Magdalene Mbinya is a Kenyan small-scale farmer reaping the benefits of solar-powered farming. Like many Kenyans who grow up in rural or semi-urban areas, Mbinya left her home in Yatta, Machakos County, to pursue her dreams in Nairobi. She enrolled at a university there, completed her studies, and then worked as a social worker at various local and international NGOs. Things were going well until the COVID-19 pandemic hit and disrupted life as she knew it. Mbinya found herself re-evaluating the benefits of city living and eventually decided to return to her rural home in Yatta. Despite the hot and dry conditions there, Mbinya was determined to make the land she inherited from her late parents agriculturally productive.

‘Our place is dry, but I can do something with it. With the manpower, knowledge and exposure that I have, I can change it.’

Despite an above-average rural electrification rate of 62.7% in Kenya, Mbinya’s home is one of many unserved by the national grid. Undaunted by the lack of grid access, Mbinya has invested in solar as an alternative power source for her home and farming projects. Additionally, if it were available to her, Mbinya would be wary of connecting to the national grid due to the costly energy bills — especially with recent electricity price hikes.

‘Now I want solar — pure solar…The goal is to go green completely.’

Mbinya’s beautiful home runs on a solar home system, and she uses a solar pump to channel water from a nearby river to a dam in her compound, enabling her to farm throughout the year — unrestrained by unreliable rain and the area’s arid conditions. At the time of our visit, it was particularly dry and dusty — Mbinya mentioned that it had been almost four months since the last rain. Despite this, we saw young papaya trees and other leafy green vegetables growing on sections of the ten-acre farm.

With her Agsol solar MicroMill, Mbinya provides flour for her household and serves neighbouring homes and schools. Her affordable pricing at KES 5 (USD 0.04) per kilogramme gives her an edge over the posho millers at the market centres. The electric-powered millers charge four times more than Mbinya at KES 20 (USD 0.16) per kilogramme, while the diesel-powered millers charge double at KES 10. Mbinya mills various crops, including maize (most popular), cassava, and chicken feed. Schools are her biggest customers — she currently mills maize flour for two schools, with a combined weekly output of 50 -70 kilograms of maize flour. She makes around KES 3,000–4,000 (USD 24 – 32) from all orders weekly. With this money, she employs someone to operate the mill and serve walk-in customers while she attends to her other business projects.

‘Now that my milling service is cheap; I have so many customers. They even buy maize from Kisiiki market centre (about 7km away) and come to mill it here instead of milling there.’

Mbinya learned about Agsol through her sister, who works for a humanitarian NGO. She was eager to try the MicroMill because of the challenges she had faced obtaining clean flour that didn’t smell of diesel fumes. Also, she knew there was a business opportunity to provide affordable and reliable milling for her community. Mbinya’s milling service is so popular in her neighbourhood that customers from beyond a five-kilometre radius come to buy her flour. Due to this high demand, after her initial lump sum payment, Mbinya managed to pay off the financing for the mill in two instalments over about three months. She attributes her growing customer base to word-of-mouth — customers tell their friends, who tell their other friends and so forth. Mbinya also encourages her customers to share their experiences of using her mill when they meet up for their ‘chama’ meetings (informal savings and investments groups) over the weekend.

‘I would say it’s a good initiative for a village like this one where there’s no power and diesel is expensive. Having a solar mill changes our lifestyle and even the food — it is clean.’

An aspect of the solar mill that Mbinya thinks could be improved is that during overcast conditions, the mill runs out of power early in the day. As a result, she serves fewer customers at those times compared to when it is bright and sunny. Besides that, she’s satisfied with the mill and is happy that she can provide this service to her community. Mbinya’s friends and neighbours have expressed an interest in purchasing Agsol’s MicroMill — the only barrier being affordability. Despite her explaining the consumer financing option to them, people are still hesitant to commit to such a large expense.

Mbinya plans to continue developing her home and farm. Among her goals is to sink a borehole, which would be a more reliable water source during prolonged dry seasons. Meanwhile, she will continue to provide convenient and affordable milling services, which she knows her community needs.

‘…the community really loves it (the mill service), and they appreciate it. They know that the food is clean and very nice.’

Adopting solar technologies like solar water pumps and mills boosts farmers’ productivity and saves energy-related costs while avoiding carbon emissions.

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About Agsol

Agsol is based in Kenya and was established in 2016 to develop solar-powered milling machines that can viably serve small communities, improve labour efficiencies, keep more money in rural economies, and catalyse access to higher-tier energy services.

Efficiency for Access has been working with Agsol since 2018, both in research and R&D. The Efficiency for Access Research and Development Fund supported Agsol in two projects — the first project was to develop a MicroMill prototype and the second project involved further improvements to the prototype, including efficiency gains and improved affordability. The R&D Fund’s support has helped Agsol create a highly efficient, more affordable small grain mill with a strong product-market fit.

Wilfred Muriithi proudly refers to himself as a ‘solar man.’ ‘I am using solar for lighting, solar for pumping and solar for milling. I’m a solar man.’ But his solar reliance has been borne out of necessity. Despite an ambitious national electrification plan and the installation of electricity poles close to his home, Wilfred and his wife, like many other rural Kenyans, are yet to be connected to the national grid. Wilfred says the government set up the wiring for electricity supply in his area three years ago but has still not installed a transformer.

They live in Mbinguini, one of the smaller localities in Mwea, Kirinyaga County, Kenya, about two hours from Nairobi by road. Wilfred is a retired groundwater and agriculture engineer who previously worked with the government on soil and water conservation and is now an independent specialist in spatial water resource mapping.

Since Wilfred is often away from home on water prospecting trips, his wife is the one who mainly works with their Agsol mill and grinds flour for customers. So far, they are both immensely happy with the MicroMill, which they say works excellently and is reliable.

‘This [mill] is very easy to use…I have not encountered any issues. Even during very cloudy days, it is still functional.’

Wilfred discovered the Agsol solar mill during a water prospecting field visit. In addition to helping his customers identify groundwater sources, he trains them on drip-irrigation system installations and often promotes SunCulture solar water pumps for irrigation systems. On one such pump installation, Wilfred was introduced to the solar mill by the SunCulture team.

Already aware of the cost-saving benefits of solar-powered technologies, Wilfred was immediately interested in the innovative mill. For him, Agsol’s MicroMill presented a convenient option for flour production to meet his family’s needs and income generation through milling for his neighbours.

Access to a posho mill is crucial in many rural communities in Kenya. Families in these areas rely on them for their household and farming milling needs — citing that posho mill flour is more nutritious and palatable than flour from milling factories. Additionally, many rural Kenyan households (70%) rely on small-scale agriculture to earn a modest living and feed themselves. Because of this, crops such as maize, cassava, and millet are often readily available to them. The families typically harvest the produce from their farm and take it to the closest miller to make flour. This is then used to prepare popular local meals such as ugali (maize meal dish) and millet porridge — which are staples in rural homes.

Beyond household consumption, small-scale farmers can save on buying expensive commercial animal feed by milling the crops they grow to produce feed. Despite the undeniable benefits of milling for day-to-day rural-household demands, the posho mills are often inconvenient to access — often located at market centres many kilometres away. Women and children often walk long distances to the market centre to access a posho mill. The time spent travelling and then waiting for the flour to be milled could go towards more meaningful activities, e.g., studying, spending time with family or participating in income-generating activities. Additionally, many posho mills run on petrol or fuel, making them pollutive for the environment and costly due to recurring fuel costs.

For Wilfred and his neighbours, the closest posho millers in their area are at least three kilometres away. Wilfred offers his customers more convenient access to milling services and provides the service at about two-thirds the cost of the traditional posho millers. He charges KES 20 (USD 0.16) for two kilogrammes compared to the posho miller’s rate of KES 30 (USD 0.24). Additionally, the quality of the flour that Wilfred provides is superior to that of the diesel posho millers, which often taste of diesel fumes.

A changing climate

Unfortunately, Wilfred could not rely on customer revenue to pay off the mill’s financing due to the severe drought affecting his home area and other parts of Kenya for most of this year, coupled with challenging economic conditions. He reported that milling orders have been much lower this year than in 2021 because people haven’t grown much maize. Neighbours often mill small quantities that only meet their daily meal requirements. He also mentioned that they sometimes mill on credit, and he allows a neighbour to pay for what they milled during their next visit, often a few days later. On average, the solar mill generates KES 100–300 (USD 0.82 -2.45) daily at least three times a week.

‘I am not alone. Everybody is affected by these harsh economic times. Especially those who had employed people to rely on a salary from their mill — they have closed down.’

Despite the dwindling quantity of milling orders, Wilfred is optimistic that his business will become more profitable. He has identified several business opportunities to widen his customer base, including partnering with the local schools to mill their flour weekly and possibly employing someone to provide mobile milling services at the local markets. He says the government has plans to reintroduce indigenous crops, such as millet, cassava and sorghum, in the region to boost food security and improve nutrition. Once underway, the increased crop production would provide another growth opportunity for his milling business. Finally, he is keen to stop buying commercial chicken feed by milling a more nutritious blend of homemade feed, which will be comparable to store-bought feed.

Wilfred and his wife’s story showcases how adopting a solar mill enables convenient and affordable milling services for rural Kenyan communities while avoiding carbon emissions.

***

About Agsol

Agsol is based in Kenya and was established in 2016 to develop solar-powered milling machines that can viably serve small communities, improve labour efficiencies, keep more money in rural economies, and catalyse access to higher-tier energy services.

Efficiency for Access has been working with Agsol since 2018, both in research and R&D. The Efficiency for Access Research and Development Fund supported Agsol in two projects — the first project was to develop a MicroMill prototype and the second project involved further improvements to the prototype, including efficiency gains and improved affordability. The R&D Fund’s support has helped Agsol create a highly efficient, more affordable small grain mill with a strong product-market fit.

The smell of meat on the grill, stares from curious onlookers and persuasive sales pitches rented the air as we strolled through Burma Market in the heart of Nairobi, Kenya. Burma Market is a critical component of Nairobi’s fresh livestock meat distribution chain, employing thousands of people and feeding millions of Kenyans within the city and beyond. Every morning, delivery trucks flock to the market to service awaiting buyers who purchase meat for consumption in hotels, supermarkets, schools, and households.

On 26 May, the Global LEAP team visited Burma Market to check on the progress of Baridi, a 2022 Off-Grid Cold Chain Challenge preliminary product finalist, owned and operated by Tree_Sea.mals Limited. Baridi is a single-phase, solar-powered walk-in cold room capable of chilling up to 1000 kilograms of meat at once. The 3.4 x 2.1 x 2.2-meter unit has an indoor adjustable temperature of 0 to 5°C, powered by a rooftop solar panel during the day. Excess power generated from the solar panels is stored in a 12kWh Lithium-Ion battery for utilization during low light periods and at night.

Prior to the unit’s installation, butchers in the market relied on standard box freezers for all their cooling needs. The majority of these box freezers have a capacity of 300 kilograms, requiring users to cut whole carcasses into smaller pieces for easier storage. Additionally, due to frequent break-ins at the market, the butchers risked financial losses from the theft of their freezers and meat. Having worked with pastoralist communities in Kenya, and recognizing the opportunity for cooling as a service in urban markets, Tree_Sea.mals installed their game-changing cold storage solution at Burma Market during in late 2021.

A Game Changer

“The post-slaughter urban meat market is underserved…Our goal is to enhance food security and minimize post-slaughter loss by increasing the shelf life of fresh meat,” said Tracy Kimathi, Founder of Tree_Sea.mals Limited. The cold room was installed after three failed attempts and a year-long collaborative deployment process involving a team of researchers and industry specialists. As of May 2022, it had processed over 70,000 kilograms of meat.

“Our cold room operates at 60–100% capacity every day. There is so much demand for our cooling services that we are going to introduce a second unit in this market,” said Tracy. In contrast to the widely used box freezers at Burma Market, Baridi chills whole carcasses. Further, being off-grid, the unit shields customers from possible spoilage arising from power cuts or grid down times.

“There is a perception among customers that frozen meat is bad meat. The advantage of our unit is that it chills, so the meat will come out of storage looking fresh, not pale and frosty,” added Tracy. “The second unit we’re introducing is a freezer, but we can always raise the temperatures if we want to chill.”

Tracy and her team leverage a sophisticated Internet of Things (IoT) tracking system to simplify customer journeys and enhance operational efficiency. Upon arrival at the stall, customer and product details are entered into a cloud-based inventory system. The meat is then tagged using Radio Frequency Identification (RFId) chips before entering storage. This process is significantly shorter for repeat clients as their details already exist in the system.

“We partnered with the Kenya Meat Commission (KMC) to train our staff before they started working with the unit. It was a two-week training on asset management and stock keeping. We regularly train them on solar operations, basic solar chilling and how to troubleshoot in the event of a technical hitch,” said Tracy.

A kilogram of steak is frozen for five Kenyan Shillings per day, for a maximum of seven days. Payments are done only through mobile money to maximize stall security and avoid unsanitary contact between money and carcasses. “There was an attempted break-in via the roof on the first night after we installed the cold room. Luckily, the unit’s motion sensors flagged this and promptly alerted us. We rushed here and averted loss of property which would have been a major setback for us,” said Tracy.

After the incident, Tree_Sea.mals beefed up security by installing a Closed-Circuit Television (CCTv) camera and reinforcing the stall’s ceiling with metal barriers. “In addition to motion sensors, we now have a video feed which helps us to monitor everything remotely,” said Tracy as she proudly pointed to a desktop monitor displaying numerous CCTV video feeds.

The Road Ahead

The Tree_Sea.mals team hopes to build 70 Baridi units by their seventh year of operation and expand to as many meat markets across the East African region as possible. The primary challenge facing this expansion plan is limited space. While urban meat markets offer convenient proximity to customers with a higher paying ability, securing stall space large enough to house a cold storage unit is no small feat. Urban meat markets also present a raft of technical challenges which hinder ease of assembly and security of the walk-in cold rooms.

Even so, the cost basis of prioritizing urban settings is clear: “We did not set up within pastoralist communities because potential customers in urban meat markets have a higher ability and willingness to pay for cooling-as-a-service compared to those in rural pastoralist settings,” said Tracy. Another advantage of an urban setting is that it allows Tree_Sea.mals to quickly modify business operations in response to market trends. For example, Tree_Sea.mals plans to increase the cost of cooling a kilogram of meat from five to seven Kenyan Shillings per day on account of increased demand.

Participating in the 2022 Off-Grid Cold Chain Challenge has empowered Tree_Sea.mals to leverage data as a driver of efficient business operations. They are currently scoping meat markets using geo-mapping services and utilizing power consumption, unit occupancy and customer demographics data collected from their installation to inform future expansion plans.

This installation exemplifies a successful urban application of what would be considered a typical rural off-grid cold storage solution. “It’s rewarding to witness increasing demand for our services because that is an indicator that the solution is impactful”, said Tracy. “In the future, we hope to introduce thermal cooling. Our current set up uses Lithium-Ion batteries, which are very expensive. Thermal cooling will be a good substitute, as it will lower operational costs”, added Tracy. For more information, please read this OGCCC halfway point article to learn how the competition’s field testing is benefiting stakeholders and follow us on Twitter for regular updates on the Off-Grid Cold Chain Challenge.

About the Global LEAP Off-Grid Cold Chain Challenge (OGCCC)

The Global LEAP Off-Grid Cold Chain Challenge is an international competition that identifies and promotes the most energy-efficient, sustainable and cost-effective technologies designed for use by smallholder farmers and producers to meet cold storage requirements for fresh fruits, vegetables, fish, and dairy products.

In a lead-up to announcing this year’s Global LEAP Off-Grid Cold Chain Challenge (OGCCC) finalists, a team from Efficiency for Access visited two Kenya-based field testing participants. The first visit was to a family-owned agribusiness situated in Thika, a bustling agricultural and industrial town about an hour’s drive from Nairobi. The team was eager to have a first-hand view of the Solar Cooling Engineering cold room in use and learn more about the owner’s experience.

On arrival in Thika town, we drove about 20 minutes into a lush residential estate where Kamau Mbarire and his wife, Jane, warmly welcomed us. The middle-aged couple jointly runs a profitable and growing herbs-for-export business, Jungle Harvest Limited, with Jane more actively involved in the day-to-day operations.

As the team explored the 0.75 acres of land under cultivation, Jane told us of her family’s nearly two-decade-long journey of establishing their now-thriving business. Since occupying the property, Jane’s family has tried their hand in various ventures, including dairy, pig and poultry farming and producing bananas, avocadoes, vegetables and strawberries. Of the initial pursuits, strawberries had been the most successful. Unfortunately, the success of the strawberries was short-lived — with wild monkeys in the neighbourhood stealing the ripe strawberries before she could gather them for sale. Deterred but not defeated, Jane erected a greenhouse where she would plant the strawberries away from the cheeky thieves. However, this solution did not last as the strawberries were not thriving under the canopy of the greenhouse. She also noted that the quality of the fruit did not match earlier harvests when the strawberries were planted under direct sunlight. This led to her exploring herb growing in 2018, which has proven less susceptible to the interference of the monkeys. The family now grows several herbs, including basil, coriander, dill, mint, rosemary, sage, tarragon and thyme.

Since settling on their cash crop of choice, the family shifted their sights to how best they could maximise the farm’s income generation. Following a recommendation from their son Francis (a Graduate in AgroEcosystems and Environment Management), Jane and Kamau chose to invest in an on-site cold storage facility in late 2021. They received financing for the Solar Cooling Engineering brand cold room through a loan which they are currently servicing.

Before purchasing the cold room, they had to hire refrigerated trucks to keep their produce fresh for transport. This was not a sustainable approach for them. It involved their workers spending long hours during harvest days to ensure all orders were sorted and packed in time for the scheduled pick up and delivery. It was also costly, with daily truck hires averaging USD $60–77. Now, with the cold room, Jane can store over 1000 kilograms of herbs for up to a week and take more time to sort and pack the product for transport to the airport.

“We have been using it day in, day out. It has really helped us because we are growing herbs that are very sensitive to high temperatures. We can harvest today, tomorrow and the next day, and the herbs remain fresh,” says Jane.

Jane and Kamau are no strangers to solar. They have been using a SunCulture solar water pump to irrigate their crops since 2015. “With solar, we are good to go anytime,” Jane remarked.

Since acquiring the cold room, Jane and Kamau’s herb capacity has grown from about 50–80 kgs to over 300kgs, nearly doubling their income from the farm. With their increased output, they now supply higher value export clients with larger orders instead of local clients who make small orders fetching lower returns. The family also appreciate that the precise temperature control of the cold room enables herb preservation in optimal conditions, meeting the high export quality standards

Not only has the cold room benefited Jane and Kamau’s bottom line, but it has also enabled them to empower their local community. Jane mentioned that, aside from Dan, the farm manager, she prefers to employ young single mothers on the farm. In this way, the young mothers can earn an income to support themselves and their children. Additionally, Jane distributes fresh vegetables to neighbouring households which she purchases in bulk and stores in the cold room, generating some extra income.

Jane and Kamau confirmed that the cold room has been a worthy investment and a means of further expanding their business. With the extra income brought about by the cold room, they are constructing a larger herb propagation shed and plan to lease land from their neighbours, extending their farm by about an acre. With these plans in place, they will grow more herbs, take up larger orders and expand the business.

“At least now with the cold room, we are able to do more propagation and grow as many crops as possible…It was a worth it investment.” – Jane Kamau.

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About the GLOBAL LEAP Off-Grid Cold Chain Challenge (OGCCC)

The Global LEAP Off-Grid Cold Chain Challenge is an international competition that identifies and promotes the most energy-efficient, sustainable and cost-effective technologies designed for use by smallholder farmers and producers to meet cold storage requirements for fresh fruits, vegetables, fish, and dairy products.

On November 19, 2021, Efficiency for Access team members went out into the field to witness some of the ongoing activities of our solar water pump consumer awareness-raising campaign in Machakos county, Kenya. During this visit, they met Samuel Ndutu, a farmer from the Mwala sub-county, who relies on solar water pumping to irrigate his farm.

Samuel is a widowed father of two who left formal employment a few years back and now relies on farming to provide for his family’s needs, such as his sons’ education. On his farm, Samuel grows various vegetables and fruits, including tomatoes, cabbages, kales, bananas, pawpaws, eggplants, and more. These crops go through different growth cycles, requiring different levels of care and intervention, as well as need varying amounts of water to produce high and healthy yields. For example, tomatoes and cabbages require frequent watering, which is a scarce resource in the hot and dry Machakos county.

Samuel’s farm is approximately half a kilometre away from the nearest water pan (a pond for storing rainwater), which he and surrounding households rely on as a water source for their livestock and crop farming. After weeks of research on online farming forums, looking for an effective and affordable means of getting the water to his farm, Samuel came across a neighbour who had shared her experience using a solar water pump on her farm. He got in touch with her and learned more about the pump’s performance, its purchase process, and how it had impacted her farming output. Satisfied with this information, Samuel contacted a local pump supplier and purchased a submersible solar water pump kit with a battery. By the time of the field visit, he had been using the pump for six months and was pleased with its performance, not having experienced any breakdowns so far. He was particularly impressed by the pump successfully pumping water uphill across a distance of over 400 meters. Aside from pumping water, he also uses the solar home system the pump came with for lighting and charging small household appliances like mobile phones.

“The pump has met the expectations I had, especially considering the distance and elevation of my farm. I have had no issues so far,” says Samuel. He further appreciated the freed-up time to attend to other tasks while water is pumped into his tank automatically. Before the purchase, he would fetch water himself—a time-consuming task.

Samuel explained that he typically pumps between 7,000- 8,000 litres over eight to nine hours. He switches the pump on in the morning, lets it run till lunchtime, empties the storage tank by watering his crops and then re-fills the tank. Samuel only pumps once a week during humid periods, but when it is drier, he pumps twice weekly. He mentioned an interest in purchasing a second pump, preferably a more powerful model than his current one, since he is keen to expand his farm to increase yields and, therefore, his income.

In addition to the pump performing as advertised, Samuel liked that he was not incurring ongoing costs to get water to his farm. If he had a fuel-powered pump, it would cost him about 5-8 USD per use. Additionally, he appreciated the convenience of the “pay as you go” product-financing model he used as an alternative to having to part with a prohibitive upfront payment.  Samuel is also satisfied with the after-sales support offered by the manufacturer. The company’s engineer installed the pump at no extra cost, and after that, whenever he has had an inquiry, all he has had to do is get in touch with the manufacturer’s support team on the phone for assistance.

Samuel is considered an influencer farmer in the area, and neighbours come to him to learn about farming with a solar water pump. Visiting his farm and seeing how using the solar water pump has boosted his farming productivity was a great reminder that efficient, solar-powered appliances improve and support the livelihoods of off-grid communities and households sustainably.

As CLASP continues to manage the Efficiency for Access consumer awareness campaign through February 2022, we look forward to uncovering more insights from the end-users like Samuel. To learn more about the campaign, follow us on Twitter or email us via info@efficiencyforaccess.org.

Robust appliance efficiency policies and agendas require strong institutions and a healthy ecosystem of actors, including the public sector, the private sector, and civil society and consumers. CLASP’s work in India over the last two decades has contributed to the strengthening of all of these actors, as well as reduced greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and peak demand, helping to diminish air pollution, and enhancing the effectiveness of the consumer-facing policy mechanism, the ‘5-star’ energy label.

Today, the energy label—which is led and administered by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE)—covers 28 products and is recognized across the country. In 2020, the Ministry of Power noted that appliance energy efficiency policies alone contributed over 50% of overall electricity reductions from energy efficiency between 2018 and 2019.

CLASP has provided extensive technical and programmatic support to BEE since 2001. Over the last two decades, CLASP has informed a majority of the 28 products covered by the energy label through market data collection and analysis, proposed policy benchmarks and associated impacts, as well as strengthening institutional capabilities. Over the last four years alone, CLASP supported the development and revision of efficiency policies for 11 products that will cumulatively avoid 254 MT of CO₂ by 2030.

In October 2019, the European Commission adopted new regulations to promote energy-efficient, sustainable appliances and equipment across the European market. Together with energy labeling requirements adopted in March, the sweeping package of regulations is expected to avoid 331 megatons of CO₂ cumulatively by 2030 and save each European household an average €150 (US$165) annually on energy bills.

The new rules were finalized under the EU’s Ecodesign Directive. They will reduce electricity consumption by 167 TWh per year by 2030, equivalent to 5% of the region’s total residential electricity use today, and require easy product reparability and recyclability in accordance with the EU’s Circular Economy Strategy.

CLASP supported the package over the course of five years with inputs on testing, market data and international best practices, as well as analysis of the costs and benefits associated with various levels of policy ambition for lighting, televisions, computer monitors, commercial signage, residential and commercial refrigerators, and transformers. Europe team members Marie Baton and Michael Scholand supported development of nine ecodesign and energy labeling policy measures that together represent 87% of the annual carbon reductions in 2030.

“CLASP Europe has supported the Commission since 2009. We are elated that on the tenth anniversary of our engagement in Brussels, such a ground-breaking package of policy measures was adopted,” CEO Christine Egan said.

Miguel Arias Cañete, European Commissioner for Climate Action and Energy, said efficiency will play a growing role in Europe’s long-term decarbonization strategy. “Ecodesign is … a key element in the fight against climate change and a direct contribution to meeting the goals set in the Paris Agreement.”

Notably, the labeling policies which accompany these standards are the first to re-scale the energy label back to an A through G scale (with A being the best), rather than A+++, A++, A+, A, and so on, which resulted in most products being clustered in the highest classes. According to a 2013 CLASP evaluation, the A-heavy system confused consumers and significantly altered the motivational effect of the top efficiency class. Our conclusions led the European Commission to transition back to the original A-G scale, in accordance with international best practice.

Beyond the return to an A to G scale, the new labeling regulations represent a significant increase in stringency. Indeed, in the rescaling, products that are currently in the top energy classes are being rescaled to the lower range of the new label. Member states and others are now better positioned to promote and leverage the label for maximum market impacts. The figure below visualizes the rescale for refrigerators (A++ is being rescaled to D, and A+ to F and G).

Nils Borg, Executive Director of the European Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (eceee) said, “Adoption of this package was a true team effort, engaging stakeholders, NGOs and Member States from across the political spectrum.  CLASP was an integral part of that equation, providing technical expertise and analysis that underpinned our ambitious positions and led to stronger policy outcomes.”

The following is excerpted from an interview CLASP conducted with Tanmay in 2020.

An Enduring Partnership

“My first assignment with CLASP was in 2002, and I was working with the International Institute for Energy Conservation—a founding member of CLASP. It was the early days, so a lot of our work was talking about the importance of efficiency standards and building those frameworks.

Today, one of the biggest barriers to a policy initiative is reliable information about how appliance energy use and market trends are affecting households. We need better information for making decisions and the NEEM Dashboard was the first step in that direction.”

Data-Informed Decision-Making

“When we look at prioritizing appliances for more stringent standards, you pick based on potential impact. The NEEM Dashboard gives us better insight into energy-use behavior and how appliances are used across the country.

When we created the dashboard, the idea was that it would feed primarily to policymakers who set appliance standards. But other potential beneficiaries [include] policymakers who look at building codes and standards; utilities, as there is a direct linkage to look at demand profiles for customers; and end-users who need more information on reducing their energy use.

This tool should become a reference point for building a long-term monitoring framework to track the impacts of our work and improve policies.”

The Importance of Energy Efficiency in India

“India is rapidly expanding the scope of energy services, and this growth brings about positive changes. But at the same time, all of this energy is coming from fossil sources. So in a country like India, with a big population that is growing more urban and increasing its energy intensity, efficiency is extremely important.

Over 20 years, CLASP’s impact has been transformative. I can see that change nowhere bigger than India—where energy efficiency is one of the strongest pillars of the government, and it has been continuously supported by CLASP.”

About 25 million households in India live without electricity, and many electrified households have unreliable power supply. India is one of the fastest-growing off-grid markets. According to GOGLA, 30% of the global volume share of standalone solar products were sold in India in 2018 — it is the world’s single largest market for portable lanterns. The solar market in India is quickly shifting focus on solar lighting to larger productive-use applications. In 2018, the Government of India announced an ambitious target to deploy more than one million solar pumps by 2022. To understand more about Indian consumers and their use-cases for productive use appliances, CLASP conducted a series of field visits in rural Bengaluru with the SELCO Foundation in February 2019. 

Indiganatha is a rural hamlet located in The Male Mahadeshwara Hills (MM Hills) with no access to grid electricity due to its location deep within a forest. Indiganatha is best known for its sacred temple of Sri Male Mahadeshwara, an important Shiva temple and religious pilgrimage site. While in town, we visited a small shop that sells snacks and beverages near the temple. The shop’s location was very remote; it could only be reached on foot. The shopkeeper, Eeranna, owns the only solar refrigerator in the entire village, a 240-liter Phocos refrigerator installed by the SELCO Foundation. Eeranna and his family sell cold beverages to pilgrims and tourists. On a typical day, the shop can sell about 15 bottles of cold beverage and generate 300 Indian Rupees (INR) in income. When Eeranna installed a solar home system in his shop, he also spotted a new business opportunity to offer customers mobile phone charging for 10 INR per charge.

Purchasing a solar refrigerator was a huge financial investment for Eeranna and his family. Through a Self Help Group (SHG), Earanna and his neighbors pooled their money together so he could purchase a refrigerator. The SHG served as a guarantee for Earanna to obtain a loan from a micro-finance institution. Eeranna procured an 80,000 INR loan for the refrigerator with a 2.5 year repayment period. While the 80,000 INR loan seems significant, selling cold beverages and phone charging services allowed Eeranna to earn more than 60,000 INR in six months. Eeranna was eventually able to pay back his loan early. Now Eeranna and his family are now looking into other off-grid appliances, such as a mixer to make and sell fresh juice in their shop and a grinder to prepare Dosa/Idly batter.

The next day, we visited two more customers, Thipperudrappa and his mother. Thipperudrappa is a road-side food truck entrepreneur who sells drink and snacks drivers at a toll plaza on the busy National Highway 4, which connects two major cities in the state of Karnataka, Bengaluru and Chitradurga. Thipperudrappa installed a 100L Devidayal DC refrigerator/freezer on his truck in order to sell cold food and beverages, and reduce financial losses from food spoilage.

Thipperudrappa’s mother described milk spoilage as the primary motive to purchase the new refrigerator. “Milk spoils very quickly in the summer, and once it does, we cannot sell it.” The solar refrigerator helps extend the product shelf-life of milk and other beverages, which in turn improves earning potential. Thipperudrappa’s mother told us that her income has increased since purchasing her DC refrigerator/freezer. On average, she sells 25 liters of beverage per day. The solar panels installed on her food truck serves as a free advertisement — people come to the truck and ask for the cold drinks when they see the solar panels.

The Efficiency for Access Coalition’s Off-Grid Appliance Market Survey 2018 identified off-grid refrigeration as one of the most demanded appliances across various sectors (agricultural, commercial and household). However, barriers like product availability, affordability and last-mile distribution continue to complicate the delivery of modern clean energy services to customers in rural India, like Eeranna and Thipperudrappa. Through programs like the Global LEAP Awards’ competition for off-grid refrigerators, the LEIA program aims to identify the best available cooling technologies and accelerate innovations in early-stage product markets.

It was mid-afternoon at Parvin Akther’s home, located in a scenic off-grid community amongst the rice paddies in Cumilla, a village 100 kilometers southeast from Dhaka. Like many households during the summer of 2018, World Cup fever had set in Parvin’s home. A gentle breeze was blowing, swaying the green and blue flags representing the football teams of Brazil and Argentina, two favorite national teams among Bangladeshis. That year, Parvin’s family would not be left behind in all of the World Cup excitement thanks to Parvin’s new solar-powered television. Her extended family could now gather together and enjoy the latest soccer match from the comfort of their home.

Recommended by her brother, Parvin’s TV came as part of a full solar package — a 130Wp solar panel, TV, fan, and five lights with an average run time of four hours. Before purchasing this solar home system (SHS), Parvin’s family had tapped electricity from a distant neighbor’s meter. The cost of obtaining power this way, however, was too high, eventually leading them to opt for a solar system instead. In comparison to Parvin’s previous TV, her new off-grid model is of much better quality. “The light is bright and the TV is brighter,” she said. Parvin threw a quick glance at her son and remarked, “The greatest benefit of the SHS is on the kids’ education, for they can now study in the night time.”

With the monsoon season approaching, Parvin and her family were looking forward to a much-needed break from the summer heat. As temperatures climbed to 31 degrees Celsius (87.8 degrees Fahrenheit), everyone cooled down inside and drank refreshing glasses of coconut water, thankful to be in close proximity to Parvin’s new fan. “Our lifestyle is better,” Parvin said. Even when soccer season ends, Parvin’s neighbors will still be dropping by to watch Bangla movies on the family’s solar TV. In addition to the entertainment and educational benefits, having these efficient household appliances has certainly also elevated their family’s social status in the community.