Establishment of a Training Course on Small-scale Solar Cooling
Background
This course transcript has been developed within a project carried out by the Strathmore Energy Research Center (SERC) and the University of Hohenheim supported by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).
The aim of the project, which took place between September 2019 and February 2022, was the establishment of a training course to facilitate capacity building for the design, production, assembling, installation and maintenance of small-scale solar cooling systems in Kenya. SERC, a research centre in Strathmore University, is a highly recognized and accredited institution for the training of technicians in the area of Solar Energy. Since 2014, The Institute of Agricultural Engineering of the University of Hohenheim has being developing several solar powered cooling solutions, which are suitable for local production. Both institutions have cooperated since 2018 in creating awareness on the use of solar energy for refrigeration of agricultural products.
Within the project, a technical training course was established with focus on:
- Agricultural value chains and promising business models
- Cooling requirements of food regarding storage temperature, humidity and ventilation needs
- Basis on refrigeration technologies, with focus on vapour compression heat pumps
- Calculation of cooling load for the most typical cooling systems (based on design tools)
- Design of PV panels and electrical/thermal storage
- Local production of solar cooling systems based on the use of cooling units
- Optimal insulation, ice-storage and PV yield based on climatic conditions
- Practical assembling work with example systems (Cold room, ice-makers and refrigerators)
- Energy efficiency indicators of cooling solutions
- Installation, maintenance and remote monitoring
Green People's Energy For Africa
Promotional video of the solar cooling training
