- Date
- 23rd September 2024
- Categories
- Solar eCooking
By Jane Spencer (Loughborough University).
Having recently spent 8 days in Malawi with Robert van Buskirk and the team at Kachione, it brought home the extent of the progress they’ve made since MECS started working with them in 2019, when they were awarded a TRIID Challenge Fund.
At this time, Kachione were selling solar lights but wanted to explore a Malawi-made solar electric cooker for very low-income villages. The work explored business models to enable households to be able to buy these appliances and associated systems.
My trip allowed me to visit some of the households in M’bangombe village just north of Lilongwe, who are trialling the eCooking systems. I was also able to visit about half of the shops now selling and offering cooking support for the appliances.
Kachione’s workshop is based in Blantyre and the visit there enabled me to see how their work has developed and grown.
In the yard, four shipping containers of EPCs, PV panels, pumps and various equipment testify to the growing interest in solar eCooking and irrigation. There is even a solar powered tuktuk for local deliveries. In the workshop, a number of different EPCs systems are running for data collection (and the odd meal) whilst technicians work on the manufacturing of the new design of the lithium-titanate battery. However, under tarpaulin and in disused areas, all of their previous work is still stored on site. The Malawi-made cookers and different insulation materials which started their early work, the manufacture of small solar panels to power the electric lights, and the range of cookers are all there to see.
Whilst I know there is some frustration from the Kachione team that things haven’t progressed faster, for me, being able to see the iterations of work was fascinating. It’s a clear demonstration of how the work they are now doing has developed exponentially as they have explored various ways to make eCooking affordable. The existence of 16 solar shops and a new service division, run by Rachel and Christina, are testament to this expansion. And a recent visit to the Chinese manufacturer to discuss customised buttons for the EPC is a further development that can only help with the uptake of the cookers.