Solar-powered walk-in cold rooms for 24/7 storage and preservation
Innovation Type:
Energy-Food
Product Segment:
Energy – Aggregation, Storage, & Logistics
Country of Incorporation:
Nigeria
Country of Implementation:
Nigeria
Seeking Investment:
Yes
Financing Goals:
Seeking combination of debt and equity
Contact Name:
Nnaemeka Ikegwuonu
Contact Email:
Website:
Challenges
In developing countries, 45% of food is spoiled due mainly to a lack of cold storage. This results in 470 million smallholder farmers losing up to 25% of their annual income. Perishable food, especially fresh fruits and vegetables, start to deteriorate as soon as they are harvested because they are cut off from their source of water and nutrition. They lose weight, texture, flavour, nutritional value, and appeal. Cooling significantly slows down the rate of deterioration, thereby increasing the storage life of the produce.
Solutions
ColdHubs offers a “plug and play” modular, solar-powered walk-in cold room for 24/7 off-grid storage and preservation of perishable foods. It adequately addresses the problem of post- harvest losses of fruits, vegetables, and other perishable food. ColdHubs’ units are installed in major food production and consumption centers (at markets and farms), where farmers can place their produce in clean plastic crates, which are then stacked inside the cold room. This extends the freshness of fruits, vegetables, and other perishable food from 2 days, to about 21 days. ColdHubs offers farmers a flexible pay-as-you-store subscription model. Farmers pay a daily flat fee for each crate of food they store.
