Wolfgang Scheffler (born 1956) is the inventor and promoter of Scheffler Reflectors, large, flexible parabolic reflecting dishes that concentrate sunlight for solar cooking in community kitchens, bakeries, and in the world's first solar-powered

crematorium A crematorium, crematory or cremation center is a venue for the cremation of the Death, dead. Modern crematoria contain at least one cremator (also known as a crematory, retort or cremation chamber), a purpose-built furnace. In some countries a ...

. By early 2008, over 2000 large cookers of his design had been built distributed worldwide including the world's largest solar cooker. Scheffler was born in

Innsbruck Innsbruck (; ) is the capital of Tyrol (federal state), Tyrol and the List of cities and towns in Austria, fifth-largest city in Austria. On the Inn (river), River Inn, at its junction with the Wipptal, Wipp Valley, which provides access to the ...

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

. In 1983 he finished his master's degree in physics at the University of Cologne. With a friend he wanted to construct a mirror to use solar energy to make glass in developing countries. The friend changed but Scheffler has developed the principle of this deformable mirror. In the press there was talk of the scarce firewood in developing countries. So in 1983 he had the idea of using the mirror for cooking. To get to know an African country for the first time, he spent worked for six weeks in an aid camp in Kenya. At the end he talked to the director about the solar stove. He was invited to come back and start the project on site. In 1985, they started, initially with simple solar cooking boxes made of cardboard, foil and glass. They used them to make tea, to convince people that this works. This was done with an emphasis on local construction of the devices. Contacts to India were established through development aid. In India, his idea really took off. The NGO Solare Bruecke was founded in 1992. In 2001 he learned from a radio interview with the German Prof. Peter Dienel about the actual existence of a superbly effective participatory decision-making process, which Dienel had developed in 1973 (''Planungszelle'',

Citizens' assembly Citizens' assembly is a group of people selected by lottery from the general population to deliberate on important public questions so as to exert an influence. Other names and variations of deliberative mini-publics include citizens' jury, ci ...

). Scheffler started promoting his method. Together with Heike Hoedt he received the Special Recognition Award at the 2006

Nuclear-Free Future Award Since 1998 the Nuclear-Free Future Award (NFFA) is an award given to anti-nuclear activists, organizations and communities. The award is intended to promote opposition to uranium mining, nuclear weapons and nuclear power. The NFFA is a project of ...

References

External links

Solar cooker
at BKWSU
Scheffler's Community Solar Cookers

* ttp://www.solare-bruecke.org official website People associated with renewable energy Austrian inventors Engineers from Innsbruck Living people 1956 births {{Austria-engineer-stub

See also

References

External links