User:Cullen328/sandbox/SolSource



SolSource is a brand of solar cooker which uses a parabolic mirror to concentrate solar energy onto the bottom of a cooking pot or pan. The cookers are manufactured by One Earth Designs. Initially marketed in rural China, the products are now sold worldwide.

Research and development
The SolSource was originally developed by Scot Frank, a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology while studying household energy usage in remote parts of Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan and India, beginning in 2005. Original designs used indigenous materials such as fabric made of yak fur. By 2008, Frank had received a US $3000 grant from MIT to perfect his design. After graduation, Frank began teaching science at Qinghai University. He teamed up with Catlin Powers, a graduate of the Harvard School of Public Health to form One Earth Designs. Powers had done research on indoor air pollution on the Himalayan plateau caused by burning fuels for cooking and heating.

Commerialization
In 2010, the project won an environmental prize of €500,000, equivalent to US $662,200, from the Nationale Postcode Loterij in the Netherlands. Prototypes of the SolSource could generate electricity at that time.

In 2011, US Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman Jr. said that the SolSource "could be significant to the U.S.-China relationship since clean energy will be a substantive aspect of our future bilateral priorities."

By 2012, the business was based in Hong Kong. Their business model included selling their products in remote western China, in cooperation with the Chinese government.

SolSource went into full production in 2012, initially distributed in the province of Qinghai on the Tibetan plateau. In 2013, the company began sales in the United States and other countries, following a successful Kickstarter campaign, focusing on the outdoor barbecue market.

In 2014, the company won a CleanEquity Monaco award, given by Albert II, Prince of Monaco to companies with "the greatest potential and most innovative technologies" in the clean energy field.

In 2017, the company introduced its second model, the smaller and less expensive SolSource Sport, again utilizing a Kickstarter campaign.

Powers is now the company's CEO, and Scot Frank is an advisor.

Products
The original SolSource weighs 40 pounds (18 kilograms), and has a 51 inch (1.3 meter) diameter mirror. It is intended to be placed at ground level.

The SolSource Sport weighs 10 pounds (4.5 kilograms), and has a 30.5 inch diameter mirror. It is a tabletop unit.