Abstract

Recently, using solar energy for several purposes has become very important to preserve the environment, reduce pollution, and reduce consumption. Examples of these applications are cooking, barbecuing, desalination, and generating electrical power. Solar oomph is extremely important in providing the energy used in cooking. In the current work, a solar collector consisting of six flexible reflective panels was designed and assembled for solar cooking and grilling operations in the city of Jazan, southwestern Saudi Arabia. Pots of different sizes have been prepared for cooking operations, as well as a grid for grilling operations. They are installed at the center of the collection of reflected rays from the solar center, in addition to a movable stand and a manual system for directing the direction of the falling sunlight.
The current solar energy system provides an estimated power of about 2,300 watts from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. It took 16 minutes to cook 2700 grams of vegetables with the current system and less than two minutes to boil 2 liters of water. Grilling a whole chicken weighing 800 grams, cut in half, takes about ten minutes. Cooking was also done inside the kitchen using a solar energy source by transferring heat from the solar concentrator's absorber to a 35-diameter pipe filled with vegetable oil as a heat transfer fluid. The absorber temperature reached 321 degrees Celsius, while the internal cooking stove registered 129 degrees. The storage of collected heat and how it is transferred to indoor cooking processes were also studied.

Key words: Parabola, Solar collector, Solar energy, Solar cooking, Solar grilling