Solar Flair
Kane Man Dreams
of Third Worlders Cooking with Sunshine Instead of Expensive,
Vanishing Wood
Extra! January 29, 2003
By George Rawlinson
Another impoverished child, dirty and deserted. Not
quite 6 years old, the girl lives at an orphanage outside
Port-au-Prince, Haiti. There, along a rural road, she
sits quietly, nibbling on a small slice of bread, the
quick little bites making her look like a squirrel with
a freshly found nut.
Paul Munsen has seen such things. Once a successful
marketing consultant, he runs an Elburn-based business
that brings solar ovens to developing countries.
It's worthwhile work, he says, adding that trying to
make a difference means more to him today than trying
to make a buck. But bills keep coming. "This year,
if things continue going well, we might actually turn
a profit," Munsen says, smiling slightly. "I
haven't paid myself since 2001."
As president of Sun Ovens International, he has, among
other things, refinanced his home to help keep the business
running. "I was fortunate, having had the home
paid off," he says, matter-of-factly. "Sooner
or later, the money will work itself out."
Trees, charcoal vanish
Munsen is involved in something called the Temple Solar
Project. Since 1997, a number of Rotary clubs in this
area have helped provide people worldwide with an inexpensive
energy source called the Sun Oven, the largest of which
looks like a small satellite. The invention uses solar
panels to turn sunshine into an economical replacement
for charcoal and wood-both of them scarce and extremely
expensive in impoverished places such as Haiti.
The Sun Oven's original inventor, a Milwaukee resident
and restaurateur, went bankrupt trying to market the
solar cooker, which he designed in 1986. Munsen and
a group of investors bought the patent several years
ago.
"After AIDS, deforestation is the world's most serious
problem," Munsen said. "Yet it's something many
Americans don't know anything about." The demands
of population growth and the inefficient conversion of
wood to charcoal have stripped the world's forests. That
contributes to global warming as well as other environmental
problems.
In Haiti, four-fifths of the rural population lives
below the poverty line. Malnutrition affects half the
children under age 5. "Sun Ovens can have an enormous
impact on the everyday life of millions of people,"
Munsen said. "The ovens can reduce the demand on
forests and reduce health hazards."
An estimated 2 billion households worldwide depend
on wood and charcoal to prepare food. The supply of
wood is rapidly disappearing. With each passing minute,
for example, there are 200 more people on earth and
50 acres less forest. "By harnessing the sun's
rays, our ovens offer a free, reliable, nonpolluting
energy source," Munsen said. He said the solar
cooker is being used in 126 countries.
The largest of the models, the Villager, can bake bread
for about 150 children a day when the sun shines. On days
when it doesn't, there's an attached propane gas tank-a
backup unit-which still saves fuel, Munsen said. The Villager
model's cost is prohibitive, however: The Villager sells
for more than $10,000.
Some Sun Ovens have been donated to orphanages in developing
countries by various Rotary clubs. Munsen speaks at
the meetings of many groups and organizations, sometimes
soliciting funds for shipping solar cookers overseas.
As of Oct. 1, more than a dozen of the 1,000 pound
Villager ovens had been shipped to Haiti, a Caribbean
country of about 8 million that is the poorest nation
in the Western Hemisphere. Because of the heavy deforestation,
the last tree standing in Haiti could fall as early
as next year. Besides losing that as a source of cooking
fuel, soil erosion from tree-stripped hills causes runoff
into rivers that is polluting and destroying the Haitian
fishing industry. Several studies say that Haiti soon
will not be able to sustain itself.
Along with the Villager model, Sun Oven also manufactures
a family-sized solar cooker, which retails for about $200
in the United States, though many are sold at a reduced
cost to the poor thanks to the assistance of not-for-profit
and philanthropic groups. About the size of a suitcase,
the small solar oven can cook any kind of food with the
power of the sun, Munsen said. "The individual family
model reaches temperatures of 360 to 400 degrees Fahrenheit,"
said Munsen.
Sun Ovens employs four people in the Elburn industrial
park where its located. Supporters say that inside the
standard-sized suburban brick building, Munsen means business,
wanting to provide a clean and almost limitless supply
of cooking fuel to as many places as it's needed.
"In an unassuming sort of way, Paul's passionate
about wanting to help people, " one Rotary Club
member said. "You have to admire his determination.
He's absolutely dedicated to this project. On top of
everything else, he's got great common sense, knowing
what will work and want won't."
Munsen has addressed the United Nations on environmental
issues and has worked with the U.S. Department of Commerce
to find a Haitian Partner to manufacture and market the
solar ovens in that country. Sun Ovens have been shipped
to North Korea and Afghanistan, among many other countries.
The company has opened an "in-country" assembly
plant in Ghana and plans to open two more in Haiti and
Uganda by the end of the year. Munsen says making the
ovens "in-country" will both lower the cost
of the cookers and empower Third World people by giving
them jobs.
In Haiti, where the per capita income is less than
$1,500, what little money people have is literally going
up in smoke, Munsen said. Bags of charcoal are sold
at open air markets, sometimes to the highest bidder.
Human beings often "go up in smoke," too.
Munsen said 5 million children a year die in nations
like Honduras, the Dominican Republic and Angola from
breathing smoke or carbon monoxide from their family's
cookstoves.
To the Western way of thinking, the economic and environmental
problems solved by a switch to solar cooking in developing
countries make the conversion seem "completely logical,"
Munsen said. But resistance to this seemingly magic lantern
has arisen in the Third World because of a variety of
factors, including entrenched customs.
"People feel happiest with what they know,"
Munsen said. "Change comes slowly, but we've had
some significant results." "So far, what we're
doing is just a drop in the ocean, but it's a drop nonetheless,"
Munsen said. A small solar cooker-the family model,
not the Villager-can bake, boil, or steam just about
everything under the sun, Munsen said. A 2 ½
pound beef roast takes less than two hours to cook.
Three pounds of baked chicken can cook through and through
in just over an hour. The Villager can do all that and
much more, including being able to sterilize medical
instruments.
He expects the average life expectancy of the Villager
model to run into the decades. "It comes complete
with a trailer and is built to last," Munsen said.
For more information, call Munsen at (630) 208-7273.
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