Powering energy efficient solar powered pressure cooker with ClimateSmartTM Internet-of-Things technology in Kenya
SunCulture is a solar irrigation company based in Kenya which aims to develop and commercialize life-changing technologies that solve the biggest daily challenges of the world’s 570m smallholder farming households.
Their project aims to explore ways to increase the energy efficiency of solar pressure cookers throughout Kenya with ClimateSmartTM Internet-of-Things technology.
ClimateSmartTM Solar Energy System is connected to a Lithium-Ion Battery that optimizes performance of appliances, such as their RainMarker2 solar pump. They recently deployed a solar pressure cooker into the field that plugs directly into ClimateSmartTM. ClimateSmartTM acts as an IoT gateway, which has allowed the remote monitoring of usage of the solar cookers for the handful of pilot customers. In this project, SunCulture want to build on their hardware and software by working closely with end users to add innovative features (e.g. remote cooker activation and predictive maintenance) to the solar pressure cookers and explore additional ways to improve performance and usability of the solar cookers using IoT and machine learning. At less than $1.25 per day for ClimateSmartTM and a solar pressure cooker on their Pay-As-You-Go platform, this innovation will be accessible for millions across Africa.
SunCulture’s project has experienced some delays and we are currently working through how best to overcome these. The completion date is likely to be 12-18 months away.