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<p>Solar cookers can substantially reduce reliance on charcoal; yet, the comparative life cycle impacts of a solar cooker with thermal energy storage (TES) versus charcoal cooking have not been quantified. We conducted an attributional life cycle assessment (LCA) for Mbarara City, Uganda, using ecoinvent v3.10 and Environmental Footprint 3.0. The functional unit is cooking two meals per day over 10&#xa0;years for a typical household (3–6 people). Three scenarios capture different charcoal consumption levels. The solar system comprises a parabolic dish with aluminium components, a vegetable oil TES, and end-of-life (EoL) treatment. Across scenarios, solar cooking markedly lowers impacts: for most categories, burdens are ~ 8–9 × lower than charcoal. Weighted single-score results range from 141.5 to 302.9 points for charcoal and 64.4 to 82.3 points for the solar cooker (ratio ~ 2.2–3.7). The most influential categories are climate change, human toxicity (non-cancer), photochemical ozone formation, and water scarcity—each lower for solar. The main exception is freshwater ecotoxicity, which is higher for the solar option due to aluminium production, EoL processing, and disposal of vegetable oil residues from TES; repurposing these residues could mitigate this burden. In contribution analysis, freshwater ecotoxicity accounts for &gt; 67% of the solar cooker’s weighted score, whereas climate change contributes &gt; 45% of the charcoal model. This study extends prior work by assessing a broad set of midpoint indicators and identifying five priority categories, four of which favour solar over charcoal. Overall, the parabolic solar cooker exhibits the lowest life cycle impacts across categories and scenarios. Results are generalisable to regions with similar climatic, production, and distribution conditions; areas with &gt; 325 sunny days per year are likely to achieve even lower solar cooking impacts. We recommend expanding ecoinvent coverage for Africa (particularly East Africa and tropical regions) to improve modelling accuracy.</p> Graphical Abstract <p></p>

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A comparative assessment of environmental impacts of production, use, and disposal of a parabolic solar cooker and charcoal for cooking in Uganda

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年1月3日

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  • Justus Asasira,
  • Tine Compernolle,
  • Caesar Rowland Apentiik,
  • Tom Ogwang,
  • Maarten Vanierschot,
  • Hanie Zarafshani,
  • Jo Van Caneghem

摘要

Solar cookers can substantially reduce reliance on charcoal; yet, the comparative life cycle impacts of a solar cooker with thermal energy storage (TES) versus charcoal cooking have not been quantified. We conducted an attributional life cycle assessment (LCA) for Mbarara City, Uganda, using ecoinvent v3.10 and Environmental Footprint 3.0. The functional unit is cooking two meals per day over 10 years for a typical household (3–6 people). Three scenarios capture different charcoal consumption levels. The solar system comprises a parabolic dish with aluminium components, a vegetable oil TES, and end-of-life (EoL) treatment. Across scenarios, solar cooking markedly lowers impacts: for most categories, burdens are ~ 8–9 × lower than charcoal. Weighted single-score results range from 141.5 to 302.9 points for charcoal and 64.4 to 82.3 points for the solar cooker (ratio ~ 2.2–3.7). The most influential categories are climate change, human toxicity (non-cancer), photochemical ozone formation, and water scarcity—each lower for solar. The main exception is freshwater ecotoxicity, which is higher for the solar option due to aluminium production, EoL processing, and disposal of vegetable oil residues from TES; repurposing these residues could mitigate this burden. In contribution analysis, freshwater ecotoxicity accounts for > 67% of the solar cooker’s weighted score, whereas climate change contributes > 45% of the charcoal model. This study extends prior work by assessing a broad set of midpoint indicators and identifying five priority categories, four of which favour solar over charcoal. Overall, the parabolic solar cooker exhibits the lowest life cycle impacts across categories and scenarios. Results are generalisable to regions with similar climatic, production, and distribution conditions; areas with > 325 sunny days per year are likely to achieve even lower solar cooking impacts. We recommend expanding ecoinvent coverage for Africa (particularly East Africa and tropical regions) to improve modelling accuracy.

Graphical Abstract