‘Designing for Sustainability: Blueprint for a Low-Carbon Cold Room’ serves as a blueprint for off-grid solar companies and practitioners to design sustainable cooling solutions.
Efficiency for Access published ‘Designing for Sustainability: Blueprint for a Low-Carbon Cold Room’, a report setting out the principles behind the construction of the world’s most sustainable solar-powered cold room to date. The report details 10 best practices for cold room developers and companies who are aiming to mitigate embedded greenhouse gas emissions in their technologies.
Developed in Homa Bay, Western Kenya, the cold room pilot was designed to deliver the benefits of a conventional cold room while significantly reducing environmental impact. The pilot was supported by the Siemens Cents4Sense initiative with the facilitation of Siemens Stiftung and the Efficiency for Access Research and Development Fund, with local implementation by We!Hub Victoria Limited (WeTu).
This ambitious, innovative project has shown the true power of collaboration. Working with passionate partners made it possible to turn an ambitious idea into a real solution. Thanks to this, we have brought to life an innovative, low-cost, low-carbon cold room that’s already making a difference for small-scale traders.
Charles Ogalo, Smart Energy Solutions for Africa (SESA) Coordinator, WeTu
Sub-Saharan Africa faces the highest greenhouse gas emissions from food loss globally. Strengthening cold chain management could help reduce these emissions by two-thirds and significantly cut food loss.
Although solar-powered systems produce very few greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions while in use, they can still generate significant emissions during the production process, especially from raw materials and manufacturing. This project demonstrated that a cold room made from natural and locally available materials could generate minimal greenhouse gas emissions. The final design reduced embedded GHG emissions by 63% and cost by 20% compared to the best-in-class cold room, which is insulated with regulated polyurethane sandwich panels.
This project is a powerful example of how local design, combined with the use of affordable, locally available materials, can drive down both the cost and carbon footprint of renewable energy-based cooling solutions. When equipment is built with local materials, it becomes more economically viable and easier to repair and maintain—making sustainability truly scalable and rooted in local resilience.
Richa Goyal, Programme Manager, IKEA Foundation
Additionally, the standalone solar-powered system saves nearly four times more GHG emissions over a 20-year lifespan compared to grid-connected alternatives, even in regions with relatively clean electricity grids like Kenya.
The cold room is based on SelfChill solar cooling units, which ensure maximum sustainability by using natural refrigerant and thermal storage to generate cold. It is a great success for all those involved in the development and construction of the first prototype of the low carbon cold room to see that the cold room is now being used and appreciated by the market vendors in Homabay.
Florian Martini, Research and Innovation Manager at solar company Phaesun GmbH, provider of the SelfChill technology
Notably, the project calculated the environmental impact of the cold room while it was being designed and built. This enabled the design team to refine the room’s construction efficiently throughout its entire lifecycle.
Jakub Vrba, Senior Research Lead, Energy Saving Trust, co-Secretariat Efficiency for Access commented, “Locally assembled, solar-powered cold rooms can help mitigate GHG emissions, bolster food security, and improve livelihoods. This report demonstrates the value of using life cycle assessment to create high-performing and truly sustainable cooling solutions where they are needed most.”
Victor Torres – Founder of Solar Cooling Engineering (Developer of the SelfChill Approach) noted, “In terms of sustainability, local engagement, replicability, and cost efficiency, there is no better way of enabling access to refrigeration. This cold room in Homa Bay is a first-class innovation born from a purposeful vision. We are more delighted than ever to have been part of this project that made a dream come true.”