Growing up under the care of his grandmother in rural eastern Kenya, Dysmus Kisilu saw how hard farmers worked - and, often, how little they earned.
Even today, when the potato harvest comes in each year, a 90-kilogram sack sells for just 2,000 Kenyan shillings in the local market, as supplies soar, he said.
His Solar Freeze technology lets farmers pay a small daily fee to put their crops into cold storage until prices rise, boosting their incomes and cutting food waste, an important contributor to global warming. His technology has enabled small businesses in remote areas to access affordable power, said John Njogu, of Dutch development organisation SNV, which is using Kisilu's techology at Kakuma, Kenya's oldest refugee camp.Kisilu's innovation got its start as he studied renewable energy technologies during his university degree.
The young businessman's father, dubious about his well-educated son becoming a struggling entrepreneur rather than taking a steady job with a multinational firm, handed him the newspaper job ads.But a second, freezer-chest-sized solar cooler he had also developed - intended for sale, rather than to provide cooling services for a charge - soon began to take off, particularly as the COVID-19 pandemic emerged.
He's had inquiries as well from coastal fishing communities as far away as Somalia, looking to keep their fish fresh, and agricultural exporters from Nigeria.While setting up the solar coolers, Kisilu noticed young people crowding around to watch - and began thinking about how jobs for young people and skilled workers to scale up solar expansion in Africa were both in short supply.
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