solar freeze

SolarFreeze is currently working with 2,000 smallholder farmers in Kenya.Our innovative circular
economy approach is regenerative by design,retaining as much value from
agricultural produce as possible.SolarFreeze incorporates the use of
solar cold rooms to preserve perishable food helping farmers pay for
cold-storage via MPESA with as little as $0.1cents per day for a crate
of fruits, we later reuse the discarded fruit peelings and convert them
into very low cost clean fuel retailing at $0.8 cents. Providing a clean
and affordable fuel that can be safely stored and used by poor
consumers for cooking at a reduced price of 70% compared to charcoal.The
d-Limonene scent from the fuel extracted from the discarded fruit
peelings also acts to repels mosquitoes through its fumes.

If successful, the Solar Freeze project will have reduced
post-harvest losses by 90% for 250,000 rural smallholder farmers of
perishable produce (Fruits and Vegetables ) by the use of portable solar
powered cold storage. According to the UN Food and Agricultural
Organization, Kenyan smallholder farmers of perishable fruits experience
post-harvest losses leading to more than 50% of produce going to waste
even before it leaves the farm gate. The project will also provide clean
fuel energy through the by product of discarded fruits to 100,000 house
holds in the informal settlements, It is estimated that in Kenya,
biomass fuels account for more than 90% of primary energy supply
regardless of the adverse effects it has on the environment. Our biofuel
has been innovated so as to reduce poor Kenyan’s reliance on charcoal
based energy for cooking. Through a micro-franchising model we hope to
scale Solar Freeze

The key performance indicators (KPIs) in the project majorly will
be consisting of the percentage of food waste reduced where the current
level of loss for fruits and vegetables in 5 Kenyan counties
(Kiambu,Machakos,Kitui,Makueni&Kitui) is at 60%, this will
involve regular monitoring and evaluating surveys from rural smallholder
farmers of specific fruits&vegetables that we will work on
including mangoes,avocados,tomatoes, orange and papaya,onion and
potatoes.250,000 smallholder farmers will benefit from reduced food loss
and an increase in income due to effective and efficient solar powered
cold storage units at the farm gate and near aggregation centers.Our circular
approach towards food loss incorporates converting fruit peelings into
clean fuel, in this regard we will measure success of by the number of
households at the bottom of the pyramid in informal settlements that
shift from charcoal fuel to our clean bio fuel, we hope to sell our
product to 100,000 house holds

SolarFreeze is currently working with 2,000 smallholder farmers in Kenya.Our innovative circular
economy approach is regenerative by design,retaining as much value from
agricultural produce as possible.SolarFreeze incorporates the use of
solar cold rooms to preserve perishable food helping farmers pay for
cold-storage via MPESA with as little as $0.1cents per day for a crate
of fruits, we later reuse the discarded fruit peelings and convert them
into very low cost clean fuel retailing at $0.8 cents. Providing a clean
and affordable fuel that can be safely stored and used by poor
consumers for cooking at a reduced price of 70% compared to charcoal.The
d-Limonene scent from the fuel extracted from the discarded fruit
peelings also acts to repels mosquitoes through its fumes.

Our solutions uniqueness is adopting a micro franchise model concept and integrating the model with village youth and women
agents in transforming rural agriculture and farmers to increase their agribusiness efficiency making them have more
predictable income generating ventures and thus making them more prosperous while contributing greatly towards ending
youth and women unemployment, food security and malnutrition in Kenya and Africa. Through the micro franchise model, our
solution empowers the youth and women to own and operate the solar powered IoT Smartfarm kits and the portable solar
powered cold storage units.

Our solution offers a one stop turnkey portable off-grid
toolkit for localized food production containing a complete ecosystem of smart farm technologies to enhance agricultural
productivity, from 3kWp solar power and micro-drip irrigation, to solar powered cold storage and IoT Smartfarm Kit with Wi-Fi
connectivity to increase smallholder farmers productivity by 200 percent and reduce water waste by 90 percent and enable
more women and youth entrepreneurs create employment through our micro-franchising model for Solar Freeze's turkey
solution. The portable unit comes equipped with all of the core components needed to start and maintain a 1-acre farm ideal for
African smallholder farmers.

Solar Freeze uses an innovative approach towards preserving fresh
fruits and vegetables for 2,000 smallholder farmers, our portable solar
powered cold rooms help farmers to store produce for longer giving them
access to this important infrastructure at prices as low as 10 Kenyan
shillings via mobile money for a crate of fresh fruits. In the past because of
lack of access to such critical infrastructure, smallholder farmers were
forced to sell produce at throw away prices to middle men out of fear
of post-harvest losses. The approaches that have been tried in the past
such as charcoal cold rooms have been devastating to the rural
environment. Our innovation also includes converting fruit peelings
discarded into clean cooking fuel, through exploitation of sugars in
mango, banana, watermelon, orange and papaya fruit peelings via
microbial fermentation and egg shells as a source of bio-fuel which is a
novel undertaking.

Solar Freeze, five years from now will be serving 2 million smallholder farmers in East Africa, providing them with our internet
connected turnkey solution to increase agricultural output, reduce food loss and create employment in communities where the
units are fully owned and operated by women and the youth though our innovative micro-franchising model. This vision is
bold, innovative, and transformative in its approach to shaping our economic destiny because it offers a viable solution to the
most critical sector in Africa which is agriculture, targeting the provision of an internet connected turnkey solution for climate
smart agriculture in the continent of Africa. To fulfill this vision Solar Freeze has been fortunate to acquire partnerships from
Microsoft which provides the cloud computing, USAID and The Rockefeller foundation through the YieldWise initiative aimed at
reducing post-harvest food loss as well as the local county governments of Kitui, Machakos, Makueni, Kiambu, Nyandarua and
Nyeri which have provided access to a network of over 800,000 smallholder farmers across the country employing about 2.7
million people along the fresh produce value chain, and contributing over US$1 billion to the Kenyan economy.

Within the next year we hope to enable more women to own and operate the solar powered cold storage units as independent micro-franchisee entrepreneurs in the rural areas, through a "Hubs and Spokes" model.

Women Micro- franchisee

Through a Hubs and Spokes model rural women will receive training to own and operate the solar powered cold storage units in their communities; Here's how it works;

Hubs

First, we own and operate best practice solar powered cold storage “hub” centers that provide quality food preservation & storage services for smallholder farmers in rural areas. These centers are designed to be best-practice models for the community, providing smallholder farmers with all the renewable energy building blocks they need to thrive

Financial barriers exist within Solar Freeze micro-franchising model, which relies on loan intuitions such as banks and micro finance organizations to lend to franchisee who intern pay a down payment for our units, which have an average cost of $3,000 we hope to mitigate this challenge by having an asset core where funds will be loaned to screened entrepreneurs to purchase Solar Freeze units.

Financial barriers exist within Solar Freeze micro-franchising model, which relies on loan intuitions such as banks and micro finance organizations to lend to franchisee who intern pay a down payment for our units, which have an average cost of $3,000 we hope to mitigate this challenge by having an asset core where funds will be loaned to screened entrepreneurs to purchase Solar Freeze units.

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The founders of Solar Freeze are; 1)Dysmus Kisilu- A Renewable Energy Expert from the University of California
Davis. 2)Fadekunayo Jolomi Adeniyi Doctoral Researcher Renewable Energy- University of Durham in England Master of
Science in Renewable Energy University of Plymouth in England Bachelor of Engineering in Electrical and Electronic
Engineering 3)Edwin Ngaruia Bachelor of Science in Telecommunication and Information Technology Cisco Certified
Internetwork Expert (CCIE) License #52740 4)Ruth Wanjiku The University of Nairobi-Bachelor or Agribusiness Management
5)Rita Nkatha Laibuta The University of Sheffield- Master of Science (Eng) Energy Engineering

We are a team of a new young generation of Africans with an average age of 27years. Like many our age, we watched our
parents and grandparents and those before them work tirelessly toiling and moiling in the rural farms only for a huge chunk of
their fresh produce to rot away due to lack of proper cold storage units. Often times, middle men would quickly swoop in and
offer dirt cheap prices and farmers would be forces to sell for a song out of desperation and fear of post-harvest loss. Lesson
number one we learned in early life: Don’t do agriculture! It’s a backbreaking endeavor that will leave you with crusty hands and
empty pockets. We voted with our feet and opted for a better life in the big city. That was then, now the only hope we see for
our generation to make an impact is through agriculture

Through its YieldWise initiative working with smallholder farmers of fruits in rural Kenya to train them in proper post-harvest handling of agricultural produce

Through MIT's D-Lab, Solar Freeze is connected to engineers, and business support focusing on East Africa startups.

The role they will play will linking Solar Freeze to the existing pool of smallholder farmers they work with in the perishable produce sector.

The USAID provides support to Solar Freeze in terms of grant support geared towards helping smallholder farmers increase productivity

Solar Freeze business case generates revenue for its potable solar powered cold storage innovation through operating a simple pay-as-you-store model, Smallholder farmers and retailers of fresh produce pay US$0.20 to store one crate per day, with 400 crates fitting inside one unit. The potable solar powered cold storage units cost US$3,000 to fabricate.

Solar Freeze operates an innovative business that involves revenue streams via selling Bio-alkanol a low cost fuel retiling at $0.8 cents which costs Solar Freeze $0.4 cents to produce.

Solar Freeze is raising debt capital of $500,000 for its asset core to finance more micro-franchisees to own and operate the solar powered units within their communities.

Solar Freeze business case generates revenue for its potable solar powered cold storage innovation through operating a simple pay-as-you-store model, Smallholder farmers and retailers of fresh produce pay US$0.20 to store one crate per day, with 400 crates fitting inside one unit. The potable solar powered cold storage units cost US$3,000 to fabricate.

Solve offers an avenue for Solar Freeze to delve deeper on its impact, model and theory of change with our solution. We hope to use the opportunity to achieve  impact in Kenya.

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MIT engineers for the IoT technology

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We are pioneering an innovative business model to enable more women to own and operate the solar powered cold storage units as independent micro-franchisee entrepreneurs in the rural areas, through a "Hubs and Spokes" model.

Women Micro- franchisee

Through a Hubs and Spokes model rural women will receive training to own and operate the solar powered cold storage units in their communities; Here's how it works;

Hubs

First, we own and operate best practice solar powered cold storage “hub” centers that provide quality food preservation & storage services for smallholder farmers in rural areas. These centers are designed to be best-practice models for the community, providing smallholder farmers with all the renewable energy building blocks they need to thrive

Spokes

Using our “hub” centers as a model, Solar Freeze has launched a social-franchising program to support local women (who we call our Mamapreneurs) with training, resources & on-going mentorship to start or grow their own quality solar powered cold storage micro-business (or “spoke”).

Spokes are visited weekly by a Spokes Outreach Officer who provides ongoing mentorship & quality assurance on food preservation and safety.

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