A Review on Role of Solar Cold Storage System in India

Abstract

The major issues for bad economical condition of farmers in India is that shortages of cold chain arrangement which is responsible for post harvest losses of fruits and vegetables. There is a need to develop more number of cold storages systems. As installation cost and running cost of cold storages is very high it is not convenient for farmers to build up system by their own. Running cost can be reduced by developing solar powered cold storage systems, Instead of using grid power. This paper discussed different solar systems used for power generation for cold storages.

Introduction

Both developed and developing countries are increasingly using renewable energy, especially solar energy, to power various applications. For farmers, reducing post-harvest losses of fruits and vegetables is economically crucial, and cold storage is essential to maintain product quality during storage. However, traditional cold storage systems powered by the grid have high installation and running costs. While installation costs are fixed, running costs can be lowered by using renewable energy, particularly solar power.

Solar Photovoltaic (PV) Panels:
Solar PV panels convert sunlight into electricity to power cold storage systems, often supplemented by battery backups for nighttime and cloudy conditions. Various designs exist, such as Mishra et al.’s 10-ton solar-powered cold storage with IoT sensors maintaining temperature and humidity, reducing energy costs and post-harvest losses. Other systems integrate phase change materials (PCM) to store coolness and maintain temperature during non-sunlight hours. Vapor compression refrigeration systems powered by solar PV panels have been developed for stationary and mobile cold storage, proving cost-effective in running expenses despite higher installation costs. Innovations like DC inverter technology further improve economic feasibility.

Solar Collectors:
Solar thermal collectors (flat plate, evacuated tube, parabolic trough) provide heat to absorption refrigeration systems, which are often more cost-effective than PV systems as they do not require expensive batteries. Hybrid systems combining solar thermal collectors and PV panels can run absorption chillers for cold storage, reducing CO2 emissions significantly. Different collectors vary in cost and efficiency, with parabolic trough collectors being costlier but sometimes less efficient. Systems using solar dish collectors combined with PCM show promising cooling effects and energy storage capabilities. Other designs use ice thermal energy storage (ITES) or microencapsulated PCM to store cooling energy for night use, improving energy efficiency by about 30%. Integrated solar thermal and photovoltaic systems have been successfully used for large-scale cold storage of potatoes and other crops, showing considerable annual energy savings and stable temperature maintenance.

Conclusion

To reduce running cost of cold storage researchers used different solar collectors as thermal energy source to operate VAR system and produce refrigeration effect. Also some researchers used PV panels to generate electrical energy, battery bank was provided to store energy either direct energy produced during availability of sun was used to run system or in Night time or rainy days energy stored in battery bank was used. Further researchers increased efficiency of system by integrating system with different PCM. Which absorbs cooling energy during system working hours and released cooling energy during night time.

References

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Copyright

Copyright © 2025 Swejal Khemariya. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.