Off-grid Cold Rooms for food preservation in remote areas of Africa

May 1, 2026

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This research aims to assess how off-grid cold rooms powered by solar energy can effectively preserve food in remote locations.
Developed within the AGRI-COOL project, focusing on a 50 m3 cold room in Somalia maintaining 5 °C.
Utilized TRNSYS software for computational simulation of a refrigeration system with latent thermal energy storage using ice.
Evaluated the performance of a 2.8 kWp solar photovoltaic installation for refrigeration energy needs.
A standalone solar photovoltaic system fulfills 63% of the refrigeration energy needs for the cold room.
Integrating a latent thermal energy storage system with 12 kWh capacity can achieve complete electrical grid autonomy.
Thermal storage operates efficiently by providing energy during nighttime using stored thermal energy.

Demonstrates food conservation using solar-driven cold rooms in remote African areas, indicating energy independence.

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Slavero et al. (2026) studied this question.

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