Cooling with the sun: Empowering off-grid communities in developing countries with solar-powered cold storage systems

IF 6.9 2区经济学 Q1 ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES Energy Research & Social Science Pub Date : 2024-08-16 DOI:10.1016/j.erss.2024.103686

{"title":"Cooling with the sun: Empowering off-grid communities in developing countries with solar-powered cold storage systems","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2024.103686","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Approximately 760 million people worldwide live without access to electricity, most of them in developing countries, where they also face challenges related to food insecurity and lack of adequate storage for medicines and vaccines. Solar PV off-grid cold storage systems can assist in mitigating those issues as well as bring sustainable development and economic growth to low-income populations, mainly in rural regions. This research presents technologies that provide solar off-grid cold storage to houses, health centers, retail shops (off-grid refrigerators), and small farms or street markets (off-grid cold rooms). At the same time, it can provide electricity access by powering other small electric loads (lamps, phone charges) by using its surplus of electricity generation, addressing several of the United Nations' sustainable development goals simultaneously. The manuscript assesses affordable business models and identifies key challenges and opportunities for deploying Solar PV off-grid cold storage systems, providing a comprehensive guide for policymakers, investors, and stakeholders involved in sustainable development and off-grid electrification in developing countries.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":6.9000,"publicationDate":"2024-08-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Energy Research & Social Science","FirstCategoryId":"96","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214629624002779","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Approximately 760 million people worldwide live without access to electricity, most of them in developing countries, where they also face challenges related to food insecurity and lack of adequate storage for medicines and vaccines. Solar PV off-grid cold storage systems can assist in mitigating those issues as well as bring sustainable development and economic growth to low-income populations, mainly in rural regions. This research presents technologies that provide solar off-grid cold storage to houses, health centers, retail shops (off-grid refrigerators), and small farms or street markets (off-grid cold rooms). At the same time, it can provide electricity access by powering other small electric loads (lamps, phone charges) by using its surplus of electricity generation, addressing several of the United Nations' sustainable development goals simultaneously. The manuscript assesses affordable business models and identifies key challenges and opportunities for deploying Solar PV off-grid cold storage systems, providing a comprehensive guide for policymakers, investors, and stakeholders involved in sustainable development and off-grid electrification in developing countries.

查看原文

微信好友朋友圈 QQ好友复制链接

本刊更多论文

用太阳降温：利用太阳能冷藏系统增强发展中国家离网社区的能力

全世界约有 7.6 亿人生活在没有电的环境中，其中大部分人生活在发展中国家，他们还面临着粮食不安全、缺乏足够的药品和疫苗储存等挑战。太阳能光伏离网冷藏系统可以帮助缓解这些问题，并为低收入人群（主要是农村地区）带来可持续发展和经济增长。本研究介绍了为住宅、保健中心、零售商店（离网冰箱）、小型农场或街头市场（离网冷藏室）提供太阳能离网冷藏的技术。与此同时，它还能利用剩余发电量为其他小型电力负载（灯具、电话费）供电，从而提供电力供应，同时实现联合国的几个可持续发展目标。本手稿评估了可负担得起的商业模式，并指出了部署太阳能光伏离网冷藏系统的主要挑战和机遇，为政策制定者、投资者以及参与发展中国家可持续发展和离网电气化的利益相关者提供了全面的指导。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文去求助

来源期刊

Energy Research & Social Science ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES-

CiteScore

14.00

自引率

16.40%

发文量

441

审稿时长

55 days

期刊介绍： Energy Research & Social Science (ERSS) is a peer-reviewed international journal that publishes original research and review articles examining the relationship between energy systems and society. ERSS covers a range of topics revolving around the intersection of energy technologies, fuels, and resources on one side and social processes and influences - including communities of energy users, people affected by energy production, social institutions, customs, traditions, behaviors, and policies - on the other. Put another way, ERSS investigates the social system surrounding energy technology and hardware. ERSS is relevant for energy practitioners, researchers interested in the social aspects of energy production or use, and policymakers. Energy Research & Social Science (ERSS) provides an interdisciplinary forum to discuss how social and technical issues related to energy production and consumption interact. Energy production, distribution, and consumption all have both technical and human components, and the latter involves the human causes and consequences of energy-related activities and processes as well as social structures that shape how people interact with energy systems. Energy analysis, therefore, needs to look beyond the dimensions of technology and economics to include these social and human elements.