Solar Cooler

The Situation

Almost 1 billion people are living in extremely poor conditions in rural areas of the world. They are engaged in agricultural activities, but a lack of knowledge around post-harvest practices, combined with poor infrastructure and no storage facilities results in at least 40% waste in the fresh food supply in developing countries. Cold storage chains for dairy products in rural areas could have a tremendously positive effect on the income of small farmers in developing countries. As it stands now, they milk their herds twice a day and often the evening milk is lost because it spoils by morning, when the farmer is first able to take the milk to a collection point. The challenge: develop a cooling solution for the evening milk of the farmers.

The Solar Cooler

Collaborating with some of our valued partners, Mueller developed the Solar Cooler: an off-grid milk cooler for churns, that runs on solar power. The cooling unit enables producers to cool down up to 240 liters of their fresh milk to the desired temperature. This preserves the quality of the dairy for the consumers, means less dairy waste and an increase in income for the farmer.