Development and implementation of a battery and solar powered DC compressor based cold storage for off grid rural areas ensuring food security

Abstract

Preserving perishable goods as soon as they are harvested is the main concern for the farmers in the rural areas of Bangladesh for lack of cold storage facilities and absence of electricity supply. To supply ample facilities in the rural areas of the country this project is aimed to provide cold storage facilities incorporating renewable energy (Solar energy) and batteries; it will give a total off grid solution to the problem storing perishable goods and ensure food security. The prototype of the cold storage consists of solar Photovoltaic (PV) panels, batteries, charge controller, freezer and a DC compressor. The DC compressor, which is replaced by the AC compressor in the freezer, is the most vital component of the system as it runs the freezer taking DC output from the PV panels. The power supplied from the PV panels simultaneously runs the DC compressor and charges the batteries through the charge controller. The batteries give backup and runs the DC compressor at night in nonappearance of the sun. The system has been developed and implemented at the rooftop of BRAC University building 1 and all the tests have been done there. This thesis paper includes the system’s overall performance test, results and analysis of the results. Moreover, the battery backup time in absence of sun for a long time has been analyzed. In all, the system has the complete solution for supplying cold storage facilities in off grid areas and give an environment friendly solution of the storage problem.