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

埃塞俄比亚缺乏可持续的冷却是一个尚未解决的挑战，导致30%-50%的食物浪费，这相当于每年43亿美元的损失。它阻止了大多数农民通过他们的温度敏感型食品的销售量来实现预期的利润。这样的挑战主要影响小农户和女农民，他们生产埃塞俄比亚90%的水果和蔬菜。蒸发冷却在干燥的气候和简单的技术中很普遍。然而，这并不足以延长对温度敏感的作物的货架期，使其无法进入中央市场。它也不能将冷室的湿度和温度控制到所需的条件。此外，埃塞俄比亚缺乏安全的电力，这是撒哈拉以南非洲大多数国家普遍存在的问题，冷却做法往往因此而无效。目前，埃塞俄比亚的电网电力覆盖率为36%，大部分在中心城市，而78%的人口生活在农村地区。可持续冷却的挑战变得更加紧迫，因为最近出现了利用欧洲退役的环境有害物质的二手冰箱市场。这种装置是通过电网电力或由相当大的电池组成的光伏电池板驱动的，通常设在中央食品市场。这些效率低下的制冷设备对环境有害，并危及实现SDG-7“气候行动”的道路。在这个项目中，我们试图通过将创新技术应用于蒸发冷却来解决可持续冷却挑战，通过可再生能源以低成本运行它。该项目将：1.利用太阳能驱动的绿色制冷技术，达到预期的制冷条件。投资者(Kinder Energy)使用环保的光伏/垂直轴混合风力涡轮机，通过小型电池维持系统的运行。我们将在埃塞俄比亚安装一个演示样机。将热量储存在土壤中，以负担得起的价格维持太阳能热驱动制冷技术的运行。开发可持续的商业模式，以支持技术的采用。例如，通过现收现付计划，为社区使用的技术开发一个技术经济模型。开发的系统将确保冷却，并使小农和女农民能够以理想的价格增加销售量，将食物浪费降至最低。它将促进可持续的经济增长，并鼓励技术开发商(Kinder Energy)创造就业机会，赋予女农民权力。该项目将为有害的二手制冷系统市场提供经济上可行、可扩展的替代品。

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.