Solar Energy Used to Heat Gaza Strip Ovens
They say that necessity is the mother of all invention. In the Gaza Strip, due to the restrictions placed by Israel, one Gazan engineer has developed a solar oven that uses the abundant supply of sunlight to cook food.
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According to inventor Yousef Abu Tawahina:
What you need is 15 cement bricks, mud mixed with straw and two sheets of glass. One sheet is incorporated into the top part of the oven and the other into the front side, and finally a metal sheet is placed at the base of the oven on the inside.
The two sheets of glass act as a mini-greenhouse and heat up the oven to about 100° C. In order to ensure optimal coooking temperatures, Abu Tawahina added a special transistor to the oven’s base, raising internal temperatures to 180° C.
Every half hour the transistor starts working automatically for 7 or 8 minutes and the heat it produces, along with the sun-produced heat, can cook any meal with no need to stir the food.
Photo Credit: Solar Cooker Angle of Reflection via Wikimedia Commons
This is good news, but it’s not really new. Solar ovens have been around for decades, and have been saving fuel for poor people around the world. This is but a new variation.