Arizona'S Annual Solar Potluck: Showcasing Green Technology

Arizona is blessed with more sunny days compared to other states and the Arizona community is not one to waste solar heat. Every year, people gather at Tucson, Arizona for the Annual Solar Potluck-a cook-off showcasing green technology. While good and tasty food is produced during this annual event, they are not the main attraction - solar cookers are.

Solar cookers are innovative cooking equipment which can be very entertaining to use. Using them veers away from the traditional indoor kitchen cooking since direct sunlight is needed for them to work. Solar cookers have been used in the past before and the concept used today is still the same but only with the added modern materials. With advancements in design and materials used to manufacture solar cookers, cooking time has been increased and discomforts of using these types of cookers have been minimized, if not entirely eliminated.

How Solar Cooking Works

The solar cookers which can be seen at the Arizona Annual Solar Potluck come in all types of shapes, designs and sizes, yet the original design was a box cooker. A cooker is usually covered by a thin layer of glass and is well insulated so no heat escapes. Inside, the cooker is lined with aluminum foil or a similar material which will reflect and transform solar rays into heat energy. Also located inside the cooker is a cooking chamber or pot which is usually dark colored. Black or any other dark color absorbs heat more efficiently compared to lighter colors. Although heat may escape from the interior, a large and considerable amount is still trapped inside once the cooker is well insulated.

Other types of solar cookers also use add-ons or extensions which will help acquire more solar heat. These add-ons are usually just reflectors which are made of aluminum or a similar material. They are placed just outside the cooker and are angled in a way that they collect rays from the sun and pass them off to the aluminum located in the interior of the cooker.

The temperature inside the cooker and the cooking chamber can reach up to 225 to 275 degrees Fahrenheit when the cooker is running at 100% efficiency and the Arizona sun is visible.

Benefits of Solar Cooking

The primary benefit of using solar cookers is the conservation of natural resources. Common cooking equipment use natural gas, a type of energy source that is not renewable and can be depleted.

Second, solar cookers are cheap and using them will not require buying an energy source since solar heat is free. Compared to traditional cooking equipment, solar cookers are cheaper and they can even be assembled at home. There are already a lot of sources available in Arizona for do-it-yourself solar cookers.

Arizona's Annual Solar Potluck is not only a way for the community to entertain and showcase their technology, but it is also a way of making a statement about energy conservation. While the main focuses of the event are food and solar cookers, the message behind it is to conserve energy sources by using technology to harvest readily available renewable energy.