The members of the Ghummar Farmer Producer Organization (FPO) in Nana village, Pali district, Rajasthan may not all mark International Women’s Day on their calendars. But the 948 women shareholders are doing their bit to mitigate climate change by turning to clean energy to enhance their livelihood. There are other women micro entrepreneurs across the country who have similarly benefitted from clean technology.

The Ghummar FPO has been operating since 2014. The members collect produce from the surrounding forests—custard apple, ber and palash; pulp them and then sell it in the market. But for the product to reach the right buyers it need adequate cooling and cold storage. The efforts of the FPO, however, were stymied due to intermittent electricity and having to resort to expensive diesel generators to ensure the product did not perish. It also limited the output capacity.

But last year, when eight 200-litre solar refrigerators designed by Devidayal Solar Solutions (better known as DD Solar) and a cold van were introduced into the business, the scenario changed. The production capacity jumped three times. The cycle of collection, processing and transfer to the cold storage increased dramatically. Earlier, the expense incurred by the FPO on grid electricity and the diesel generator was around ₹8,000 per tonne. With the solar refrigerators and the cold van, the cost came down to ₹2,500 per tonne, leaving the Ghummar FPO with better profit margins. Spoilage of fruit also decreased. Today, the women clock over ₹8.7 lakhs profit annually and are planning to increase their business with more solar refrigerators.

The story has been somewhat similar for micro entrepreneurs dealing in dairy products, cold drinks or stocking veterinary vaccines. In fact, the small and medium fisheries sector, too, is finding solar refrigerators a big boon. An example is the difference it has made to the fisherfolk in Nagapattinam district of Tamil Nadu. Here, Inspire Foundation has been trying to eliminate the middle trader and get fisherfolk a better price for their catch. Till last year, the foundation was using coolers and fans with superior airflow to store the fish and struggling with power outages of six to seven hours a day. But last year, it installed DD Solar’s solar-powered refrigerators. This helped in maintaining, cooling and increasing the ‘fresh’ shelf life of the catch. With this, sales went up, power bills came down and incomes increased by 20 to 25 per cent.

DD Solar, which was chosen to be part of the ‘Powering Livelihoods’ initiative promoted by the Council on Energy, Environment and Water and the Villgro Innovation Foundation to boost India’s rural economy by scaling up penetration of clean energy-powered appliances, finds that its solar refrigerators are helping micro entrepreneurs shore up their profits.

“We started in 2014 with solar lighting, but then we tried to find out what was really hurting rural and small businesses. We zeroed in on cooling, and the recurring cost of ice which businesses had to bear,” explains Tushar Devidayal, Founder and CEO of Devidayal Solar Solutions.

While designing the sub one tonne level solar refrigerators, he and his team customised the needs of clients. The appliance was designed with DC compressors, controller cards, insulation paths that gave it the ability to withstand ambient temperatures. By a remote monitoring system, the DD Solar team can tell the temperature inside each refrigerator and tweak it for optimum energy efficiency.

According to Devidayal, currently the company has installed 650 units and hopes to close the year with over 2000 units.

At present the refrigerator costs around ₹74,500 and can be bought at interest free EMI financing. The refrigerator typically comes with a solar tubular battery and three solar panels. However, the company is also exploring the use of lithium ion recycled EV batteries in the future as that would bring even more circularity to its business.

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