Solar Powered Portable Charger
Landlocked in southeast Africa, Malawi is among the world's most underdeveloped countries. With a largely agricultural economy, most of the population live in rural areas.
As shown in the figure to the left, Nearly 2 million people, 10% of Malawi's total population, live under the extreme poverty line.
Malawi's Income vs. Population
Three billion people in the world cook using traditional fires. This includes of the population in Malawi and other undeveloped countries in the world and the smoke exposure from cooking proves a significant health risk and environmental issue.
To counter this, a new class of clean electric cookstoves have entered the market! Pete Schwartz, a professor at Cal Poly, is one developer who is working on the production of a solar kitchen.
In efforts to promote the usage of the cleaner cookstove rather than the traditional biofuel stove, developers have been researching the addition of a USB port that'll be powered along with the stove.
In a study led by Daniel L. Wilson of the University of California, Berkeley, 72 participating families in rural Odisha, India were given thermoelectric cookstoves that they named Shakti Chulhi. Of these participants, some of the cookstoves also provided USB ports.
While some families had a cell phone to charge, families were also provided rechargeable LED flashlights as well as some sample wood. The study shows that cooktops that included the USB ports saw more extended use though it did not necessarily rate higher than the cooktops without.