Alain Bivas

Alain Bivas Story

A long lasting love story.

Very young Alain Bivas got intersted in solar power. Nature lover, he left France at 19 and got to learn many crafts. Alain is looking for the harmonious encounter between his love for nature and his own craftmanship.

His first attempt of making a partabola was actually molded in a sand pile on the floor of his bedroom in front of his girl friend Frédérique who joined in the game which was to become a great adventure.
Then came another parabola, too powerful, able to get a paper to burst into flames on a count of seven, in front of his bewildred friends. This parabola revealed to be as dangerous as it was spectacular. Years past, then one day the flat parabola became a deep parabola finally 100% secure.

globe trotter

From California to Costa Rica

It is in California that Alain discovers «Heaven’s Flame», a book on solar cooking and the history of solar cookers, rich in knowledge, it was going to change his life.

In the jungle of Costa Rica with Frédérique, his new wife and «chef» pionner in solar cooking, began 20 years of solar cooking from stews, to golden crust bread to eventually grilled barbeque, under various latitudes, from the tropics back to Paris and now near Albi where he lives.

Prototype after prototype, Alain will learn to improve the existing cookers, then explore new shapes, new materials, new functions.

The poPOP

Alain Bivas in search of the ideal solar cooker

More than ever convinced by the world wide potential of solar cooking, it is in 2009 that Alain unfolds his drawing paper to create a new model that would be more practical, totaly secure, light and easy to carry, that could be set up anywhere in no time and disappear in a glance, adapted to all cooking modes, with almost no need to be watched, made with healthy materials, made to last.

The road was long from theory to practice, from discouraged moments, to moments of enthousiasm, according to the evolution of the project, until the Gold Medal at the Concours Lépine Int. In Paris in 2011. Today confirmed, and supported by several specialists Alain has started making the SUNplicity solar cooker since 2015, first for France, then Europe and the western world, hoping in the long run to be able to create workshops in third world countries, to bring there an efficient durable and affordable solution.