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Climate Public Private Partnership Programme (CP3)
UK - Department for Energy Security and Net Zero
The Climate Public Private Partnership Programme (CP3) aims to increase low carbon investment in renewable energy, water, energy efficiency and forestry in developing countries. By showing that Low Carbon and Climate Resilient investments can deliver competitive financial returns as well as climate and development impact, CP3 seeks to catalyse new sources of climate finance from institutional investors such as pension funds and sovereign wealth funds.
Accelerate to Demonstrate (A2D)
UK - Department for Energy Security and Net Zero
The A2D programme contributes to the UK’s £1bn Ayrton Fund commitment to accelerate clean energy innovation in developing countries. A2D will focus on developing innovative technology-based solutions particularly through transformational “lighthouse” pilot demonstration projects in four thematic areas: critical minerals, clean hydrogen, industrial decarbonisation and smart energy.
Climate Investment Funds (CIFs)
UK - Department for Energy Security and Net Zero
The $8 billion Climate Investment Funds (CIF) accelerates climate action by empowering transformations in clean technology, energy access, climate resilience, and sustainable forests in developing and middle income countries. The CIF’s large-scale, low-cost, long-term financing lowers the risk and cost of climate financing. It tests new business models, builds track records in unproven markets, and boosts investor confidence to unlock additional sources of finance.
Global Energy Transfer Feed-in Tariff (GETFiT)
UK - Department for Energy Security and Net Zero
The Global Energy Transfer for Feed-in Tariff (GET FiT) Programme was established in 2013 with the main objective of assisting Uganda to pursue a climate resilient low-carbon development path by facilitating private sector investments in renewable electricity generation projects. The support provided was expected to improve access to electricity and promote growth and economic development in Uganda and contribute to climate change mitigation.
Clean Energy Innovation Facility (CEIF)
UK - Department for Energy Security and Net Zero
ODA grant funding that supports clean energy research, development & demonstration (RD&D) to help improve the performance of innovative technologies, and to accelerate the clean energy transition to avoid the most severe impacts of climate change in developing countries
Rice-straw powered biowaste to energy
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
This consortium, let by Carnot Ltd, seeks to develop the world's first profitable rice-straw bioenergy demonstrator for a rural community in Lombok Island, Indonesia. Rice straw is separated from the grains during harvesting and either combusted (producing CO2) or left to decompose (producing methane with 25\* Global Warming Potential) due to challenges with harvesting it, particularly in flooded paddy fields (a common occurrence). Straw Innovations has created innovative technology that overcomes the barriers to harvesting it in all weathers, unlocking a potential 300Mt of rice straw generated in Asia every year. Rice straw has high ash content (around 20%), comprising about 75% silica. This, combined with other components in the straw (chlorine, potassium) causes melting and slagging / fouling in boilers when combusted. Hence, it is not an easy fuel to chop or combust. PyroGenesys have developed a lower-temperature pyrolysis process which can convert rice straw into Biochar, a carbon-sequestering fertiliser that can be used by the rice farmers, and biofuel. The carbon sequestered can be traded on carbon removal markets. Surplus biofuel not used to generate electricity can be sold. Electricity is a low-value commodity and renewable electricity projects will typically require very large scale to be profitable and attract funding required from investors. PyroGenesys' process solves this problem by opening up two very high-value revenue streams. Carnot is developing ceramic engine gensets with double the efficiency of state-of-the-art diesel gensets, capable of operating on all fuels. These will provide electricity to the rice mills as their base load as well as electricity to a rural community. Integrating Carnot's gensets enables revenues generated by biofuel sales to be maximised. Indonesia: * Is the world's 5th largest GHG emitter. * Is the largest producer of biofuels worldwide. * Has mandated to convert a significant portion of its palm oil into FAME biodiesel. There is a reluctance to move to renewable energy due to fossil fuel sunk costs/subsidies and no proven profitable off-grid low-carbon energy business model. This demonstrator project aims to be the catalyst to breaking the deadlock and unleashing investment into Indonesia's enormous renewable energy potential. Key project outputs: * Pilot-scale demonstration of business model feasibility * 200,000kg rice-straw feedstock; * 76,000kg value-added-biochar/53,200kg carbon sequestration/80,000kg biofuel; * 2.28MWh electricity provided to rice mill.
Technical and Societal Innovation for Delivering Access to Community Wide Affordable Cylindered CBG for Cooking and Sustainable Fertiliser
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
Natural Synergies Ltd (NS) Industrial Research project "Technical/Societal Innovation for Delivering Community Wide Affordable Cylindered CBG for Cooking and Sustainable Fertiliser" is to establish new data and knowledge, which would eventually lead to establishing an demonstration waste to energy process based around an advanced anaerobic digestion treatment process that has been developed by NS. This seminal development work will utilise a sectoral system of innovation which will eventually lead to nationwide joint partnerships, between NS the (technology provider) and poorer sectors of the local community. NS together with project partners, are involved in a project that concerns advanced pre-treatment and processing of faecal sludge and organic waste, providing enhanced, efficient energy security/generation, utilising locally available resource and GHG emission savings. NS aims in this Industrial Research project, to develop a stand-alone enhanced energy pre-processing technology, for rural and peri-urban locations in developing countries, increasing the efficiency of energy generation for the supply of affordable clean energy, for cooking and transport to the poor and marginalised local community and also with the production and supply of a sustainable source of fertiliser to local farmers. The decentralised and localised waste to energy plant, will also serve as a low cost faecal sludge management system and organic waste treatment facility, preventing the dumping of waste into waterways and land, providing benefits to both the environment and health to the local community. During the course of the project, the team will work in close co-operation with existing co-operatives and where necessary, expand and create further entrepreneurial partnerships, encouraging women's empowerment, social inclusion and security in the overall waste supply chain and product sales and marketing. This will lead to establishing a circular economy for waste treatment with close co-operation between the energy plant operator and the local community. Although specialised components will be sourced in the UK, NS will establish non-specialised component manufacture/build using local industries leading to job creation in DC, economies in plant build, short inbound/outbound feedstock and product supply logistics, marketing, sales and service supply chain.
BioGas MicroGrid in a box (BGMG)
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
BGMG (Bio Gas Micro Grid in a box) will develop a hybrid renewable energy hub for deployment in off grid communities. It combines solar, wind and biogas energy resources in one drop-in containerised unit with electrical energy stored and deployed from batteries and waste heat recovered for local utilisation. The project expands the work of the partners in the recent highly successful Energy Catalyst WEGEN project that resulted in development and subsequent commercial sales of a novel 6kW plug-and-play biogas generator technology. The partners include WEGEN collaborators CAGE Technologies Ltd (CTL)/OakTec (power system technology developer), Sistema Bio (biogas system OEM and system trial and demonstration) and Sutton Power Engineering ( generator OEM and supplier of solar hardware). The partners will develop an intelligent energy management platform to integrate, manage and distribute the bio/solar/wind energy inputs based on a development of the existing CTL/OakTec intelligent control platform. Additional outputs will be an application of the WEGEN biogas engine technology to a new modular liquid cooled engine family that will allow a range of power outputs to suit application requirements delivering world leading fuel efficiency and low emissions. The liquid cooled engines will employ CHP technology to capture waste heat for distribution. CTL and Sutton have considerable experience of hybrid power systems having deployed LPG-solar-battery systems for site welfare with the HS2 rail project at Euston, London and more recently hydrogen-solar-battery hybrid to power the cruise ship terminal in Orkney. BGMG will support the development of carbon neutral microgrids in sub-saharan Africa and India and a trial system will be deployed to Kenya and be tested in a high profile location. Applications include stand-alone power for large food and agricultural businesses, villages, schools, hospitals and health-centres and public buildings. Bio-waste from the immediate location including food can be used in the feedstock. As global energy prices rise the business case for BGMG becomes stronger. Whilst the system will be more costly than a simpler generator or solar array it can be funded to the customer on a 'machinery as a service' basis by Sistema's established easy payment business model and will enjoy minimal fuel and running costs over its lifetime giving it a much lower lifetime cost than conventional fossil based power systems. Immediate commercial opportunities include powering larger farms, food production businesses including rice mills where rice straw is used as part of the AD feedstock, agricultural processing and charging EV's.
Hybrid energy system for clean cooking and electricity generation
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
This aim of this UK-Nigeria-Ghana mid-stage collaborative project is to optimise the concentrated-solar-power (CSP) and thermoelectric generator (TEG) hybrid energy system we developed in previous project, testing and demonstrating them in relevant user environment. The system has clear benefits of providing both clean energy for cooking and off-grid electricity, addressing the energy access issue in the targeted countries. The project will allow the UK consortium (Thermoelectric Conversion Systems, Cranfield University and University of Derby) to collaborate with a Nigerian company (IBEDA) and a Ghanian company (Conlons Kitchen) to optimise the design of the energy system, build demonstrators locally in Nigeria, field test its performance in rural communities of Nigeria and Ghana, conduct market research, and develop relevant GEIS and business models. The system will have an additional international market in other sub-Saharan and South Asian countries. This project will enable the consortium to progress into further TRL development and commercialisation post-project. Successful outcomes will bring competitive energy products to a significant and growing market.
Halophyte-based Energy & Agro-ecological Transitioning (HEAT)
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
The Halophyte-based Energy & Agro-ecological Transitioning (HEAT) Project seeks to commercialise halophytic agro-ecological approaches and bio-energy technologies in Sub-Saharan Africa by introducing saltwater-irrigated biomass production in degraded soils for localised transitions to clean energy and land regeneration. Targeting both bio-energy production and carbon sequestration, the project will test a combined integrated production and processing model in tandem with a service-based business model with existing partners and investors with the aims of operationalising/commercialising the results by the end of the project timeline. The project will be undertaken in Ghana and Namibia with a range of partners from the UK, EU, and African registered entities with a track record of working together in various global geographies. With a strong focus on socio-economic development for rural communities, gender inclusivity, and safe access to clean energy, HEAT expects to exploit the results of the 24-month project for the long-term benefit of communities and existing consortia in the three focus regions of West Africa, South-West Africa, and South Asia.
Pay-N-Pump 2 - storage integration for home and institutional energy access, and improved irrigation impact
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
PAY-N-PUMP is an innovative smart digital pay-as-you-go water-pumping and irrigation solution for small scale farmers in Uganda, built in a push-cart format, developed by Aptech Africa Ltd in an Energy Catalyst 7 project, in partnership with SVRG. Despite COVID-delays, more than 65 systems have been piloted, and farmers have observed crop-yields and household-income increase by as much as 200%. The 3 pieces of consistent feedback from customers are: 1. hours of irrigation do not match farm demand (optimum timing is dawn and dusk, when solar power is weak) 2. inability to use the system for household or institutional (eg schools, clinic, church) energy access, eg for lighting, phone charging or other new micro-entrepreneurial businesses 3. system is out of the price range of many farmers In this project, partners Aptech Africa and SVRG, will seek to modify the Pay-N-Pump technology to include modern, reliable Li-Ion battery storage to both enhance irrigation performance to better match market-demand, and simultaneously to make the system dual-use, so that it can both provide farm irrigation and also household or institutional energy access. This is a considerable technical challenge, but also a consumer challenge to find a design that can optimise system performance and impact in both use-case scenarios. But success in this project would see the creation of a unique, transformative technology. At the moment, users need two separate systems for household and irrigation services. This is not only expensive, but household systems are typically small and unreliable, and hard to scale as household energy-usage increases. There is no product currently on the market that combines the two use-cases as we propose, in a PAYG business model, and which is mobile for ultimate flexibility and ability to serve different needs, and therefore that is able to create such a wide range of impacts. Our modelling suggests that the storage-enhanced dual-use PAY-N-PUMP could increase farm yields by 250%, and provide irrigation and household energy at 70% of the cost of using two separate systems. We estimate that the two-in-one nature of this solution will at least double our market size, and consequently not only significantly increase agricultural productivity in Uganda, but also provide a novel and attractive solution for energy access in rural communities, since it transforms energy-access from a cost to a profit-making opportunity. This project simultaneously addresses SDG-7(Clean and affordable energy), SDG-1 (No Poverty), SDG-2 (Zero Hunger), SDG-6 (Clean Water and Sanitation), and SDG-13 (Climate Action).
SPITFIRE: Self-Powered Biomass Stove For Remote Communities
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
Globally, 3 billion people have no access to clean cooking, relying instead on dirty-burning charcoal as primary cooking and water heating fuel. The release of CO and PM (linked to \>4M deaths/year) led the WHO to declare pollution caused by unclean cooking as "the world's largest single environmental health risk". As its alternative, the use of firewood substantially influences deforestation, due to unregulated foraging for firewood, while negatively impacting wildlife. Quality of life in Sub-Saharan Africa is also severely impacted by lack of (domestic and institutional) access to electricity. According to the WDI, 72% of Zambia's population has no access to electricity. The SPITFIRE-stove will address both the major unmet need for clean cooking solutions and the lack of access to electricity. This will be achieved by developing an affordable, low-emission, biomass-pellet-burning clean-cookstove that generates a no-added-fuel electricity surplus. The institutional SPITFIRE-stove will use temperature-controlled airflow regulation to ensure complete combustion to eliminate \>80% of CO and particulate-matter emissions compared to traditional combustion. Airflow regulation will be via an electric fan, powered by a thermoelectric generator (TEG), which will both power the electric fan and provide an electricity surplus for storage in a low-voltage battery with charge-out ports for charging/powering small electronic devices. Furthermore, cooling of the TEG by an integrated water-cooling system will deliver a free supply of heated water. SPITFIRE will develop: -Novel high-temperature thermoelectric materials and production processes for the TEGs, -15kW burner technology that allows intelligent, temperature-controlled airflow regulation; -Institutional-scale, sustainable biomass-pellet-burning stove. Integration of the scaled-up stove and burner design with the novel high-temperature TEG module via hot- and cold-side heat receptors/exchangers will require close collaboration between the partners and multiple iterations of system level modelling and simulation. The SPITFIRE project ultimately aims to deliver a final stove design, assemble 30 demonstrator products, and validate stove performance in field trials within institutional kitchens in public services and local enterprises such as restaurants, schools, and orphanages, in our primary target market, Zambia. The SPITFIRE-stove will therefore address the clean cooking and energy dilemma by; -Delivering clean, sustainable biomass-burning cooking stoves with low emissions, -Delivering cooking stoves that will utilise reduced-cost biomass pellet fuels that are approximately one-third of the price of LPG and half of the price of charcoal, Ensuring reliability of energy supply for Zambia and beyond by utilising locally-sourced sustainable forestry for the biomass pellets.
Smart Biogas 3: Digesting Data
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
Smart Biogas (tm) is a patent pending, remote monitoring platform designed to monitor increasing numbers of geographically dispersed household/institutional biogas digesters at minimal cost across the world. Smart Biogas collects data on individual biogas digesters' performance and usage, allowing detection of potential faults or substandard installation/operation. This data is transmitted to a cloud platform where the data is, through this project, automatically processed and made intelligible to the user for, example through notifications, to facilitate prompt repairs or further user training. Hardware and software was designed and successfully piloted with Energy Catalyst Round 7 funding (No.105909) (EC7) . Over the course of EC7, we released a MVP (Minimum Viable Product/first release) of the metering hardware and web-application, and recorded over 55 million hourly reports on biogas performance from around the world and published two academic papers. This MVP product allowed the metering to happen and display the information in a web-application but, valuable and unique as that product already is, at this stage it does not add any additional intelligence to the data. This grant would allow us to develop a number of other features for commercial release including: * Enhanced analytics for preventive maintenance and diagnostics for biogas plants * Finalise Carbon Credit reporting * Enhanced sensing hardware to provide further data points * Robustness development of the existing product and for wider use cases including larger commercial digesters * Further academic papers and knowledge dissemination Ultimately we seek to address financial barriers and operational inefficiencies enabling viable biogas-as-a-service commercial models, enhancing company operations and providing additional income streams. Smart Biogas provides a powerful tool that facilitates increased access to biogas technology for more people, especially the rural poor. The project is led by Inclusive Energy Ltd, with support from prominent actors in the biogas sector in East Africa, Kenya Biogas Program and Biogas Solutions Uganda, academic input from the University of Nottingham, and larger scale commercial pilots with Green Impact Technologies (Malawi) and Grassroots Energy (India).
A high-power solar e-cooker: accelerating the transition to inclusive e-cooking in sub-Saharan Africa
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
Globally, 2.4 billion people still use firewood, charcoal or some other form of biomass for cooking, resulting in 3.2 million premature deaths in 2020---mostly women and young children---due to the serious health issues caused by indoor air pollution. Access to clean cooking, such as electric cooking to replace the uncontrolled burning of biomass, is critical to reduce deforestation, mitigate climate change and reduce health risks for users. In Rwanda, 1.9 million households still rely on wood and charcoal for cooking. To address the massive health problems caused by indoor air pollution---and met the global Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of modern, affordable, and safe energy for all---Rwanda has prioritised a clean cooking program aiming to provide new or improved access to clean cooking solutions to 500,000 households by 2026\. The uptake of solar electric cooking is seen as critical for Rwanda to meet its clean cooking target. Solar electric energy costs have fallen so much that, for many households, electric cooking using solar panels is expected to be cheaper than using charcoal. Our vision is that solar e-cooking will eventually accompany or become part of solar home systems, which have already become popular in many African countries for powering lights and small appliances. However, currently, there are no solar e-cooking systems available as part of Rwanda's clean cooking programme. The challenge now is to develop an affordable and marketable solar e-cooking system, available with a service and payment model that will appeal to a broad spectrum of potential end-users, without reinforcing existing economic disadvantage. To address this need, this project will bring together energy poor households with academic researchers, consultants in cook stove monitoring, a solar energy company and Rwanda's regional energy provider. Together, they will co-design a new highly marketable low-carbon, clean and affordable solar e-cooking system by integrating existing solar products to arrive at a new whole system design. This project will be a starting point in helping households transition away from traditional forms of cooking that are dependent on fossil fuels, giving communities the confidence to use e-cooking appliances and make purchasing decisions around off-grid solar e-cooking. By working towards establishing a solar e-cooking eco-system, SMEs and financiers will be encouraged to increase investment in producing a range of solar e-cooking products for the market, and governments will be able to provide more targeted support for solar e-cooking to achieve their clean cooking targets.
Solar Battery Hub: A Safe, Secure, Sustainable and Affordable Alternative to Diesel Generators
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
Nigeria has the world's largest energy access deficit with over 85 million people without access to energy. Current technological methods of bridging the energy access gap mainly revolve around the deployment of mini-grids and solar home systems. Mini-Grids fall short of solving this problem due to low utilisation rates and the high cost of establishing a distribution network, whilst solar home systems rarely meet the power requirement for productive energy use. Key productive use cases such as SMEs, Agriculture, Health facilities and schools fall short of getting the right quality of electricity and, therefore rely heavily on petrol and diesel generators. For example, in Nigeria: only 40% of hospitals have reliable electricity access, underscoring the limited electricity access in health facilities in the region. 34 million SMEs in Nigeria lack access to electricity, whilst the country spends over $20 billion on petrol and diesel costs for generators. 65% of Nigeria's schools need electricity, preventing the guarantee of technology-based education. 45% of farmers lack the electricity required to preserve their goods to reduce post-harvest losses in Nigeria. The Solar-Battery Hub (SBH) project, building on previous funding from the Energy Catalyst fund, will explore the feasibility of solar-powered battery-swapping stations to replace the use of small diesel and petrol generators in Nigeria. A pilot SBH will be deployed within an urban community and exploratory research will be conducted within 4 use cases - SMEs (traders), Agriculture (Milling), Health Care and a School. The project consortium partners CEE and PAM Africa will collaborate in understanding the likely user cases and the impact when compared to the other sources of electricity. Various battery chemistries will be explored to reduce costs and a secure battery tracking methodology shall be researched. Meanwhile IP developed during the project will be exploited and a thorough Cost Benefit Analysis will be produced.
Mobile Solar Generator with Modular Battery Capsules for Affordable and Flexible Energy Use (MobACE)
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
In an ambitious and transformative initiative, Sleekabyte and Citibim unveil "MobACE" - a groundbreaking project designed to revolutionise renewable energy access in Nigeria. The innovative project harnesses solar energy over fossil fuel. With timeline from June 2024 to March 2025, this venture is set to redefine sustainable energy solutions. At the heart of MobACE lies the Optimised Mobile Solar-Generator (OMSG), an innovative engineering system. This portable generator integrates a suite of advanced technologies, including foldable solar panels with a 180-degree tilt mechanism and solar intensity sensors. These features ensure maximum solar energy capture, optimising power output and efficiency. Complementing the OMSG are the Rechargeable-Battery-Capsule-Energy-Banks (ReBCEB). These high-capacity, removable battery capsules are designed for efficiency, safety, and longevity. They offer a practical and eco-friendly power solution, especially beneficial to small business owners, home-based professionals, and students. The genius of ReBCEB lies in its adaptability and portability, providing renewable energy solutions for various applications. A key component of this project is the development of the MobACE Energy Management System (MobACE-EMS). This innovative digital platform is set to revolutionise energy management. It offers comprehensive tracking and optimisation of energy generation, storage, and distribution. Not only does it facilitate efficient energy use, but it also enhances the longevity of the battery capsules. The system ensures that end-users and merchants can maximise the benefits of MobACE, fostering a sustainable energy ecosystem. Engagement with local communities, Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, and regulatory bodies forms a cornerstone of this project. These interactions will help gather crucial data on usage patterns and market needs, shaping an effective project delivery framework. The project also aligns with Sleekabyte's and Citibim's commitment to a clean circular economy, leveraging their expertise in hardware design, solar system management, and digital technology. MobACE is much more than a project; it's a pivotal shift towards a sustainable and brighter future in Nigeria. This initiative uniquely blends cutting-edge technology with environmental responsibility and strategic market insight. It stands as a promising solution in the journey towards renewable energy, poised to make a significant impact in the realm of sustainable power solutions.
Enstorel-Bathal - mobile power for an island nation
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
Our Enstorel based ZE-Gen project will develop a highly innovative yet simple to use cleantech system for the Philippines that we expect to become a compelling alternative to fossil fuel generators - a solution that can apply anywhere across the Islands. It will offer reliable access to noise-free, pollution-free electricity in places the Grid may not be able to reach and at a cost to users which the Grid might never be able to match. Enstorel is a safe and robust electricity collection, storage and delivery device with exciting potential in many diverse applications. For this application Enstorels will be smart-combined with Grid outlets and/or renewable sources through a proprietary system controller which will make investing in community projects for renewable energy generation far more attractive than today, especially in places where Grid connections are patchy or impractical.
Energy Makers Academy: A mobile learning platform for universities to train rural energy innovators
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
The number of people without access to electricity in Africa dropped from almost 860 million in 2018 to 770 million in 2019 (IEA et al., 2021). However, without more sustained efforts, it is predicted that 650 million people will still live without access to electricity in 2030, despite universal access to affordable, reliable, and sustainable electricity by 2030 being a key Sustainable Development Goal (United Nations, 2015).
Off-grid modular cold rooms and pre-coolers for remote and dry areas in Ethiopia
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
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.
Cool Efficiency in West Africa
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
Cooling infrastructure - fridges and freezers - are vital for commerce, home use and for preserving medication, vaccinations and food. Unlike many off-grid solar energy systems, cooling solutions must operate as close to 24/7 as possible to ensure there is little/no wastage and are therefore subject to 'over-specification', leading to high energy system costs. In addition, when using a solar system to power a fridge, there are multiple issues that can interrupt the power supply including faults on the solar, battery or load sides, tampering, incorrectly sized systems or low energy yield due to poor weather. This project brings together a consortium of companies that seek to solve these issues so that project partners Focus Energy and Koolboks can offer a higher quality and easier to manage cooling services for customers in West Africa. To do this, the project builds on Inclusive Energy's remote monitoring system, Cloud Solar, and will seek to develop data modelling and machine learning techniques with both the live data and meta-data to deliver insights to cooling service providers and their customers. As well as reacting to faults and issues that have already occurred, the project will investigate and develop a solution to provide predictive maintenance for a range of issues including predicting the end of life of the batteries and predicting probable system issues such as lack of energy availability. These issues can then be mitigated with sophisticated load shedding and controls via the Cloud Solar charge controller, along with alerts for the solar system owners and providers to advise on energy saving techniques. Therefore, the project proposes development of 3 parallel and integrated capabilities: (1) analyse, (2) forecast, (3) mitigate. Inclusive Energy will work with Koolboks and, Focus Energy, and their West African customers, to ensure that the insights are relevant and that the user interface is fit for purpose.
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