Low Cost Solar Based Hybrid Cold Storage for Indian Farmers

Abstract

In this paper a design of small-scale cold storage for perishables which is capable of saving the perishables of the small farmers on a personal basis. The energy source for cold storage is supplied by the photovoltaic power plant and battery system and electric supply of local utility. Its simple construction makes it unique from the conventional cold storages. A comparison analysis is also done between proposed and conventional cold storage in terms of efficiency, capital and running cost of the system and their accessibility. The results show that the proposed system is efficient, easy to access and can be installed at low cost. As the proposed cold storage consists of photovoltaic panel and battery bank system which decreases the running cost of the cold storage and makes is suitable for the rural site where the grid is not available or available for few hours. This design helps in reducing the CO <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> emission significantly since it is mainly runs on solar power.