Affordable Solar Photovoltaic-Powered Cold Storage in Vietnam

越南的冷藏市场预计将快速增长，需求将在2025年达到2.95亿美元，但供应商严重短缺阻碍了这一增长。中国迫切需要更多的冷藏设施，因为目前的冷藏能力只能满足国家需求的30%-35%。冷藏可通过加强市场连通性对小农和边缘农民和农村社区产生革命性影响。为了解决当前冷藏设备的成本和容量与冷冻食品生产量有关的主要挑战，我们的项目将以太阳能和热能储存技术为基础，开发和测试廉价的离网冷藏，满足小规模渔业和水产养殖场的特定和迫切需求，以减少食品损失和保持产品供应市场的质量。除了技术，我们还将开发适合社会和经济的、以目标为导向的新型商业和金融模式。与国内合作伙伴合作，这些技术和商业模式将通过农场试点进行测试，重点放在妇女和低收入社区的需求上。最后，我们将开展工作，帮助合作伙伴了解越南需要的生产和分销能力，以扩大可获得性并保持低成本。

Vietnam's cold storage market is expected to grow fast with booming demand that is expected to reach USD 295 million in 2025, yet the growth is obstructed by a critical shortage of suppliers. The country is in urgent need of more cold storage facilities as the current capacity only meets 30-35% of the nation's demand. Cold storage can have transformative impacts on small and marginal farmers and rural communities through enhanced market connectivity.To address the major challenge in the costs and capacity of current cold storage equipment in relation to the volume of frozen food production, our project will build on the solar energy and thermal energy storage technologies to develop and test inexpensive and off-grid cold storage, to meet the specific and urgent needs at the farm of small-scale fishing and aquaculture, to reduce food loss and maintain quality of product to market. Alongside the technology, we will also develop the novel purpose-driven business and finance models that are socially and economically appropriate. Working with in-country partners, the technologies and business models will be tested through farm-side pilots, focusing on the needs of women and low-income communities. Finally, our work will be undertaken to assist the partnership to understand the production and distribution capabilities required in Vietnam to scale accessibility and maintain low costs.