In my neck of the woods, the Southwest, solar ovens are very popular, as we have 300+ sunny days per year, but in other parts of the world, cloudy days might make cooking with the sun a bit problematic.

It’s totally possible to build your own solar oven, but many people choose to buy a readymade version, which might be more efficient than a DIY version. And there’s a new type of solar oven on the market, which combines the best features of a high-performance solar oven with the reliability of an electric oven, that may make for wider adoption of sun-powered cooking.

The SunFocus solar electric oven is being billed as a “next generation” solar oven, as it is claimed to be able to cook efficiently, even on cloudy days or at night, because of its hybrid solar/electric system. When the sun is shining, it uses just the heat from the sun, and no external power, but if the temperature drops below a certain point because of cloudiness or sunset, the built-in thermostat kicks on a low-wattage (465 watt) electric heating element to keep the food cooking.