Phasun and Photo voltaic Cooling Engineering have developed a PV-powered chilly room for small farmers in Africa. The answer, put in on a farm in Kenya, features a 2.8 kW photo voltaic array and a vapor compression warmth pump.
Phasun and German startup Photo voltaic Cooling Engineering have collectively developed the SelfChill chilly room, a solar-powered cooling resolution for off-grid purposes.
“The know-how is predicated on high-quality energy-efficient core elements, however can be utilized in a modular means,” Germany-based photo voltaic Phasun stated in an announcement. “Completely different methods might be configured and constructed utilizing the identical primary elements and different constructing supplies [available locally] comparable to piping, insulation, and pumps: from small fridges to massive milk cooling tanks and cooling containers.”
The businesses have put in 25 cooling methods in six African international locations. A SelfChill system with 20 m3 quantity was put in on a basil and mint farm within the Kenyan village of Thika in 2021. The farmers saved the vegetation in a chilly room at a temperature of 4 C till the harvest was taken on the market.
“SelfChill cooling models include DC-powered vapor compression warmth pumps that generate chilly,” stated Geraldine Quelle, Phasun’s venture supervisor, pv journal, including that the warmth pumps have a COP of two and are powered by a 2.8 kW photo voltaic array. “The chilly is then saved in a water bathtub (thermal storage), and transferred via a water-air warmth exchanger.”
The system participated within the Off-Grid Chilly Chain Problem of the International Leap Initiative, the place the technical efficiency of 12 chilly rooms put in within the tropics and subtropics was examined within the subject for six months. It was reported that it confirmed the most effective and most dependable efficiency within the competitors and was named “Prime Winner of the International Leap Award.”
“The chilly room in Thika has been in steady use for 18 months and has introduced nice advantages to native farmers,” stated Phasun engineer Florian Martini. “Prior to now, they’d a variety of post-harvest losses as a result of the transportation of the vegetation was typically delayed, and elements of the harvest have been broken. Now they retailer the crops within the chilly room for as much as 4 days earlier than assortment. .”
The International Leap Initiative, sponsored amongst others by the World Financial institution and the IKEA Basis, goals to encourage market transformation in the direction of the most effective, best off-grid vitality service applied sciences via packages of Awards.
Picture: Phasun
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