In this modern-day world, we have a variety of cooking fuels to choose from. And households in developed economies are quickly adopting cooking fuels like electricity, natural gas, biogas, and ethanol. But in developing countries like Uganda, people still use traditional cooking fuels like firewood and charcoal. It's estimated that 96% of the rural population in Uganda still rely on these traditional fuels to cook food. Many entrepreneurs and innovators are tirelessly coming up with new technologies that are economical and reduce carbon emissions when cooking. One of them is Rose Twine. She invented the Eco Stove, a new technology that is reducing deforestation in Uganda!
What is an Eco Stove?
It is a multipurpose stove that uses solar energy and reusable volcanic rocks to cook. It is made, produced, and invented in Uganda. Rose Twine, with the help of her brother, started Eco Group Limited, the company that manufactures the stoves. With the Eco Stove they aim to reduce deforestation, reduce carbon emissions, and overcome health hazards caused by smoke when using traditional cooking fuels.
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UGANDAN INNOVATION . The volcanic rocks produce enough heat to cook ordinary foods such as beans, maize, murokonyi and these rock are not only reusable for over 1year, they are found in various parts of Uganda such as parts of kabala, Kanungu, Kisoro and Toro among other places in Uganda and the entire Rift Valley in East Africa and all over the DRC. This is to emphasis the richness of Uganda and the pearl of Africa yet to be utilized as a cooking solution in Eco stove technology. . . . . #ecostoves #eco #energy #solarsystems #solar #environment #climent #naturalworld #rosetwine #ecosyovesuganda #ugandan #african . #ugandanscan #instagood #climatechange #instagramhub #instagramers #instadaily #success #followme #uganda #africa #african #kampala #uk #winniekitaka #instagood #uae #innovations #love #design #ecostove
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How the stove works
The Eco-stove has four main parts; the insulation, solar system, air system, and heat system. The stove is attached to a movable, portable solar system (30 Watt solar PV panel & battery) to input the air system that runs the fan. The fan is inbuilt with a regulator to moderate the heat. Volcanic rocks trap the heat after small logs of compressed charcoal dust called briquettes are lit to start the fire.
The stove's function doesn't stop at cooking either! It is designed with 2 USB ports to charge a phone, 2 LED lights, an inbuilt FM radio, and an ashtray at the bottom that collects residue from cooking. The company also provides its customers with a 3 kilogram bag of volcanic rocks that are reusable for about 2 years. The stoves come in different sizes too - single burners, double burners, and also commercial ones with multiple burners for businesses.
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UGANDAN INNOVATION @ecostoves_uganda . The Eco-stove technology is of increased efficiency which runs on solar with added benefits of lighting, mobile phone charging, FM radio and much more. The company was launched after a careful assessment of rural energy poor households in the light of Global development trends to empower off grid rural masses to better their social-economic conditions and quality of living standards. . FOLLOW OUR OWN #ecostoves #eco #energy #solarsystems #solar #environment #climent #naturalworld #rosetwine #ecosyovesuganda #ugandan #african . #ugandanscan #instagood #instagramhub #instagramers #instadaily #success #followme #uganda #africa #african #kampala #uk #winniekitaka #qoutes #saturday #instagood #uae #innovations #love #design
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Eco Group has received several grants to scale their operations and have successfully built a factory for manufacturing and also established a head office. They have even gone the extra mile supplying their stoves to countries like Rwanda, Kenya, and South Sudan. The Eco Stove has not only enabled clean cooking but also provided employment opportunities to people at the foot of Mt. Muhavura in South Western Uganda. They trained groups to extract the volcanic rocks which are later collected and transported to the company premises. The factory produces at least 40 stoves per day and has sold over 17,000 stoves since it started! Rose Twine's vision is to skill youth to become entrepreneurs and do what they are doing in other countries so that the new technology is adopted.
Eco-stove is another alternative to gas and electricity. I think the Eco-stove will revolutionise cooking in Uganda and the rest of Africa because it is economical and environmentally friendly!
Written by Rebecca Namuwaya
Rebecca is an entrepreneur, student and freelance writer. She loves writing about sustainable agriculture and the environment. When she's not writing, she can be found gardening in her backyard, helping farmers with their gardens and learning new food recipes.
You can find her on twitter here.
Head photo by Mariana Proença on Unsplash