Recording of Tuesday, June 23, 2026 | The smarter E Europe Conferences 2026 | Language: English | Duration: 11:20 .
Cooking is essential across cultures but faces pressing challenges, with 3.2 million premature deaths linked to smoke exposure and 2.3 billion people lacking access to clean cooking energy. Solutions for electrical cooking must ensure convenience, affordability, and energy independence, particularly in off-grid areas where complex energy conversion can limit effectiveness. A proposed approach connects solar panels directly to cooking pots, removing unnecessary complexity and optimizing power through an MPP tracker to enhance efficiency. Slow cookers that utilize thermal energy storage offer a practical solution, allowing users to prepare meals using solar energy with low upfront costs compared to traditional fuels like charcoal. Field tests in Malawi demonstrate the efficiency of solar cookers for staple foods like beans, showing that effective cooking can occur even with varying solar radiation. This cooking technology is adaptable for home or field use, emphasizing the importance of simplicity, affordability, and field validation for broader implementation.
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Speaker
Elisabeth Rüd
Co-Founder & Operations Lead, Feutonix
Ulm University of Applied Sciences
Germany
For many years, the photovoltaic (PV) market was dominated by grid feed-in systems. Increasingly affordable solar modules and storage systems have been changing this picture. The resulting competitive situation is leading to new results when evaluating whether a grid connection makes sense for a particular use or not. However, off-grid applications for thermal energy are also gaining importance, such as solar-electric heating and cooking. Innovative system design as well as innovative storage and applications are shifting into focus.
Further Talks of this session:
Speaker
Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Peter Adelmann
Director
id-eee Institute
Speaker
Stefan Zelazny
Managing Director
Access to Energy Institute
Germany
Speaker
Géraldine Quelle
Project Manager
Phaesun GmbH
Germany
Speaker
Mithil Barath
Promotions & Communications Coordinator
Asantys Systems GmbH
Germany