Modern Energy Cooking Services (MECS)
Investigating the potential for multi-vector cooking appliances.
Project leader
Dates
April 2019 to July 2023
Project staff
Sponsors
Department for International Development (DfID)
Description
This project will investigate the potential for multi-vector cooking appliances. These are facilities for cooking that are able to run off a variety of energy supply sources.
We are using systems modelling to assess system lifetime (battery life). Our models take into account size, reliability, availability and energy use. We are modelling a variety of battery technologies.
By doing this, we can achieve higher availability of ‘cooking function’. For example, the battery may discharge due to sustained low photovoltaic (PV) output during a cloudy season. Having an alternative method increases availability compared to the solar PV solution alone. A similar benefit arises in the case of a weak or unreliable grid-connected clean cooking appliance.
The scenarios used in the project's case studies will take into account:
- location
- cooking device type(s)
- cooking habits (number and type of meals/cooking styles per day)
- weather conditions (particularly for insolation) over a year
- electricity supply: grid, micro-grid, per-dwelling-PV
- ability to recycle various materials (for example, the environmental impact of different battery technologies)
- local cost of various materials