Abstract
This study explores the design and development of a solar hybrid community cooking system tailored for community kitchens serving 100–200 meals per day. The study focuses on a solar hybrid system under implementation at a tribal residential school in Gujarat, India, to cook meals for 80 tribal children. Solar hybrid steam-based cooking system involves generating steam using a combination of solar thermal compound parabolic collector (CPC) and photovoltaic (PV) energy sources. The expected savings from the solar hybrid cooking system is about USD 2088 / year for 300 days of operation in a year, with an order investment of USD 12000. The system’s potential reduction in carbon footprint will be approximately 4.95 tons of CO2 per year. The core objective of such integration is to provide nutritious and hygienic meals while reducing the cost of operation and the carbon footprint through solar hybrid technology.