Starter Kit. Idea 412 of 500. Cluster 21
Solar-powered cold rooms for the fishing harbours and the farms
The mechanism, from the book
The sun shines on every roof and the island imports its fuel.
The first step
Spend a morning at the nearest fishing harbour when the boats land, and ask the boat owners and the buyers how much catch is sold cheap or thrown away because there is nowhere cold to hold it. Ask three of them what they would pay per crate per night to store fish until the price recovers. Come back with a daily price and the names of those who would rent space first.
- Who pays first
- A boat owner or fish buyer at the harbour who currently sells at the landing price because the catch cannot wait for a better one.
- What leaves today
- Catch and harvest sold at glut prices, or left to spoil, is value lost before it can be graded, packed or exported; cold storage keeps it.
Ask first
- Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources. Ask what rules apply to cold storage at fishing harbours.
- Sustainable Energy Authority. Ask whether support exists for solar-powered cold storage.
Check before you spend
Permission for a site at the harbour, food safety rules for stored fish, and who insures the catch if the cold room fails.
Find out these three numbers
- How much catch is sold cheap for lack of cold storage?
- What will owners pay per crate per night?
- What does a solar cold room cost installed?
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
From the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? by Dr Maheshika Halbeisen. The idea and the mechanism are the book's; this kit was written for the site.