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制冷系统是一个尚未解决的挑战，导致30-50%的食物浪费，每年损失43亿美元。这使得大多数农民无法通过对温度敏感的食品的销量获得预期的利润。这一挑战主要影响到埃塞俄比亚90%的水果和蔬菜是由小农和妇女生产的。蒸发冷却在干燥气候和不复杂的技术中广泛使用。然而，它并不能充分延长对温度敏感的作物的保质期，使其进入中央市场。它也不能控制冷室的湿度和温度到所需的条件。此外，由于埃塞俄比亚缺乏安全的电力供应，冷却措施往往无效，这是撒哈拉以南非洲大多数国家普遍存在的问题。目前，埃塞俄比亚的电网覆盖率为36%，主要在中心城市，而78%的人口生活在农村地区。随着最近二手冰箱市场的出现，可持续制冷的挑战变得更加紧迫，二手冰箱使用的是欧洲退役的对环境有害的物质。这些装置由电网供电或大型电池的光伏板驱动，通常位于中央食品市场。这些效率低下的制冷机组对环境有害，不利于实现可持续发展目标7“气候行动”。在这个项目中，我们试图通过将创新技术应用于蒸发冷却，并通过可再生能源以低成本运行，来解决可持续冷却的挑战。该项目将：1；利用太阳能热能驱动的绿色制冷技术，达到理想的制冷条件。投资者（Kinder Energy）利用环保混合光伏/垂直轴风力涡轮机，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示范样机。将热量储存在土壤中，以维持太阳能热驱动的制冷技术的经济运行。开发可持续的商业模式，使技术的吸收成为可能。开发一种技术-经济模式，例如，通过现收现付的方案，使技术供社区使用。发达的系统将确保冷却，并使小农和女农民能够以理想的价格增加销售量，最大限度地减少粮食浪费。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，并赋予女农民权力。该项目将为有害的二手制冷系统市场提供经济上可行、可扩展的替代方案。

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.