Milk and egg vendor Caroline Mukundi has lost a lot of her stock in her years of selling fresh food at a Nairobi market.
Mukundi said she had no way to keep food fresh, and the cost of refrigerating was out of reach.
“The food would go bad,” she said, and she would have to throw it away. “It was a big challenge for me.”
Mukundi said her situation turned around when she acquired a solar-powered refrigerator. The refrigerators, named Koolboks and manufactured in Kenya, are fitted with ice compartments that can chill food even without a source of power. The devices can keep food cool for up to four days without electricity, even with limited sunlight.
Customers can buy the refrigerators on a customized payment model, said Natalie Casey, chief business officer at the Koolboks startup company.
“They can be between 1,500 and 3,000 US dollars, because it includes not only the appliances but also the solar panels and battery storage to enable the continuous cooling,” she said. “We’ve decided what might be more accessible to them is to first pay a down payment between 20 and 35% of the total, and the customer can pay in installments of up to 24 months.”
Koolboks has sold about 7,000 solar-powered refrigerators. Conventional refrigerators for businesses can cost anywhere from 11,000 to 100,000 Kenyan shillings or more, said Dorothy Otieno, program manager at the Center for Environmental Justice and Development.
“Some businesses, especially small businesses, are not able to afford it,” she said.
“We are looking at, for example, how businesses can be supported to get access to [the Koolboks refrigerators], especially for communities that are not able to afford,” she said.
The refrigerator was among dozens of innovations showcased at the recent Africa Tech Summit in Nairobi. The conference’s founder, Andrew Fassnidge, told VOA that such creations are crucial to solving local problems on the continent.
“What’s interesting with … Koolboks refrigeration is, if we look at the COVID vaccine, one of the biggest issues at the time was refrigeration, and it’s still an issue in most markets,” he said.
Koolboks markets a refrigerator specifically for vaccines. The refrigerators could have an impact on climate change, too. A 2024 survey by the UN Environmental Program showed Kenya has a high level of food waste, with annual waste ranging from 40 to 100 kilograms per person. Environmentalists say high levels of organic waste worsen climate change, so preventing food waste can have an impact.
There MUST be real development towns, upcountries, villages so that ALL have real houses with power! Reason there MUST be good education for ALL children, to give chance to development.
All areas in developed countries have good housing with power, good roads, schools…, reason migration won’t stop as they get Public/Social Services & those already educated/trained in their shitholes get jobs while continue to be trained.
As there is no plan for real governance, thus real development in Africa…, the continent will be emptied of those who can help build it, while the majority poor ignored population with little/no education will continue migrating to developed lands to have chance!
What future does Africa have?
It is all about looking after the afluent African people. And yet with their poor housing with iron roofs, the poor can produce solar energy to sell to the energy monopolistic campanies. These African energy monopolistic corporations are receiving lots of subsidies which are filtering much of their profits abroad to pay for the cost of technology and probably the country’s high debts. That is why African environmentalists are failing to explain the continous environmental damage that goes on in tropical climate countries that are blessed with plenty of solar and hydro electric energy. Water flow from vibrant rivers and the sun as energy providers for planet earth are energy processes that will go on for over 5 billion years until the massive star of our sun stops its great nuclear fusion reactions in its core, that radiates free energy!