Solar Cookers, Panels, and Food for the Future

Energy, food, and water are already becoming scarcely available to large numbers of people. The scarcity of these resources is not distributed evenly, of course. Inequalities exist on all forms of resource, far beyond money, to the existing actual availability of these resources at a large scale. Any peoples reliant on solely existing energy and basic supply infrastructure are at risk at any time. Fortunately for ordinary people, the sun is always there, providing us with light, heat, and the ability to engage in agriculture.

Solar panels capture sunlight and turn it into electricity. Solar cookers concentrate sunlight and turn it into heat, which can also be turned into electricity or physical kinetic motion. This heat, like electricity, can be stored for later use. Boiling water to purify it can be as simple as getting a solar cooker and pointing it towards the sun.

Scaling solar panels and cookers can provide enough heat and electricity for daily necessities. More importantly, they do not rely on fuel that must be refined and transported, but rather use the sun. In the event of fuel shortages, what good would a conventional generator do? If utility infrastructure is unavailable, having solar panels and cookers can ensure you have a means to generate electricity and heat.

Solar cookers concentrate light to a central focal point using reflective materials and curvature. A metal satellite dish covered with a layer of material that reflects light, like aluminum, so that when light hits the curved dish, it is reflected back to a point. Each square meter gets hit with about 1000W of usable sunlight. Taking advantage of that energy density, it can heat up that point enough to boil water, which is all that is needed.

What about water? Water vapor is in the air all around us; thus dehumidifiers were made, but can you capture enough water from the air to drink on a daily basis? The answer is surprisingly yes, with the right tools. Rainwater can be captured and stored, then distilled (boiled) using nothing but the power of the sun. When water in any metal container is placed at the center of light concentrated by a solar cooker, it will boil. By then placing a cover with a tube that leads to a bottle, the water vapor (steam) will cool, take liquid form, and can be captured in another container adjacent to it.

Water can contain impurities, and distillation solves that problem by using heat to turn water in its liquid form into vapor in is gas form. It leaves behind impurities that have higher boiling points. Ocean water contains high amounts of salt, and turning ocean water into drinkable water requires a process called desalination. Our bodies require some amount of salt, and drinking water can in turn have small amounts, but not at the ratios found in saltwater from the oceans. Boiling water through distillation leaves the salt behind as the water turns to steam, as salt has a higher boiling point than water.