Climate Curve

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Project Summary / Description:

CoolCycle is a solar-powered cold storage and cold-chain logistics initiative that reduces emissions and food loss by replacing diesel-powered refrigeration with reliable, high-efficiency, off-grid cooling. We deploy modular cold storage hubs (e.g., 5–7 ton units, expandable) designed for smallholder farmers, aggregators, and food SMEs who typically rely on generators or lose produce due to lack of storage.

Our model is Cooling-as-a-Service: users pay for storage by crate/day or by volume, making cold storage affordable without heavy upfront costs. Each hub is powered by a solar + battery system and supported with data-driven operations that track temperature performance, energy use, utilization, and product throughput. We integrate a digital layer (simple mobile/USSD tools and platform features) to improve booking, traceability, and coordination with logistics and off-takers.

Climate impact comes from two pathways: (1) direct displacement of diesel generator use for cooling, and (2) reduced food spoilage, which avoids emissions associated with wasted production and repeated transport. CoolCycle is active and operational, with deployed hubs serving real users, validated unit economics, and a clear scale-up plan through partnerships and additional site deployments.

How Project Affects Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions:

['Replaces/avoids GHGs (e.g., projects that replace sources of GHGs, such as the burning of fossil fuels for electricity, heat, transport, or other energy uses)', 'Reduces GHGs (e.g., projects that reduce sources of GHGs, such as through efficiency or other changes in consumption)']

Impact on Underrepresented Groups:

CoolCycle empowers climate-vulnerable, underrepresented groups by making clean cold-chain infrastructure accessible to the people most affected by post-harvest losses and energy poverty: smallholder farmers, women traders, youth workers, and low-income food SMEs.

Empowerment through access and income: Our Cooling-as-a-Service and Ice-as-a-Service models remove the high upfront cost barrier, enabling market women, fish traders, and small producers to preserve quality, sell at better prices, and avoid distress sales. We prioritize women-led and youth cooperatives, reserving at least 50% of storage/ice allocation for women and youth users where demand exists. By stabilizing storage and ice supply, we reduce spoilage, improve daily cashflow, and protect livelihoods in heat-exposed communities.

Jobs and skills: We create local roles for young people in hub operations, customer service, data capture, and basic maintenance, and we commit to a minimum 50% youth participation in site-level roles, supported by structured onboarding and training within host communities.

Representation and accountability: We work through cooperatives and market associations to ensure women and youth are included in onboarding, pricing design, and feedback loops, and we track participation and outcomes (users served, volumes stored, income proxies, and retention) so inclusion is measurable rather than assumed.