Goldilocks Tech? A Solar Oven Overview
The Great Simplification #119 with Luther Krueger
Today, I’m joined by Luther Krueger to discuss one example of a category of innovation that I’ve taken to calling ‘Goldilocks tech’ - which uses accessible and abundant materials to achieve important tasks for human societies with less or considerably less energy and material throughput.
In the western world, most of us are used to indoor, gas or electric stoves, typically powered by fossil fuels, and in a third of the world, people are still using solid fuels - wood, coal, or dung - which come with many health and environmental risks. Solar ovens are an alternative which makes use of passive solar energy at a range of temperatures and can be made from basic or reused materials.
Since 2004 Krueger has been collecting unique classic and contemporary solar cookers and promoting solar cooking as the means to halt deforestation, clean unsafe drinking water in remote areas of developing countries, and reducing any community's dependence on fossil fuel. Krueger's unincorporated, volunteer-run Big Blue Sun Museum of Solar Cooking aims to preserve the history of solar cooking while promoting the practice through the video series on the Museum's youtube channel and as contributing moderator to the Solar Cookers World Network on social media and by promoting solar cooking at regional events. Krueger is a Senior Community Faculty member at Metropolitan State University where he teaches the Capstone course for the Master of Public and Nonprofit Administration degree program. Krueger retired from the Minneapolis Police Department in 2023 after twenty-eight years as a civilian community liaison and crime analyst, where he developed and launched several community policing initiatives.
What would it take on a cultural and economic level for more people to adopt these low-tech solutions? How can solar cooker designs vary to match the needs of the individual and community in varying environmental conditions? Could we take inspiration from this example of Goldilocks Technology for other areas of our lives in a slower, lower-energy throughput future?
In case you missed it…
What are you absolutely certain of? In last week’s Frankly, I offered a list of things I am absolutely certain of… or as certain as any human can be. Each of us has grounding beliefs about the reality around us with which we shape our outlook on the world and how we’d like to interact with it. Can we recognize truisms about our world without becoming closed off to ways of learning and understanding? What are the fundamental realities of the world around us - and how do they constrain our pathways for the future?
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When so and so objects to a solar cooker because without the 7 mile walk for firewood, they'd never see Uncle Bob, suggest that they fire-cook once or twice a week as a treat, or on days when it's overcast. Also, I never figured out how to fry or saute on our solar cooker. That's another excuse to fire-cook once or twice a week. One more idea. If there are foods that come out better on the solar cooker (for me, rice!), use that as an excuse to visit Uncle Bob - to bring him a pot of your solar special.