Competition offers £250 000 in prizes to stimulate off-grid cold chain technology

The Global LEAP Off-Grid Cold Chain Challenge (OGCCC) – a competition to develop innovative and energy-efficient off-grid cold storage technology – launched yesterday in Nairobi, Kenya.

In a press releases yesterday the UK Department for International Development’s (DfID) said the challenge — which forms part of the department’s Ideas to Impact programme — will offer £250 000 in prizes for off-grid cold chain technologies deployed in select Sub-Saharan African countries.

The goal of the competition is to stimulate innovation and investment in the sector and help to drive market development, bringing prices down for those who need it most.

Innovation prizes of up to £50 000 will be awarded to cold storage technologies that demonstrate energy efficiency, off-grid appropriateness, scalability and feasibility of deployment, with opportunities for further development.

Through the Global LEAP Off-Grid Cold Chain Challenge the UK Department for International Development will award prizes of up to £50 000 to cold storage technologies

Shortlisted technologies will receive an innovation prize of £10 000 to cover shipping and set-up costs. Nominations close 26 May with shortlisted technologies announced in September for product testing and verification, and final prize winners revealed in March next year.

Deployment of off and weak-grid cold storage solutions is also likely to have other social impacts such as empowerment for women, and improvement in health.

Cold storage facilities can be an insulated pre-fabricated cold room, a brick-and-mortar cold room, or a modified shipping container with appropriate air-conditioning or refrigeration system, as long as they can provide cooling and refrigeration for storing produce or dairy products and are powered primarily using renewable energy sources.

The OGCCC has been developed in partnership with Energy 4 Impact with support from Ideas to Impact, a DfID-funded programme that uses innovation prizes to stimulate solutions to development challenges across energy access, climate change adaptation and water, sanitation and hygiene, and Power Africa’s Beyond the Grid initiative.

For more information, visit the OGCCC website or sign up for competition updates.