Aurore Bonny
December 20, 2019•Update: December 20, 2019
DOUALA, Cameroon
A 25-year-old Cameroonian has developed a special refrigerator that enables communities to light up without depending on electricity, charge mobile phones and, above all, store food and medicines.
According to Tchulang Kouogue Triomphant, it is a "very innovative" device that produces cold and energy at the same time 24 hours a day. It is special because it uses sunlight to operate without batteries.
"It is the first refrigerator model in the world that uses both photovoltaic and thermal energy. It also produces excess energy which is stored in small batteries that can be used to charge phones and provide light," Triomphant told Anadolu Agency.
Through this creation, he wants to achieve several sustainable development objectives, which notably include "No to poverty" by providing a reduction in costs that enables accessibility to all social strata.
They also include "zero hunger" and "good health and well-being" by allowing people in remote areas to preserve food for a long period of time as well as enabling better preservation of medicines and vaccines in remote or war zones.
The solar fridge was also aimed at addressing the need for "clean and affordable energy" and the fight against climate change.
"The lighting created via the solar fridge will [also] help achieve quality education by providing light to children in the villages. It will also now be possible to carry out normal vaccination campaigns, preserve food well and study with lighting without electricity," he said.
500 refrigerators in 15 new villages every year
According to the young engineer, supporting the war wounded will also be possible through transportable refrigeration models which preserve urgent medications. There will be no more risk of spoiled vaccines due to a lack of storage and no more worries about recurring power cuts or lack of electricity in the country.
Triomphant envisages the installation of 500 refrigerators in 15 new villages each year for an annual income of 25,000 U.S. dollars.
Still in the prototype and development research phase, the refrigerators will be marketed in the coming months, according to the promoter. The first prototype of the new fridge presented to Anadolu Agency was developed in 15 days in October 2019.
"It's a long process. We already have the advantage of reduced production costs thanks to the use of local materials. However, the business environment is not very flexible in Cameroon. There is a problem of financing, difficulties of access to energy, heavy taxes and customs difficulties to be noted. We also lack the molding and design industry necessary for certain production," he added.
The new model of solar fridge is an improvement from the first prototype Triomphant previously marketed.
When interviewed by Anadolu Agency in 2018, he described an initial model that was much less developed than the current one.
“The first refrigerator was purely thermal absorption of solar energy. It produced cold only at night and was very bulky. The refrigeration space was very small compared to the insulation, which was very large.”
On the other hand, "the new model today has evolved according to the framework of research and development. So it is deferred and is a double improvement of what had been done. It is more innovative because the thickness of the insulation is reduced.”
Triomphant’s innovation has won him several international awards. This has allowed him to enter important partnerships that are helping him to develop the project and make it more visible.
