More than half the world still cooks their food and heats their home and water using rudimentary stoves. The UN estimates that smoke from primitive stoves kills 1.9 million people annually, more than malaria and AIDS combined. In addition, cooking fuel is becoming increasingly scarce, expensive, and time-intensive to find.

A solution to these problems is to use clean, renewable, and free sunlight, to meet these energy needs. However, current solar stoves do not supply on-demand heating, are not robust, and are often heavy and cumbersome. These challenges inhibit their widespread implementation.

This project is designing low-cost thermal batteries that utilize a novel micro-encapsulated fuel media to provide on-demand energy release for cooking and heating applications.