  for  solar  thermal  applications.   By attaching the film to the corrugated plastic board with a special technique, we made tough, light-weight and less  expensive  material  for  the  body  of  a  panel  type  solar  cooker  which  was  originally  made  of  corrugated cardboard.   We  have  used  it  for  the  field  research  to  verify  its  compatibility  for  the  use  in  Ethiopia  and obtained many fruitful responses from 30 families. After a few modifications requested from the Ethiopian people, we have commercialized it in Japan. Main customers are schools and NPO’s. Recently we designed a concentrator  type  solar  cooker  with  the  same  material.   The  prototype  model  is  1.1m  in  diameter  for  the practical  cooking  power  and  has  polyhedron  surface  for  the  safety  and  its  total  weight  is  less  than  10kg including  the  supporting  parts. While  most  of  the  existing  concentrator  type  solar  cookers  are  in  the  high
price range, ours will feature the challenging price in the market.

Key words: Renewable energy, solar cooker , educational workshop, reflector