Within the request for a project implemented by GFA Consulting Group in Bangladesh we have redesigned our milk cooling systems.

The milk delivery and collection cycles and the weather conditions in Bangladesh required a much bigger ice storage than our standard systems. This enabled us to rethink our design and still to optimise our system cost.

The milk chiller is now more powerful at lower costs. It’s able to cool down milk under the weather conditions of monsoon and still have a 2days cold storage in case there is no sun at all.

Together with Caritas Tanzania we developed a concept for fishermen in the region Mbeya and Rukwa to operate and finance a photovoltaic ice maker.

The principal idea of the project is to introduce an efficient solar cooling facility for fish at the shore of lake Rukwa/ Songwe district in South Tanzania. And, by this way, to establish a continuous cooling chain and to increase the income of the fishermen significantly.

For the operation and the funding of this facility a cooperative can be founded. The concept figures out the way the operation and financing of such a cooperative.

Together with Varun Beverages Zambia Ltd. we did a feasibility and amortization research for our photovoltaic milk cooling systems in Monze district in the south of Zambia.

In Southern Province and especially in Monze district the main income sources are small-scale farming and a bit of gardening (e.g. tomatoes, onions etc.). In case of small-scale farming, the revenues from sale of surplus yield (maize etc.) is more or less just 1 USD/ day per household.

Dairy farming, with an (initial) yield of around 10 l/ HH by average ( 2-3 l/ cow and 3-5 cows/HH) and revenues from sale of 3.20 K/ l (price paid by cooperatives to the dairy farmer), a HH can increase its income by average by 30 K/ day (3 USD).

VARUN has already started to establish diesel-run milk cooling plants in rural areas; up to now, there are 20 installed, 14 of them with cooperatives.

The alternative of a solar milk chiller should be of benefit for the dairy farmers, the cooperative and VARUN, i.e. to be at least of same benefit as the diesel-run system. In this context it has to be taken into consideration that the life-cycle costs of the solar chiller (over the period of 20 years) are lower than for the diesel-run alternative: The initial investment costs of the solar chiller are higher but this is by far over-compensated by saving the high operation costs of a fuel-run chiller.