The Impacts of the Low Energy Inclusive Appliances Programme in Promoting Sustainable Refrigeration

By E Feng Tan Loh, Evaluation Manager, Energy Saving Trust, Co-Secretariat of the Efficiency for Access Coalition

These case studies demonstrate how the Low Energy Inclusive Appliances (LEIA) programme’s interventions support local companies in developing countries that provide cooling solutions. This includes services for smallholder farmers, small traders, and female entrepreneurs to help combat food loss and generate income.

Food loss is a persistent challenge in developing countries where cold storage infrastructure is limited or non-existent. In a warming world, there is a growing need for solar-powered cold chain to help strengthen food security and enhance rural communities’ resilience to climate change. However, scaling-up cold chain infrastructure needs to be managed in a responsible way to avoid further greenhouse gas emissions. The solar-powered refrigeration sector presents a unique opportunity for climate change mitigation, by using a clean energy source and refrigerants with low global warming potential.

Our goal

LEIA’s theory of change (ToC) is that increasing the availability, affordability, efficiency and performance of these appliances will lead to improved clean energy access.

Low Energy Inclusive Appliances (LEIA) programme theory of change (ToC)

The LEIA programme seeks to double the efficiency and halve the cost of appliances in hard-to-reach areas around the world. As such, it aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and help improve people’s wellbeing and incomes. This work will contribute towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals: including access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all (SDG7) and climate action (SDG13).

Our work

The LEIA programme has provided support to businesses in developing countries working to improve the efficiency, affordability and availability of solar-powered refrigerators and cold rooms. In the following sections, we present two case studies that explore how LEIA’s interventions have supported the locally owned businesses ColdHubs and Devidayal Solar Solutions. We looked at how they improved their cooling technologies and the impacts achieved.

Devidayal Solar Solutions Food Truck (Left) and ColdHubs Walk-In Cold Room (Right)

About ColdHubs

ColdHubs is a social enterprise in Nigeria that installs solar-powered walk-in cold rooms in food production centres and local markets. The company identified a gap in the agriculture value chain, which is the lack of cold chain infrastructure to preserve food. This is especially apparent in the first mile and rural farming areas where access to reliable electricity is limited.

About Devidayal Solar Solutions

Devidayal Solar Solutions is an India-based company that focuses on the design, development and sales of solutions in the distributed renewable energy (DRE) cold chain space. The company’s flagship product is a solar-powered DC refrigerator, which is available in the following capacities: 100 litre, 150 litre, 200 litre, and 250 litre models.

A women-led food truck company in Vasai Virar, India that is supporting livelihoods with the profits from a Devidayal solar-powered refrigerator.

Outcomes

The combined support from LEIA contributed to the following outcomes:

Improvements in efficiency

  • With the support of the Efficiency for Access Research and Development Fund, ColdHubs was able to improve its cold room technology by integrating phase change materials and reduce the battery size by 67%. ColdHub’s second-generation cold room is now undergoing field testing supported by the 2022 OGCCC.

Reduced costs

  • ColdHubs’ second-generation cold rooms cost more than the first-generation, even with the significantly reduced battery size due to the increased importation costs of some of their cold room components. Efficiency for Access Research and Development fund is now supporting ColdHubs in local production of the thermal storage components to improve supply chain resilience and reduce costs.

Increase public and private investment

Both ColdHubs and Devidayal have secured further public and private investment to scale-up their business operations:

  • Heifer International awarded ColdHubs USD 500,000 in funding to scale up the company’s enhanced cold rooms developed through its Efficiency for Access Research and Development project across Nigeria.

Impacts

Through research and development funding, competitions, product testing, and research, LEIA enables local companies, such as ColdHubs and Devidayal to improve the quality and performance of their products. In turn, these activities will enable more low-income groups, such as first-mile smallholder farmers, market traders, and female entrepreneurs to access sustainable cooling solutions. At the local level, improved access to solar-powered refrigeration will help reduce food loss and increase income generation. At the global level, enhancing access to sustainable, solar-powered cold chain will enhance food security and help to build resilience to rising temperatures. Developing super-efficient, high-performing cooling technologies that can be exclusively powered by solar will help avoid further greenhouse gas emissions. Furthermore, technology improvements that lead to solar panel and battery downsizing will reduce e-waste generation in the long-term.

Creating a More Resilient Food System Through Sustainable Refrigeration

How we measured the impacts:

  • LEIA’s outputs, expected outcomes and impacts are tracked and results are reported in a Logical Framework, also known as logframe. To understand how LEIA interventions or outputs have contributed to the observed outcomes, contribution analysis, we follow a logical process that examines a range of evidence for the theory of change (ToC).

The sections are structured using the LEIA ToC model, describing the specific context of ColdHubs and Devidayal, LEIA activities and outputs, and finally the observed outcomes and impacts.

LEIA is Efficiency for Access’ foundational initiative, which is funded by UK aid and the IKEA Foundation.

--

--

A global coalition to accelerate clean energy access through high-performing appliances

Get the Medium app

A button that says 'Download on the App Store', and if clicked it will lead you to the iOS App store
A button that says 'Get it on, Google Play', and if clicked it will lead you to the Google Play store
Efficiency for Access

A global coalition to accelerate clean energy access through high-performing appliances