InventorSpot

Roasted rotisserie chicken... now you don't need wood to make it good!
Sila Sutharat laughs at Global Warming - at least, he smiles when the sun shines and the smell of succulent, roasted rotisserie chicken wafting from his small roadside food stand draws customers from far and wide. I'm guessing he smiles all the wider when he reads his monthly electric bill... just like those VISA commercials on television, the numbers are all zeroes!

Sutharat's secret is his solar powered chicken roaster. The 50-year-old Thai food stand owner from the town of Phetchaburi, 90 km southwest of Bangkok, was inspired to build the roaster by memories of his childhood when he would play outdoors with a magnifying glass.

A team of Japanese researchers (attracted perhaps by the aroma emanating from Sutharat's roaster) recently reported on his innovative device which utilizes mirrors to focus the sun's rays on his roadside rotisserie.

According to Sutharat (pictured, left), his roaster can cook a 1.6-kg chicken in just 10 minutes on a sunny day, 20 minutes when the skies are overcast.

He typically roasts an average of 50 chickens each morning, selling them for 160 baht (about $5) each. That's something to crow about, especially when you consider there are no fuel or electricity costs coming off the bottom line.

Roasted chicken, Thai-style
The implications of Sutharat's humble roadside chicken roaster are staggering. Across the third world, desperately poor people are being squeezed by rising fuel costs and increasing temperatures that are turning lush farmland into deserts. Equipped with cheap, mass-produced solar powered roasters, food preparers will not have to chop down trees for firewood, nor will they need to spend a painful percentage of their incomes on cooking oil.

Once the Japanese research team who discovered Sila Sutharat's roadside roaster returns to the land of the rising sun, it's likely we can expect a working prototype to be announced shortly. (via JapanNews.net)