Ramakrishna Mission Students Home adopts solar energy for cooking

Observing the 150 birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda, Ramakrishna Mission Students Home and Clique Solar, pioneer in developing solar technologies for Industrial Process Heating (IPH), Community Cooking and Comfort Cooling applications, launched ARUN®100 at the Ramakrishna Mission Students Home  premises.ARUN®100 solar thermal system will provide enough steam to cook an equivalent of 3500-4000 meals (consisting of sambhar, rasam, rice, vegetables and dal) for the students and residents of the Mission daily.

Need for Clean Renewable Energy at the Ramakrishna Mission Students Home: 

The kitchen at the Ramakrishna Mission Students Home used LPG for firing boiler for steam cooking. We used 2 LPG cylinders (14.2 kg) per day, however given the recent rise in fuel prices LPG no longer a sustainable option. To overcome the problem of rising LPG cost, we shifted to a custom made wood burner which burnt wood very efficiently and also reduced the amount of smoke. Our cooking fuel bills were reduced to some extent.

However we looked for ways to cook food with less cost. We analyzed many options and finally decided upon ARUN100 – a solar thermal steam generation system from Clique Solar, Mumbai. This system finds many applications in Industrial process heating, cooling, desalination, cooking, milk pasteurization and effluent treatment.

This plant uses the immense power of the sun by focusing the sunlight to a central receiver. Water flowing to the receiver is heated up and converted into steam which is used for cooking. ARUN® dish is capable of moving and tracking the sun’s motion (Automated Dual Axis Tracking) and thus maximizing the efficiency of the system. We are able to store steam as pressurized hot water in a tank to be used later during early morning and night time cooking. This solar thermal system can produce around 600 kgs of steam on a clear sunny day and can be used to cook around 4000 meals a day with daily energy output of 4 lakh Kcal.

Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Government of India, provide 30% financial subsidy for the project.