28.06.2023 | News
The use of traditional cooking stoves, roasters and dehydrators requires significant amounts of wood and charcoal, materials that contribute to deforestation and air pollution, with devastating effects on people’s health and the environment. Solar Fire Concentration’s solar concentrator technology can help accelerate the shift to cleaner cooking solutions globally.
The Finnish company Solar Fire Concentration has developed a patented solar concentrating technology called Lytefire that uses mirrors to transform solar energy into heat for ovens, stoves, roaster, dehydrators or even saunas. With its own software, designed to ensure Lytefire operates efficiently, Solar Fire Concentration offers a scalable and sustainable solution to replace traditional cooking stoves that burn fossil fuels.
Nefco – the Nordic Green Bank is financing Solar Fire Concentration to help it grow on international markets and accelerate the shift to cleaner cooking solutions globally. “Nefco financing will help us internationalise through licensing, decentralised production and boosting our global sales capacity. Our product, Lytefire, was designed for decentralised production,” says Urs Riggenbach, Co-founder and CEO, Solar Fire Concentration.
Clean cooking solution for sustainable business
Lytefire is based on recycled and readily available mirrors that can be used in places where solar cookers or other small systems are not sufficiently powerful and industrial equipment is too costly or complex to install. The solution is used by entrepreneurs looking for a sustainable energy source to run their daily operations as it can maintain a cooking temperature between 80°C and 500°C, suitable for baking bread, roasting peanuts, boiling water, drying vegetables and fish and cooking food.
“Lytefire solar thermal technology is meant to empower entrepreneurs, create sustainable jobs, support local self-sufficiency and contribute to a more circular and functional service economy while reducing the use of fossil fuels. Our technology allows cost-efficient access to solar thermal energy for food processing and other energy-intensive processes,” says Riggenbach.
Solar Fire Concentration’s technology reduces consumption of biomass and contributes to the preservation of biodiversity. It also reduces greenhouse gas emissions; each Lytefire unit saves consumption of 5 tonnes of CO2 annually and contributes to better air quality. In addition, Lytefire offers educational packages to its clients to raise awareness of the entrepreneurial opportunities within the solar market and facilitate the introduction of its products to new users.
Growth financing for solar technologies
Nefco’s Fast-track loan will help Solar Fire Concentration boost the scale-up of its heating technology globally and digitalise its educational services. In Europe, awareness of the company’s products as an alternative for food stalls, hotels and bakeries is growing, while in Africa, Lytefire is a means to support local economies and empower communities in rural areas.
“Originally, we focused on low-income countries where our solar solution can have the greatest impact in terms of livelihoods and reduction of deforestation. In Europe, as energy prices have risen, we have also seen the adoption of Lytefire to facilitate innovative business models,” Eva Wissenz, Founder and Managing Director, Solar Fire Concentration
“With its simple technology based on readily available mirrors, Solar Fire Concentration offers sustainable food processing solutions with environmental and social benefits. The company’s technology facilitates the empowerment of women in the African markets in which they are already operating. We are pleased to help grow a green business that contributes to a more sustainable and just society,” says Vivi Avikainen, Investment Manager at Nefco.
For further information, please contact:
Vivi Avikainen, Investment Manager, Nefco
vivi.avikainen@nefco.int, +358 10 6180 661
Eva Wissenz, Founder and Managing Director, Solar Fire Concentration
eva.wissenz@solarfire.io
Urs Riggenbach, Co-Founder and CEO, Solar Fire Concentration
urs.riggenbach@solarfire.io,
About Solar Fire Concentration Oy
Solar Fire Concentration Oy (SFCO) was founded in 2012 in Tampere, Finland, to tackle the issue of climate change and poverty, offering a competitive, affordable and sustainable energy solution for entrepreneurs around the globe with its patented Lytefire solar concentrating technology and educational packages on solar entrepreneurship. The basis of the Lytefire technology is the simple concept of solar concentration. Using mirrors, the sun’s rays are focussed on a small area, generating heat that can be used for cooking, roasting and baking at different scales. SFCO aims to address energy poverty in the Global South with its Lytefire solar tech and empower people through training to create more sustainable jobs everywhere the sun shines.
Read more: www.lytefire.com