Cooling as a Service (CaaS) LAB INSTRUMENT ANALYSIS—INDIA REPLICATION

The report proposes a 'Cooling as a Service' (CaaS) model to increase smallholder farmer incomes in India by providing pay-as-you-go access to decentralized, clean-energy cold storage. This model, supported by the 'Your Virtual Cold Chain Assistant' (VCCA) mobile app, aims to reduce food waste and allow farmers to sell produce during high-price windows. Financial modeling for apple farmers in Himachal Pradesh suggests that CaaS can increase farmer incomes by 36% and provide project internal rates of return (IRR) exceeding 22.5%. The initiative targets the mobilization of USD 200 million and the benefit of 1.5 million farmers by the replication phase.

• India's existing cold storage infrastructure is insufficient for smallholder farmers because it is dominated by large-scale, centrally-located facilities, with potato storage alone utilizing 70% of the capacity.
• The CaaS model removes the barrier of high upfront capital costs by allowing farmers to pay for cold storage on a pay-as-you-go basis, charging per kg-day of stored commodities.
• The 'Your Virtual Cold Chain Assistant' (VCCA) app uses machine-learning and physics-based models to predict crop shelf life and provide pricing analytics to help farmers optimize when and where to sell produce.
• Financial modeling for apple farmers in Himachal Pradesh indicates that using cold storage can increase effective farmer income per acre from INR 240,000 to INR 326,800, representing a 36% increase.
• Project-level financial analysis suggests that cold room providers can achieve a Project IRR of 22.5% and an Equity IRR of 31.1%, with returns increasing to an Equity IRR of 43.2% if the provider is also the manufacturer.
• The initiative plans to scale from a pilot phase (2021-22) to a replication phase (2025 and beyond), aiming to benefit 1.5 million farmers, abate 100,000 MTCO2e, and mobilize USD 200 million in capital.

APA

Singh, D. (2021). Cooling as a Service (CaaS) LAB INSTRUMENT ANALYSIS—INDIA REPLICATION. Climate Policy Initiative. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Instrument-Analysis-Report_CaaS.pdf

Chicago

Singh, Divjot. Cooling as a Service (CaaS) LAB INSTRUMENT ANALYSIS—INDIA REPLICATION. Climate Policy Initiative, 2021. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Instrument-Analysis-Report_CaaS.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Singh |first1=Divjot |title=Cooling as a Service (CaaS) LAB INSTRUMENT ANALYSIS—INDIA REPLICATION |publisher=Climate Policy Initiative |date=October 2021 |url=https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Instrument-Analysis-Report_CaaS.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{singh2021cooling, author = {Singh, Divjot}, title = {{Cooling as a Service (CaaS) LAB INSTRUMENT ANALYSIS—INDIA REPLICATION}}, institution = {Climate Policy Initiative}, year = {2021}, month = oct, url = {https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Instrument-Analysis-Report_CaaS.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }