Faced with low fuel availability and a dwindling economy, Afghans are turning to solar cookers to fulfill their household cooking needs.

However, the solar cooker doesn’t work like a solar panel does, there are no cells no wires and no charging.

The solar cooker’s design resembles a sattelite dish and it is coated with a relective surface. The stand protruding above the cooker serves as a placeholder the way a traditional stovetop would. When sunlight hits the cooker, it is reflected and concentrated, allowing for enough heating for cooking to take place.

One vendor, Ghulam Abbas, told Independent Urdu that a large solar cooker, called a 4-litre one, can bring water to boiling temperature in 18 to 20 minutes. However, the smaller size is more popular, perhaps because people have to carry them off to far off areas.

He also said that while the steel needed to build the cooker is available in Afghanistan, but the metal plates have to be brought from Pakistan, China and Russia. The mirror coating material is brought from China and Iran.

The cooker solves energy needs as it needs no fuel to burn. And no fuel means no smoke, so the cooker is not contributing emissions to global warming. Not having to buy fuel just to cook food in the house will also save ordinary families alot of money.

The solar cooker could not only change fuel consumption patterns but also alter ways of life as the time used to gather firewood for traditional stoves can be saved and better used elsewhere.

One brand, the Sun and Ice company, claims that its solar cooker is so efficient that it will allow cooking to take place in the same amount of time as a fireplace or traditional stove.