Solar-Powered Taco Stand

From BloombergBusinessweek: "In sunny Oaxaca, Mexico, Alfredo Garcia's taco stand sports a reflector [above] that concentrates sunlight for cooking. The Swiss designer behind the idea hopes to sell the system to other food carts for about $500."

Video here.

From HarmonyWishes:

Oaxaca is a city that boasts an average of 311 sunny days a year; and with a latitude of 15-degrees above the equator, that sun is hot.  So, it makes sense why Oaxaca bears the nickname Tierra del Sol (Land of Sun).  What better idea, then, to exploit that limitless resource for daily use?  Meet Michale Götz, a Swiss inventor and solar energy specialist. He, along with two partners, converged to consider how solar energy could be harnessed for use by the plethora of street food vendors in Oaxaca City.  For years in the city, the common practice of those who sell tacos, tlayudas, memelas, even hot dogs, was to burn coal over open comals (or clay griddles).  Over time, many vendors have switched to using gas, hooking small tanks up to metal griddles or grills fixed to their mobile carts.  On arriving to town, Götz met Lorena Harp, a local Oaxacan who had already been designing and promoting small solar ovens for use in homes around the city.  Their energies and ideas combined.

Harp researched local food vendors in the city to suss out their needs and practices.  The ideal candidate for a pilot solar project emerged close to home, just down the street from her house.  There she met Alfredo García. The group put García's taco stand to use to test a new sustainable project to harness the sun’s rays to create steam to cook his tacos.