Feature
Around three billion people across the world, primarily in developing countries, use biomass cooking stoves in their homes to cook their food. The biomass used is often wood, which when burned creates potentially serious health risks and huge environmental implications. Dr Tasmiat Rahman, is leading a project in the heart of the Bangladeshi slums to introduce the use of solar powered cookers in a bid to improve conditions and reduce emissions.
INTRODUCING SOLAR POWERED COOKING TO URBAN SLUMS Solar powered cookers could transform the lives and health of people living in tough conditions in developing countries. Dr Tasmiat Rahman, Assistant Professor in the School of Electronics and Computer Science, is leading a project to make that happen.
30kW Solar PV installed on top of the densely populated tin slum housing
He said: “This project brings together the science and practicality of implementing an E-cooker, or electric cooker, network in a slum environment, with the social and cultural implications of engaging with the slum community and instigating behaviour change. It is an important area of study because we know that cooking with wood can cause serious respiratory illness, particularly for women and children who are in the home environment a lot. We also know open flames in the home pose a huge safety risk for the families and that wood fires cause deforestation and the emission of dangerous greenhouse gases.” Finding a site Tasmiat secured funding from the Global Challenges Research Fund in March 2020, and his team’s first job was to find a suitable area in which to undertake the project. Bangladesh is a country where 70 per cent of the population relies on solid fuel for household cooking and heating needs. It is
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also a country where Hazardous Air Pollutants (HAP) cause up to 100,000 deaths every year. “We identified Bangladesh as a potentially suitable country for the project due to the high use of wood burning stoves and the associated health issues, but we also needed to ensure any potential site could handle the logistics of having an E-cooker network installed,” said Tasmiat. “My aim was to set up a hybrid system of solar power and on-grid energy for the chosen community, taking away the need for wood burning but also gas, which comes with its own safety issues, and avoiding batteries which cause toxic waste.” Tasmiat’s proposed E-cooker network operates by using solar energy supplied by panels mounted above the consumers’ homes. On a regular day, these panels provide/generate enough energy to operate an E-cooker for the cooking process. Any excess electricity generated is fed into the national grid. In the absence of solar energy, such as at night or during winter, electricity is drawn from the grid to power the E-cooker. “We wanted to ensure we worked with a community that felt comfortable being involved and would truly benefit from E-cookers, we were also keen to make sure that we were providing all the information they required from the start,” explained
