A solar cooker is a device which uses only sunlight to cook. Because they use no fuel and they cost nothing to run, humanitarian organizations are promoting their use worldwide to help slow deforestation and desertification, caused by the need for firewood used to cook. Solar cookers are also sometimes used in outdoor cooking, especially in situations where minimal fuel consumption or fire risk are considered highly important.

OK, have you heard of these? Remember when you were a kid and you were chasing ants around with a magnifying glass during you summer vacation? Well the concept is the same only now you are cooking dinner.

What better way to eat your greens than by preparing them in a “green” way? Thanks to new advancements in solar cooking, this option is a lot more doable. Earth-happy cuisine isn’t limited to personal prep in the home anymore either as leading restaurants begin to shift toward more eco-friendly prep methods.

I like the Hybrid one. It uses the sun when rays are available, and automatically switches to electric power from a normal 120V outlet when clouds move in. Even when running on electricity is uses about 75 % less power than a normal oven. And at 500 degrees you can cook about anything! You could probably make one of these yourself in an hour.

Operation Blessing, a non-profit organisation, has taken the age-old technique of harnessing the sun’s heat to cook food, and turned it into a viable design for of off-the-grid, minimal-resource oven. In the Gansu Province of China, and soon in Darfur camps, the sun-powered parabolic solar oven allows clean cooking and boiling.

Meet Louise Meyer a global crusader for the benefits of solar cooking.