Solar PV-Diesel Hybrid Mini Cold Storage for Rural

Bangladesh
M. Rezwan Khan 1and Sufi Iqbal2
1
United International University
Dhaka, Bangladesh
rezwanm@uiu.ac.bd
2
Bangladesh Clean Technology Company Limited
Dhaka, Bangladesh
sufiiqbal@yahoo.ca

AbstractThis paper presents a model for small sized cold
storage appropriate for rural Bangladesh. The proposed cold
storage design and the temperature level makes it suitable for
short term storage facility for the vegetable or fruit growers so
that they get breathing space to market their product over a
period of 2-6 weeks. This will ensure better price for their
product and save at least 10-15% of their products from rotting.
Keywords Solar PV based mini cold storage, rural
Bangladesh, short term storage, solar inverter.
I. INTRODUCTION
Bangladesh is predominantly an agricultural country with
more than 70% of the population living in the rural areas
living on agriculture [1]. Fertile land and moderate climatic
condition enables the farmers to produce three crops a year.
Rice, wheat and maize are the main crops produced besides
significant production of different vegetables throughout the
year. Many of the vegetables like potato need storing for 6-8
months to maintain a reliable supply throughout the year.
Some other perishable vegetable like tomato is also produced
in large volumes and are seldom stored in the cold storages for
lack of storage facilities. Usually, the volume of the vegetable
produced in a particular season is quite high and the peak
cropping season has a duration of 1-2 weeks. This cropping
pattern shows excess vegetable supply in the market during
the peak cropping season and the market gluts. Over supply
during this time causes the price of the product to plummet
and the farmers are compelled to sell their products at a low
price that cannot recover even their production cost. Such a
condition can be avoided if we consider the following
a) Encourage the farmers to cultivate the vegetable such
that all their crops do not get matured at the same
time
b) Develop transportation mechanism to carry the
product from the remote places to the nearest market
c) Build facility to store them so that the producers get
an opportunity to delay the marketing of the products
to avoid over supply in the market
All the three factors mentioned above should be considered
simultaneously and an integrated effort should be given to
have the maximum impact. In this paper we are focusing on
the feasibility of establishing cold storage in remote rural
areas where there is no supply of grid electricity.
Here we are proposing a model for off grid rural areas to
establish small sized solar PV based cold storage where the
agro products will be kept for 2-6 weeks. Technical and
financial considerations are taken into account to study the
feasibility of such a project. Our analysis shows that such cold
storage can provide an opportunity to the farmers to store their
products for 3-4 weeks so that the over-supply of the product
can be avoided and a fair price for the farmers can be ensured.
II. BASIC REQUIREMENTS FOR THE PROPOSED COLD STORAGE
In this paper we are proposing a new concept of cold
storage that is appropriate for the remote rural areas and can
be driven by solar PV. As already mentioned above, we target
the storage time to be 2-4 weeks depending on the type of the
crop but not beyond that. A cold storage that can store
frozen fish or meat needs to maintain low temperatures at
subzero levels [2] and the process is usually energy intensive.
Such a model will be expensive to operate in the rural areas as
reliable energy supply to the cold storage seems to be the main
hurdle. It is a well understood problem that a solar PV based
cold storage cannot run during the night hours without battery
or alternative generator backups. But any battery backup will
significantly increase the capital and running cost of the cold
storage and it is advisable to avoid battery.
Although the usual storage temperature for perishable
products like tomato is 2-6 degree Celsius [3], they can be
kept in a cold storage for about 2-3 weeks where the
temperature does not exceed 7-8 degrees Celsius, provided the
products are freshly extracted from the field. Under such a
temperature condition, potatoes can be kept up to 6 weeks.
Although 2-6 weeks does not look like a very effective storage
time, it has a significant impact on the market price as over
supply can be avoided to a great extent.
In this paper we propose for a cold storage that will mainly
run during the day time by consuming power from the roof top
solar PV panels. The cold storage will be designed in such a
way that the temperature inside the cold storage will go to a
minimum of 2-3 degree during the day time and will gradually
increase to a maximum of 7-8 degrees during the night hours
when there is no energy supply. A stand by diesel generator is
kept for emergency power supply. This will require an
additional insulation design for the cold storage and also
material charging and delivery management considerations.
As for example, new materials are to be entered inside the
cold storage in the morning of a sunny day and the cold
storage should never be allowed to be opened during the night
hours to avoid loss of cooling. In a typical cold storage, the
capital cost account for more than 70% of the cold storage
cost where as the rest 20% include the fuel and maintenance
cost. We accept that the cost of PV energy without battery will
be at least 2.5 times more expensive than the conventional
grid power and this will increase the cost of storing. But such
a high cost of energy will not increase the storing cost by a big
margin as the significant portion of the cost comes from the
capital investment. The cost of storing should be such that it
can offset the loss due to rotting and compensate for the
increased market price that is expected. In Bangladesh, price
of tomato varies by more than Tk. 15 per kg and that of potato
varies by more than Tk. 8 per kg between the peak and off
peak period. The calculations presented in the later sections
show that an average enhancement in the price of Tk. 0.10 per
kg/week can make the scheme economically viable.
III. TECHNICAL DETAILS
A moderately small sized 1000 m3 cold storage has been
considered having the length, width and height of 13m, 13m
and 6.25m respectively. The roof top area of such a structure
can accommodate 20kWp of solar panels if the roof top
structure is extended 0.5m in each dimension (i.e., an area of
14mx14m). A schematic diagram of the cold storage structure
is shown in Fig.1.
Fig.1. The Schematic diagram of a mini cold storage with solar PV panels
at the roof top.
The estimated maximum cooling load needed is 24kW split up
into four 6kW units. The full load is expected during the
charging of the products inside the cold storage and the steady
state load is estimated to be less than 10kWp. So, the 20kWp
solar panels are enough to run the compressor while under the
steady state load. A 15kW diesel generator will be supplying
the energy when full load running of the compressors are
needed or under emergency conditions at night or when
sunshine is not enough due to cloud, fog or rain to keep the
inside temperature within the acceptable limit of 2-8 degree C.
The circuit arrangement of the compressor units are shown in
the single line diagram in fig.2. The inverters are connected in
such a way that they can either be connected to the PV bus or
the diesel bus. The insulation thickness of the cold storage is
made extra thick so that the rise in temperature inside the
storage area is not more than 5 degree C under an average
environment temperature of 22 degree C. Considering the
climatic condition in Bangladesh, summer nights can
sometimes be quite warm having a temperature around 30
degree C. Under such circumstances, it may be necessary to
run the diesel generator to keep the temperature at the
acceptable level. On an average, we expect that the generator
would run 3 hours every day. In summer time the running
hours will be longer and can be as high as 4-5 hours. On the
other hand, it is expected to be less than 1.5 hours during the
winter and spring months. The inverters used to drive the
compressors are variable frequency type and are sensitive to
the terminal DC voltage that adjusts the compressor speed or
the cooling load accordingly to adapt to the variable sunshine
during the day time. The compressors should be reciprocating
type so that their efficiency is not affected by significant
margin as the speed of the compressor motors are varied due
to variable sunshine condition. It may be mentioned here that
the efficiency of a rotary type compressor is quite sensitive to
the speed of the compressor motor.
Solar Inverter
PV
Compressor
Solar Inverter
Compressor
Solar Inverter
Compressor
Diesel Solar Inverter
Gen.
Compressor
Fig.2. Single line diagram for the connection of PV and diesel generator to
the compressors via the solar inverters.
IV. FINANCIAL ANALYSIS AND COSTING
Our analysis is based on the fact that the capital cost for
establishing a cold storage account for more than 70% of the
material storing cost. A capital cost breakdown of the cold
storage is given below
Net cold storage usage volume 600m3
Civil engineering cost Tk. 3,000,000
20kWp of solar PV with installation Tk. 1,920,000
Four 6kW compressors Tk. 720,000
Four sets of inverters - Tk. 1,000,000
One 15kW diesel generator - Tk. 450,000
Land price + other costs Tk. 1,000,000
Total capital investment is Tk. 8,090,000

The size of the solar panel is such that it is expected to run 2
compressors under full load. On the other hand, the size of the
diesel generator is chosen to run at least 2 compressors at full
load. When the cold storage is charged with new materials,
full cooling may be needed and all the compressors can be run
during the day time with power coming from the solar panel
and the generator. For rest of the time, it is expected that only
2 compressors will run to maintain the cold storage
temperature once the cooling temperature reaches the
expected level.
Average diesel generator run time 3 hours/day.
Expected diesel price at the site Tk. 75/litre
1 litre diesel equivalent is 3.75 kW-hr of electricity
A 1000 m3 cold storage can effectively utilize 60% of its
volume for actual storage of the materials as racks, passages
and service facilities will require the rest 40% of the storage
volume. Assuming an opportunity cost of 20% on the capital
investment and an average depreciation of 10% (expecting an
average life time of 10 years), the cost of storing material per
kg comes out to be Tk10 per 100kg of material per week. As
already mentioned, we expect the farmers to keep their
products for at least 1-2 weeks to get enough breathing space
to market their product conveniently without the risk of rotting.
The price of Tk.10 per 100kg/week is a very attractive cost
considering the overall benefit of the producers. It is worth
mentioning that cost of most of the vegetable varies by more
than Tk.5-10 between the peak season and the off peak season.
So, the charge of Tk. 10 for 100kg of vegetable is a very
attractive so far the short term storage is concerned. Although
the size of the proposed cold storage is very small, the overall
capital investment is relatively small and it can be replicated
in remote villages without any difficulty.
V. CONCLUSIONS
The cost of cold storage for a short period of time not
exceeding 4-6 weeks looks very attractive, as the cost per
kilogram is much less than Tk 1.00. Considering the price
fluctuations in the vegetable or fruit market in Bangladesh it
seems to be a very attractive figure. On the other hand, micro-
financing facilities similar to IDCOL model ( 50% grant, 30%
loan at 6% interest rate and 20% equity) [4] can reduce the
cost by nearly 40%. We anticipate that the impact of such
small scale short term cold storage facilities will have long
lasting impact on the rural economy and save the vegetable or
the fruit growers from their financial misery in case of high
yield or over production of the crop.
REFERENCES
[1] World Bank Report 2012.
[2] Consumer education Information, Food Safety and Inspection service,
US Department of Agriculture, http://www.fsis.usda.gov/
[3] http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/fruits-vegetables-storage-
conditions-d_710.html
[4] IDCOL website, www.idcol.org