Keeling Curve

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Project Summary / Description:

The aim of the Cooling as a Service (CaaS) Initiative is to support the transition towards efficient and clean cooling systems. CaaS is an innovative business model through which the provider owns the asset, maintains and operates it, while the end-user simply pays for the service delivered, enabling access to cooling for all. CaaS shifts the incentives for the providers, for whom it now makes business sense to seek efficiency, creating a market mechanism that also aligns the interest of people (reducing costs to customers) and the planet (reducing emissions). The model strongly enables the adoption of clean sustainable solutions.

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CaaS can be implemented in a wide range of context, including in off-grid context, which allows the most vulnerable part of the population, access to cooling services, including for food and health. To support the implementation of the CaaS model, BASE launched the CaaS Incubator in January 2020 with the aim to help five technology providers from around the world in implementing CaaS projects. 

In Nigeria, BASE is working with Koolboks, one of the five winners selected for the CaaS Incubator programme, on two of their ground-breaking projects. 

The first project is providing solar-powered refrigerators and freezers to traders in the Ijora market of Lagos. According to the UN, one-third of food produced globally is lost or wasted and traders can spend up to NGN 1000 (equivalent to USD 2.50) per day running their diesel generators for their cooling system. CaaS is enabling traders in the Ijora market, 80% of which are women, to increase their income by an estimated 50%, while reducing harvest wastage to below 5% and saving 460 tonnes of CO2 per year by removing the need for diesel generators and the bad refrigerants typically used in the region. 

The second project in Nigeria is providing medical refrigeration storage for all 25 Delta-state health care facilities. Many healthcare facilities do not have the resources to store vaccines due to unreliable energy supplies and this leads to the spoilage of around 25% of vaccines. Data from Health Affairs suggests that 55% more vaccine storage capacity is needed in Nigeria. Having Koolboks‚ solar-powered systems in place ensures that vaccines and other medical products (like insulin) are stored correctly, with a secure source of energy and reliable maintenance. A safe storage solution for medical supplies has become exceptionally important as the world combats and recovers from a global pandemic. 

In India, BASE is working with CoolCrop to provide off-grid solar-powered refrigeration through CaaS to women farmers in Gujarat, Karnataka, Bihar, Telangana and West Bengal, who otherwise do not have the means and resources to cold store their produce. Through the project at least two to three additional farm workers will be employed to operate and maintain each of the refrigeration units.

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