The idea of this event is to organize a solar barbecue one day this summer (hopefully there will be a summer this year).

Note: This event has already been postponed for 2 consecutive years.

1. Organization
- making a list and finding or making plans of the ovens/furnaces/deathrays to be built
- organizing the necessary material
- building one group per oven

2. Building
- Meet one or two days to build the ovens

3. The BBQ
- Make a solar BBQ-Party on one week-end
- Make this event open for everyone, not only the people that built the ovens

Please add your availabilities for a building date and for the BBQ.

Here are some of the design ideas:

Old satellite dish + aluminium foil = big parabolic mirror This solution seems to be the most cost-efficient alternative to concentrate sun light. Let's see if it actually works.

The simplest box-shaped solar ovens allow one to cook to near-boiling temperatures, but they do not permit a nice grilled texture, typical of a BBQ. This oven based on a fresnel lens is meant for “high-speed” cooking and grilling.

The photos and video below show a preliminary test of grilling a merguez sausage for 5 minutes on a black cast-iron frying pan using a 1-metre diameter acrylic fresnel lens. The result is not very different from frying over an electric range. The merguez tasted the same as always, but it was a little dry. I think it would have been better if I had cooked for only 3-4 minutes.

The main challenge will be to build a practical frame for holding the lens and the cooking stage.

Video of frying a merguez with a Fresnel lens