Utilization of a solar PV mini-grid powered cold storage to reduce fishery spoilage - A Tanzanian case

Abstract

Access to electricity is important for the development of rural areas in Sub-Saharan Africa. One area where better electricity access could contribute to development is reduction of spoilage of food. This article aims to understand how access to electricity can affect the spoilage of fish and the economical possibility to implement a communal cold storage unit connected to a solar PV mini-grid, as well as what technical requirements this would put on the mini-grid operation. The study is based on a case on the island Ukara in Lake Victoria, Tanzania. A techno-economic analysis is performed simulating a walk-in cold storage room connected to a solar PV mini-grid. The article also includes a qualitative analysis with a causal loop diagram illustrating the interlinkages between the system variables to identify the effects of electrification on the spoilage of fish. The findings indicate that it is economically feasible to implement a communal cold storage unit if an investor makes the initial investment and allows the fishers a pay-back period of at least one year and if a profit wants to be made more than 50 kg fish should be sold a day. Another finding is that the capacity of the mini-grid may need to increase to be able to cover the demand during periods of low solar PV generation. The cost for the mini-grid company becomes higher with the cooling unit during the high season of fishery, this is since the rain seasons correlate with this, and the solar radiation is low. The mini-grid operation cost is around 2.4 $/day higher with the cooling unit connected to the grid, it may be higher if the mini-grid owners decide to run the diesel generator instead to invest in higher capacity batteries and solar PV. The causal loop diagram indicates that access to electricity can be an important solution to reduce the spoilage of fish by enabling the use of cold storage. Moreover, electricity access allows the fishermen to use electricity for value addition of the fish, as the refrigerated fish have higher price than fresh fish. The spoilage has become zero when the fish is refrigerated.