Coldbox Store wins Renewable Transformation Challenge 2021
In 2021, Elsevier and the International Solar Energy Society ISES were pleased to announce Coldbox Store as the winners of the 2021 Renewable Transformation Challenge!
Food waste is a significant driver in climate change, as 6% of all global greenhouse emissions come from the production of food that is never eaten1. This creates a vicious cycle of more extreme climate, which makes food production more difficult and exacerbates poverty, malnutrition and inequality across society.
The 2021 winning project, Coldbox Store offers one solution that can help address this problem. By connecting perishable food farmers to markets and handle the cold chain logistics to ensure fresh produce is received at the expected quality, because 50% of the fruits and vegetables produced in Nigeria are never consumed due to post-harvest losses, and suffer from poor storage conditions, reducing what farmers can charge for their products.
You can watch a recording of the 2021 RTC awards ceremony here.
“Coldbox Store is a walk-in, commercial, refrigeration solution that can store up to 15 tons of fruits and vegetables at a time,” said this year’s winner Uzochukwu Mbamalu on behalf of the Coldbox Store Team. “This can increase the shelf life of fresh produce, such as tomatoes, from 2 days to 21 days. It is an efficient refrigeration system that uses solar power for precooling and cold storage. The system is designed to be completely off-grid as Solar PV powers the entire solution.
“We have what it takes to bring about change - all we have to do is take action.” Mr. Mbamalu added.
About the Renewable Transformation Challenge
The Renewable Transformation Challenge, launched in 2017, aims to honor and showcase outstanding work that actively supports the transformation to a world powered by renewable energy and has potential to widen access to energy, particularly in developing countries. The challenge was open to individuals and organizations in both not-for-profit and commercial sectors worldwide.
In 2021, more than 80 entries were received which were scored in terms of applicability, impact, sustainability and scalability in two stages: first by the Juror Panel, and then by the Elsevier-ISES Awards Committee who selected the final winner from the ten shortlisted candidates.