Off-grid modular cold rooms and pre-coolers for remote and dry areas in Ethiopia

0c4b2867-a66a-4ba8-9825-8fd539889338

Active

Innovate UK
Innovate UK
Innovate UK
Innovate UK
Innovate UK

£1,174,695

April 30, 2023

April 30, 2024

The lack of sustainable cooling in Ethiopia is an unresolved challenge, leading to 30-50% of food waste, which amounts to a $4.3 billion loss annually. It precludes most farmers from achieving the desired profits through sales volume for their temperature-sensitive foodstuff. Such a challenge primarily impacts smallholder and women farmers, who produce 90% of fruits and vegetables in Ethiopia.

Evaporative cooling is widespread in dry climates and uncomplicated technology. However, it does not sufficiently prolong temperature-sensitive crops' shelf-life to reach central markets. Neither does it control the cold room's humidity and temperature to the desired conditions. Additionally, cooling practices are often rendered ineffective by the lack of secure electricity in Ethiopia, a problem common to most of sub-Saharan Africa. Currently, the grid electricity coverage in Ethiopia is 36%, mostly in central cities, while 78% of the population lives in rural locations.

The sustainable cooling challenge is made more pressing as recently a market has emerged for secondhand refrigerators, utilising environmentally harmful substances decommissioned from Europe. Such units are driven via grid electricity or PV panels of sizeable electric batteries and are typically based in central food markets. These inefficient refrigeration units are environmentally harmful and compromise the route towards SDG-7 "Climate action.

In this project, we seek to resolve the sustainable cooling challenge by applying innovative technology to evaporative cooling, operating it at a low cost via renewable energies. The project will:

1. Utilise a green refrigeration technology driven by solar heat to achieve the desired cooling conditions.
2. Utilise an eco-friendly hybrid PV/vertical axis wind turbine by the investor (Kinder Energy) to maintain the system's operation via small electric batteries. We will install a demonstrator prototype in Ethiopia.
3. Store the heat in the soil to affordably maintain the operation of the solar-thermal-driven refrigeration technology.
4. Develop sustainable business models to enable the uptake of the technology.
5. Develop a techno-economic model for the technology for community use via, for example, a pay-as-you-go scheme.

The developed system will secure the cooling and enable smallholder and women farmers to increase sales volume at desired prices, minimising food wastage. It will promote sustainable economic growth and encourage the technology developer (Kinder Energy) to create jobs and empower women farmers. The project will provide economically viable, scalable alternatives to the harmful secondhand refrigeration system market.