Off grid PV-driven cooling for post-harvest crops in desert areas in Egypt

An off grid solar PV-driven system for precooling and storing post-harvest crops is proposed for desert agricultural areas in Egypt. For operation during night as well as days with low solar radiation, both thermal and electrical energy storage is considered. Previously existing parametric MS Excel-based models are further developed and integrated into a new model so as to be capable of simulating the operation of off grid PV-driven cold stores throughout the year in hourly steps. The weather data, cold store construction, stored crops properties, and a crops loading/unloading scenario are inputted to the developed model. The cooling load time series is accordingly calculated. Based on the inputted parameters of the system components the operation is simulated and the technical feasibility is assessed. The economic feasibility is assessed in comparison with a diesel-powered reference system for different scenarios of subsidy removal of diesel in Egypt.