Solar-Powered Ice Production and Solar Drying in Kenya: Fraunhofer ISE Hands Over Plant to Local Fishermen and Farmers

In the SolCoolDry project, funded by the German Federal Agency for Agriculture and Food (BLE), the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE, together with the company Innotech Ingenieursgesellschaft mbH and Kenyan partners, has developed a system that uses solar thermal and photovoltaic energy to generate drying heat and produce ice. The lack of electricity in rural areas makes it difficult for fishermen and farmers in Africa to preserve or re-frigerate their products. This reduces their income and threatens food security. As a result, up to 30 percent of food spoils on its way to the market. The plant has now been handed over to the local partners in Mwazaro in southern Kenya.

The first part of the SolCoolDry system consists of a 15 kWp photovoltaic system that feeds electricity into a three-phase, battery-supported stand-alone grid, which is used to power the ice machine and cold room. A maximum of 1500 kilograms of ice can be produced within 24 hours. Excess solar power is fed into batteries with a total storage capacity of 19.2 kilowatt-hours. Secondly, the SolCoolDry system also has two solar tunnel dryers in which air is heated and distributed by fans over the dry goods throughout the day. To enable continuous drying throughout the night, one of the tunnel dryers contains heating pipes. These are supplied with heat from a 12 square meter flat-plate collector and a 2000-liter hot water storage tank.

The system developed to dry agricultural and marine products and produce ice for cooling fish was developed in close cooperation with the German company Innotech Ingenieursgesellschaft mbH and local Kenyan partners. In addition to the Kenya Industrial Research and Development Institute KIRDI, the Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute KMFRI and the Technical University of Mombasa as research partners, the Beach Management Unit, an association of local fishermen, mangrove planters, farmers, beekeepers and kelp farmers, was also involved in the project.

Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE | https://www.ise.fraunhofer.de/en.html