Our year 2002

Dear Friends of EG Solar e.V.,

Our worldwide activities once again required a good deal of work. However we are pleased to say that your and our engagement is beginning to bear the fruits of their labor. With thanks to many donations, we’ve been able to assist in constructing new Solar Cooker workshops and continue spreading the idea of cooking and cooling with the sun.

We will continue to undertake the challenge of relieving women and children from the daily drudgery of gathering wood for cooking. We are counting upon your assistance and once more extend a heartfelt thanks to you.

Hans Michlbauer, 1^st Chairman

Just as in previous years, this year’s report highlights the already established and newly established Solar Cooker programs and workshops. We ask you kindly to support specific projects of your choice. Please specify the boldly printed project in the memo area of the deposit check for your donation. Many Thanks!

In January, we shipped Solar Cookers and reflector panels to Bishop Victor Agbanou in Cotonou. Bishop Victor was able to make many contacts on his visit to Germany, one of which developed into the offering of a state-based donation. His goal is to build and distribute Solar Cookers in his hometown village on the north coast on the Golf of Guinea.

The Lions Club of Neckargemünd has long been supporting the indigenous peoples living in El Molino in the Bolivian highlands near Potosi. It is well known that deforestation and erosion continue unabated there and leave the gravest traces of humankind’s invasion into the ecosystem. The problem of obvious fuel shortages is what the Lions Club is combating and financed the shipment of 100 Solar Cookers. At the time, the cookers (which equal more than 2 tons) is being transported into the 4,000 meter mountain lands.

Burkina Faso

One of the solution’s possible: Women’s organizations (for example in the city of Gaoua) having been offering Solar Cookers on a lending basis or selling them using finance plans. They also offer to teach people the appropriate way to use them. Cooking with the sun will only make a breakthrough with the assistance of cooperative endeavors with committed people in the place of use.

Uwe Schmidt, one of our most active members, flew in December of this year to Burkina and will be visiting the SK-Project in Gaoua and Ouahigouya, holding talks with those responsible for directing activities there. After his return in January 2003, he will submit a list of desired materials for Solar Cooker production and hopefully will be able to ship them.

We described this project in detail in the Year End Report 2001. At the present time (end of 2000), Jean-Louis Romane is in his homeland to establish a Solar Cooker workshop and bring it into use. At the moment, we are anticipating his hopefully positive report.

At this point, we would like to extend a special thanks to our neighboring city Burghausen. Not only did they allow us to use their wonderfully spacious community center for our international Solar Cooker conference (see invitation for 2003 on the cover-side of the brochure) for the third year in a row, but they also support us with large financial donations each year for our world-wide projects. Solar Cookers and reflector panels amounting to €2,500 will be sent to the workshop ECO Center ICNEER in Valsad next year.

Yemen
The Hamburg Climate Protection Investments e.V. (Hamburg Klimaschutz Fonds e.V.) financed the reflector material for 100 Solar Cookers so that Dr. Hussain Al-Towaie can fulfill the orders on his already filled waiting list.

Mali
The Konna Club for Advancing the Health in Mali e.V. (Konna Verein zur Förderung der Gesundheit in Mali e.V.) contacted us at the beginning of this year and requested that workshop machines and reflector panels be sent for a Solar Cooker workshop to be established in the nearby hospital. Konna lies in a flood-plain area of the Niger between Mopti and Timbuktu. With 11,000 residents, the village is the largest of many small villages which border the river.

Mauritius
The workshop which was first established last year in Nouakchott has ordered reflectors for a further 75 Solar Cookers.

Papua-New Guinea
Although the island city is in large part rain-, mountain-, and cloud forest, we have delivered workshop supplies, reflector panels and diverse prototypes for Solar Cookers to the Catholic Church in Madang. The Steyler Mission financed these materials and Father Johannes will be producing an acceptance report with photos over this new workshop in Oceania.

Zimbabwe
The receipt of many large donations again this year has made it possible to make a delivery of diverse materials for Solar Cooker production in Bulawayo. Not only has the reflector materials for 200 Solar Cookers been sent, but 50 sets for building solar lamps and the necessary tools will be ready for use for the first time.

Chad
A desert which is void of vegetation covers the largest portion of this country, a country included as one of the poorest countries in Africa. The illiteracy rate is over 80% and the economic situation is dire. During the past 15 years, over 60% of the treed area has been logged. More than 90% of the population cooks with wood and/or wood coals. The Italian Jesuit Farther Rusconi founded a Solar Cooker workshop in Sarh in 1996, a city with 100,000 residents in the southern part of the country. However, acceptance has not yet been established. Sarh-born Maurice A. Daja, Director of Africa e.V. Münster, visited the members of the organization in his homeland in January 2002. He took a cooker with him and presented it to the women’s organization MUFEC.

The cooker was not only accepted, but a further 80 SK14 sets were ordered when he was there. With pleasure we sent reflector sets for the production of 100 Solar Cookers.

Uganda
Huge steps are being made in the settlement of Nsumba, which is guided by EG Solar, the DJK Regensburg, and the Bavarian and German Youth Sports. As of December this year, there will be permanent assistant in this area. Christl Karl from Regensburg will begin by spending three months there. She is preparing the Work-Camp 2003 and is taking over the organisation of a small shop in Kampala. As of springtime, Solar Cookers and solar lamps ‘made in Nsumba’ will be offered. Further information can be found under www.nsumba-unganda.de

Another item worth mentioning is a further project. Oliver Heintz and his wife Mary utilize 100 Solar Cookers for the production of Bark Cloth www.barkcloth.biz

Reflector Panels and Cooker Building Sets have again been sent throughout the world: Brazil, Bali, Indonesia, Japan, Iran, Congo, Canary Islands, Chile, South Korea, Mexico, Australia, India, Guinea, Togo, Morocco, etc.

Building Courses took place and the participants will be practicing their newly learned know-how of building Solar Cookers to work in Haiti, the USA, Senegal, the Philippines, Peru, and Uganda.

Public Relations
This year we were present at Fairs and Exhibitions (Handworkers Fair Munich, Intersolar Freiburg). Our work was also presented in diverse print and online media (for example: e.velop online Magazine of the National Government) and in the invention program "Einfach Genial" (engl.: ‘Simply Genius’) from channel MDR, where the solar refrigeration system was presented first prize by the audience.

We would like to refer you to our Hompage www.eg-solar.de. Our member Andreas Gartmeier voluntarily keeps the German as well as the English version up to date. We would like to extend a heartfelt thanks to him.

We are especially proud of receiving the German Solar Prize in the category‚Third-World Cooperation,’ which we were privileged to receive at a ceremony in Düsseldorf from www.eurosolar.org.

We would like to make special mention of our five-language cookbook from Imma Seifert. It not only contains cooking recipes, but also explains the proper use of the Solar Cooker.

In comparison to the Solar Cooker, the vacuum-collector functions not only with direct sunlight, but also with diffused light.

Further benefits of the vacuum-collector include:

- not necessary to track the sun
- smaller mirror area (0,35 m² zu 1,55 m²)
- no heat loss due to vacuum insulation
- quickly installed and mobile use

We are intending to first produce a small series of these solar refrigeration systems. At present, we’ve only gathered commitments for 35 refrigeration systems and are looking for further interested parties. A minimum order of 100 pieces is necessary to secure the price for a complete refrigeration system at €1,500. A similar photovoltaic powered compressor-refrigeration system costs €2,950.

For friends of solar energy, we will gladly put together a packet of diverse solar articles which can be mailed overseas, but which will also certainly be a hit within Europe. How about a Solar Cooker K10 with cookbook and 4-liter pot or espresso maker? There’s also solar lamps for those interested in camping, t-shirts or literature about ‘Cooking with the Sun.’ Using a Solar Cooker in real situations will show you that the sun’s energy is not only appropriate for countries with fuel shortages, but a real alternative to fuels used on a daily basis.

A new model of Cooker, given the name Papillon = Butterfly has been added to our product list as of 2003. Experiences in several countries in Africa and in South America have shown that this type of cooker, through its size and power, is suitable for families up to 15 people. A detailed explanation of this cooker is presented in our 2003 Product List.