NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Friday, April 24, 2015

Earlier this year, we featured the GoSun Stove, a compact fuel-free cooker powered by nothing more than the sun’s rays. Now, the forward-thinking company is trying to launch their GoSun Grill—a larger and perhaps improved version of the cooker since it feeds many more people.

GoSun social designer Matt Gillespie told EcoWatch that the solar cooker can roast a meal for eight as fast as a grill. And since it has a thermal battery, users can cook whenever they want to, even if it’s cloudy.

“We see it as a complete redesign of what the modern grill can be,” he said.

Unlike a regular grill, food is “steam-fried” inside a tubed-shaped chamber that captures heat from the sun, making it perfect for roasting vegetables and meats and even baking bread. It reaches temperatures of 550 degrees and can cook a meal in 20 minutes, depending on what’s being cooked and the amount of sunlight.

Another way of looking at it? It’s simply an ingenious modification to a solar water heater. This eureka moment came from GoSun inventor and solar energy expert Patrick Sherwin who realized while taking apart a solar water heater that the vacuum tubes inside the device could also heat up his lunch.