• Reduces CO2 emissions

Challenge in Africa

  • 840 million people in sub-Saharan Africa don’t have access to electricity, majority in rural areas.
  • 700 million people are projected to remain without access to electricity by 2050 due to rapid population growth.
  • An open fire is highly energy inefficient and requires a lot of wood. Family of 5 consumes 4000 kg of wood a year producing 6400 kg of CO2.
  • An open fire produces massive household air pollution with many dangerous pollutants that penetrate deep into the lungs. Indoor pollution causes 4 million premature deaths a year and diseases incl. pneumonia and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. 
  • Women in developing countries spend on average 1,4 hours a day collecting firewood and 4 hours cooking. Women are thus heavily affected by indoor pollutions. 
  • Millions of children do not attend or complete primary education – majority are girls who stay at home to do household labour.
  • Families in suburban areas spend a big part of their annual income on buying charcoal and lamp oil
  • Unsustainable harvesting of firewood drives deforestation and forest degradation. High rates of deforestation causes: land erosion, desertification, droughts, famine, destruction of animal habitat and flooding. Deforestation also forces people to leave their homes in search of better opportunities – in Europe and neighbouring countries.
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Our Solution

  • Electricity stored in the battery provides energy for cooking, lightning and charging devices with Afstor Solar Cooker for three hours in the night or cloudy weather.

  • Women no longer need to burn wood on an open fire for cooking. Indoor air will be clean and health of those exposed to the open fire will be improved. Trees continue to absorb CO2 from the atmosphere and produce other crucial ecosystem services.
  • Afstor Solar Cooker reduces CO2 emissions equal to 260 000 km driven by a car or 10 Helsinki-Tokio round trips by plane during five years. Buyer of Afstor Solar Cooker can track its usage rate and the subsequent reduction of CO2 emissions on a website.
  • Afstor Solar Cooker reduces workload, creates more time for studying and productive activities with higher returns for women and children who no longer need to waste time on collecting firewood.
  • Afstor Solar Cooker electrifies remote rural areas where electric grid won’t extend by 2050.
  • Afstor operates according to sustainable principles. We reinvest most of the profits back into the company and have a moderate divident policy for owners. We show the company’s financial statement to buyers of Afstor Solar Cookers as a sign of absolute transparency

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Examples of CO2 emission reductions with Afstor Solar Home and Stove system

1 year of usage

Corresponding CO2 emissions are produced by car
(Car CO2 emissions 117 g/km)

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5 years of usage

Corresponding CO2 emissions are produced by car if you drive

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5 years of usage

Corresponding CO2 emissions are produced by plane with

Helsinki-Tokyo round trips​
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Sambian pääuutislähetys 1.8.2019

Mission

We have integrated solar panels, an induction stove, a battery and LED lamps into a system that enables an African family to leap to the 21st century in energy consumption. Company’s mission is to put an end to unnecessary use of firewood and provide a decent life to rural population of Sub-Saharan Africa. Let’s cook on solar and save forests as carbon sinks.

Our Team

Ari Piispanen – CEO and founder: Inventor of Afstor Solar Cooker and the related business model. Ari has invented numerous products within various fuels, energy production and storage, and patented sixty of them. He has developed them into a product and a business, and continued to invent.

Jero Ahola – Founder: Inventor of Afstor Solar Cooker and the related business model. Jero works as a Professor in energy efficiency in electrically driven systems at Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology (LUT) and holds twenty patents.

Both Ari and Jero have won several Finnish and international awards in innovation.

Ari Piispanen – CEO and founder

Jero Ahola – Founder

Vesa Korhonen
Director of African Affairs

Ari Piispanen
CEO

Jero Ahola
Professor

Tuomo Honkamäki
Sales Director

Antti Paajanen
Development Engineer

Emilia Piispanen
Sales Assistant

Carol Makota
Contact in Africa