THE TIME FOR SOLAR COOKERS IS NOW: A 9-YEAR WAIT MUST END
Hemen Parekh | June 2026
THE CRISIS IS UPON US
Last week, OPEC released a staggering projection: India's LPG demand will double in the next 25 years. This should terrify us—not because of market prices alone, but because it reveals a truth our policymakers have chosen to ignore for nearly a decade.
I have been writing about solar cookers since 2017. That's nine years. Nine years of letters to Cabinet Ministers. Nine years of watching India spend ₹37,256 crore annually—a recurring, endless commitment—to subsidize LPG cooking for the poor, while a proven alternative sits gathering dust in laboratories and small pilot projects.
The time for incremental steps has passed. The window for urgent action is now.
THE MATH THAT NO ONE CAN ARGUE WITH
In my October 2020 blog "Not in one day : What about 3 years ?", I laid out the fundamental case:
"Allocation of Rs 37,256 crore for LPG subsidy (for cooking), is an ANNUAL RECURRING expense. If household cooking was to be based on use of a SOLAR CHULHA (Stove), then no need for LPG!"
Here's what this means:
• 8 Crore poor households are covered under Ujjwala Yojana • Each receives ₹2,400 in subsidy per year (₹200 per cylinder × 12 cylinders) • Over 3 years, the government recovers the cost of a ₹10,000 solar cooker through subsidy savings alone • After year 3, every rupee saved on LPG goes straight into India's forex reserves
Let me be direct: there is no energy programme in India's history with a faster payback period.
Compare this to induction stoves—which the government is currently pushing. An induction cooker requires:
• New electrical infrastructure • Grid upgrades (13-27 GW of new peak capacity) • Ongoing electricity costs • And adds to the very grid stress we're already struggling with
A solar cooker requires none of this. It is self-contained, decentralized, and grid-independent.
THE PROOF-OF-CONCEPT THAT WAS SUPPOSED TO CHANGE EVERYTHING
Four years ago, in July 2022, I wrote: "My Solar Cooker dream about to materialise ?"
That month, the Indian Oil Corporation unveiled Surya Nutan—an indoor solar cooking stove developed by IOC's R&D division. Let me quote from that announcement:
"The stove has a 10-year life with zero maintenance. The solar panel has a 25-year life. It can be used for the full range of cooking—boiling, steaming, frying, cooking roti. One kg of LPG saved using the stove will mitigate 3 kilograms of CO₂ emissions."
At the time, Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said the stove cost ₹18,000–₹30,000, but with government support and economies of scale, could come down to ₹10,000–₹12,000 per unit.
This was 2022.
It is now June 2026.
According to my latest research, we have produced approximately 250,000 units per year of solar cookers—when we should be producing several million. We have distributed a few thousand to pilot villages, when we should have reached 3.7 crore households by now.
Why? Not because the technology doesn't work. It does. Not because the economics don't pencil out. They do. But because bureaucracy moves slower than the sun.
THE CURRENT CRISIS MAKES THIS UNDENIABLE
This April, I wrote to the Government of India in "Project Solar Cooker: The Answer to the 13–27 GW Induction Power Crisis":
"The Hindu Business Line reported that if India's rush to induction cooking continues unchecked, peak electricity demand could surge by 13–27 GW — consumed almost entirely during morning and evening cooking hours when the grid is already under maximum stress. This is not a solution to the West Asia crisis. It is a second crisis layered upon the first."
But here's the beauty of solar cookers:
1. ZERO GRID BURDEN A solar cooker draws nothing from the grid. Converting 3.3 crore (10%) of LPG users to solar cooking adds precisely 0 GW to peak demand.
2. FASTER FOREX SAVINGS Each solar cooker replaces ~7 LPG cylinders per year. Converting 3.3 crore households saves ₹23,000 crore annually in forex.
3. RAPID PAYBACK A ₹29,700 crore subsidy investment (₹9,000 per unit for 3.3 crore households, 50% subsidy) recoups itself in under 10 months.
4. GEOPOLITICAL IMMUNITY Solar energy is produced locally by the sun, not by tankers navigating the Strait of Hormuz. It is the only cooking fuel truly immune to West Asia geopolitics.
5. NO NEW INFRASTRUCTURE Solar cookers are self-contained. Induction cooking requires grid upgrades taking years and thousands of crores.
WHAT THE DATA SHOWS, BUT POLICY IGNORES
From my 2020 research:
• 1.67 million deaths in India were caused by air pollution that year • 116,000 infant deaths were caused by household air pollution • The Ujjwala programme brought household air pollution exposure down from 73% (2010) to 61% (2019)—proving that clean cooking fuel saves lives
But we are still subsidizing LPG—the same fossil fuel that creates the very air pollution we're trying to prevent.
Solar cookers eliminate that contradiction. One kg of LPG saved avoids 3 kg of CO₂ emissions. A solar cooker can generate 51.48 carbon credits per year, worth ₹41,200 in global carbon markets at current prices. This is not speculation; this is verified science.
THE WINDOW IS CLOSING
We have:
• The technology (Surya Nutan, CMERI systems, NIT Calicut designs) • The manufacturing partners (IOC, IOCL, licensed private vendors) • The distribution network (Indane LPG dealerships across the country) • The fiscal case (10-month payback, ₹37,000 crore annual savings) • The health case (prevents premature deaths from indoor air pollution) • The geopolitical case (independence from maritime chokepoints) • The grid case (zero burden on an already-stressed network)
What we do NOT have is urgency. What we do NOT have is a national mission to scale solar cookers from 250,000 units per year to 10 million units per year.
The OPEC headline arrived this month. It is telling us something: if we do not act now, India will be trapped in a 25-year spiral of deepening LPG dependence, rising subsidy costs, and perpetual air pollution.
WHAT MUST HAPPEN IMMEDIATELY
1. Invoke the PLI Scheme for thermal batteries and solar hybrid induction plates—the same industrial momentum being applied to electric induction cooking, but redirected to a technology that doesn't break the grid.
2. Announce Free Distribution to Ujjwala Beneficiaries—9.6 crore households, distributed over 2 years, using the ₹37,256 crore LPG subsidy budget that already exists.
3. Scale Manufacturing to 10 Million Units Per Year—Fast-track approval for private vendors. Remove tariff barriers. Offer production-linked incentives.
4. Link Carbon Credits to Direct Payments—Each household using a solar cooker becomes eligible for annual carbon credit sales, generating ₹30,000–₹40,000 additional income per year.
5. Make Solar Cooker + Battery Systems the Core of the "Har Ghar Surya" Mission—Not as an afterthought, but as the primary vehicle for clean cooking national ambition.
A PERSONAL NOTE
I am 92 years old. I have written nine years of letters on this subject. I have watched the technology mature, the economics improve, and the case for urgency strengthen.
But I will not see the day when every poor rural woman stops burning biomass and LPG and switches to solar.
That is the work of the next government, the next Minister, the next Cabinet.
The only question is: will they act with the urgency this moment demands?
Or will they wait another nine years, watch the OPEC projection come true, and then wonder why they didn't act when the solution was already sitting on laboratory shelves and Minister Puri's desk?
RELATED EARLIER BLOGS
"Not in one day : What about 3 years ?" (October 2020)
The foundational case: ₹37,256 crore LPG subsidy vs. ₹10,000 solar cooker cost, recovered in 3 years.
"My Solar Cooker dream about to materialise ?" (July 2022)
IOC's Surya Nutan announcement, technology readiness, and deployment path.
"Project Solar Cooker: The Answer to the 13–27 GW Induction Power Crisis" (April 2026)
The case for solar cookers as the solution to grid stress, forex bleeding, and geopolitical vulnerability.
With regards,
Hemen Parekh
92-year-old advocate for clean cooking and energy independence
www.HemenParekh.ai | www.3pConsultants.co.in
Mumbai | June 2026
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