Affordable Solar Photovoltaic-Powered Cold Storage in Vietnam

越南的冷藏市场预计将快速增长，预计2025年需求将达到2.95亿美元，但供应商严重短缺阻碍了这一增长。由于目前的容量只能满足全国需求的30-35%，该国迫切需要更多的冷藏设施。冷库可以通过加强市场连通性，对小农和边缘农民和农村社区产生变革性影响。为了解决与冷冻食品产量相关的当前冷库设备在成本和容量方面的主要挑战，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库，以满足小规模渔业和水产养殖场的具体和迫切需求，减少粮食损失并保持产品的质量。除了技术，我们还将开发新的以目的为导向的商业和金融模式，这些模式在社会和经济上都是合适的。这些技术和商业模式将与国内伙伴合作，通过农场方面的试点进行测试，重点关注妇女和低收入社区的需求。最后，我们将协助合作伙伴了解越南所需的生产和分销能力，以扩大可及性并保持低成本。

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.