U.S. Solar Olympics Features Solar Cooking

Alex Williams can do a lot with a pot, a magnifying lens and the sun. The Oshkosh West High School senior said he recently took a rib on a stick and cooked it on a homemade solar cooker that he had built. It’s a 49-square-inch lens supported by a frame and pointed skyward.

He let the rays of the sun do the cooking.

“My dad was making ribs on the grill and I put one of the ribs on a barbecue stick for my cooker. It heated up to 415 degrees,” Williams said.

And the end result after about 10 to 15 minutes of cooking under the sun?

“It was a really great rib. It tasted great,” said Williams, whose homemade solar cooker competed with other entries at the 14th Annual Solar Olympics held Tuesday at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh.

Solar cookers were just one of many solar projects students from 23 high schools in central and northeastern Wisconsin designed and built for the event sponsored, which was sponsored by the Wisconsin Public Service Community Foundation and University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. Other entries included solar cars, water heaters, photography and sculptures in hopes of making a difference with renewable energy.

Unfortunately, inclement weather forced entrants inside Reeve Memorial Union at UW-Oshkosh, so the rain didn’t allow the solar cars, water heaters and cookers to show what each could do. However, those projects were still evaluated on criteria that included innovation and design, said Chip Bircher, renewable energy product manager for WPS.

Williams said a solar cooker has a practical use. It could be downsized and would be ideal for backpacking.

“The sun is out there and it’s free,” he said. “Why bring a propane tank along camping when you can use the sun and a magnifying glass for free?”

Oshkosh West senior Dylan Wesenberg entered a homemade solar water heater designed to heat up about five gallons of water. His entry is simple enough. He’d pour water into more than 40 aluminum cans spray painted black, which used the sun to heat it up.

“I think a solar water heater could be something for the future. It’s really easy stuff,” Wesenberg said. “You put it out in the sun and let it heat the water without the aid of external power.”

Officials from WPS said students from Lourdes High School in Oshkosh won first place in a solar power t-shirt design contest that was pre-judged before the Solar Olympics. The winning design was on t-shirts competitors could wear at the event.

Source: TheNorthwestern.com

Short URL: http://www.solarthermalmagazine.com/?p=1601

Posted by Tracey A. Smith on May 23 2010. Filed under Solar Cooking, U.S.. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry