Near Mexico City’s primary wholesale food market, the Central de Abasto de Ecatepec, a 71-year-old man named Maximino Antonio Piedad presents his homemade solar cooker built out of reused materials. His main goal is to help people who don’t have “many assets” or access to public services and help the planet reduce pollution.
Piedad was born and raised in Amatitla Santiago, in Tamazunchale, San Luis Potosí, an indigenous region in Mexico with only 527 people who speak an indigenous language. Despite not having attended school and not speaking Spanish until he was 20 years old, he built a fully functioning solar stove.
Piedad was inspired to make the cooker when he saw people building a stove powered by the sun with a mirror and a wheel. Since then, many people have perfected the idea and are eager to spread this environmentally friendly option to others. Piedad is one of them.
He plans to use the finances raised from the device to help people with little money to have a way to cook – improving their lives and reducing the pollution they generate in their homes.
Piedad’s stoves are made from a television receiver antenna placed 50 centimeters from the grill, responsible for reflecting the sun. The device provides enough heat to cook food like a traditional stove.
Piedad said:
One is getting ideas to help people, among all … we do not need the Chinese to come who sell us disposable things … as there is no money, we have to do this and invent
Using only the reflected heat from the sun, the stove can be used to cook various foods such as grains or beans and heat water for coffee or tea.
At the moment, solar stoves are sold for 1,200 pesos (approx. US$60). While Piedad doesn’t have many orders, he has already sent his design to Guerrero, Oaxaca, Hidalgo, Mérida, Campeche, and the US. If you’re interested in Piedad’s solar stove, you can order one from him by contacting him directly at (+52) 55 4091 3614. Unfortunately, Piedad doesn’t have WhatsApp, but he is ready to answer any call.
