Description of Challenge
Food sovereignty and sustainability in the Palestinian Occupied Territories.
Solution
The solar dryer is a solar-powered food dehydrator, that is entirely autonomous and “off grid”, and supports both local food autonomy and economic resilience. Once installed, it enables a farm to preserve seasonal surpluses of fruits and vegetables (which is a local traditional practice).
This basic “tunnel” solar dryer is essentially a table-top greenhouse, with active ventilation provided by electric fans and a dedicated photovoltaic panel. It provides optimal airflow and temperature for drying food in an environment protected from animals, UV radiation, weather, and contamination. An additional aim of this design is to use locally available material, “upcycled” from waste.
There are few hand tools needed for construction, no power tools, and no grid power necessary. Nearly the entire solar dryer is built with recovered materials, and only a few components had to be purchased. The inside of the dryer reaches temperatures of around 40 degrees Celsius on a mild autumn day, and despite the high roof and the light color of the dryer interior it seems to hold a nearly ideal
temperature. There is a thermometer in the dryer, to experiment with temperature and predict the drying speed.
