Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments xxx (2017) xxx–xxx

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Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/seta

Original article

Innovative energy solutions for improving food preservation in

humanitarian contexts: A case study from informal refugees settlements
in Lebanon
Niccolò Aste a,**, Jacopo Barbieri b,⇑, Alberto Berizzi b, Emanuela Colombo b, Claudio del Pero a,
Fabrizio Leonforte a, Marco Merlo b, Fabio Riva b
a
Department of Architecture, Built Environment and Construction Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy
b
Department of Energy, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The paper describes some of the outcomes from the research and cooperation project SET4food
Received 29 September 2016 (Sustainable Energy Technologies for food utilization), which main goal was to improve food security
Revised 30 January 2017 to refugees in camps and informal settlements, focusing on food utilization. Within the project, pilots
Accepted 9 February 2017
have been developed and monitored in different countries, to test a number of energy technologies,
Available online xxxx
mainly related to cooking and food preservation.
In particular, the paper focuses on one of the case studies, considering the methodological and techno-
Keywords:
logical innovations put in place in two different informal settlements in Lebanon to improve living con-
Food preservation
Humanitarian
ditions of refugees (mainly coming from Syria). The case study is presented from the design to the
Refugees implementation phase, to the results of the monitoring that can highlight challenges, strengths, and
Energy-food nexus weaknesses of each adopted solution.
The aim of the work is indeed to increase the scientific knowledge on such topic, based on qualitative
and quantitative data collected in the field. The results and lessons learnt presented on the paper are
likely to provide the basis for more effective technological implementations in humanitarian contexts.
Ó 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Introduction
According to UNHCR, by the end of 2014 in the world there
were about 20 million refugees, 38 million internally displaced
persons (IDPs), and 1.8 million asylum-seekers [1]. Their number
progressively increased during the last years. Such people show
several needs, especially in terms of food security [2]. In the speci-
fic context of humanitarian emergencies, however, food security is
strictly related to energy. In fact, energy plays a central role to
guarantee safe and secure access to food, and its proper utilization.
According to OCHA (Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs) [3]: ‘‘Energy insecurity may also drive food insecurity.
Without access to a predictable energy supply, communities that
are not food insecure may become so, and those who are already
food-insecure may become even more vulnerable. There can be
no food security for communities without reliable access to a fuel
⇑ Corresponding author at: via Lambruschini 4, 21056 Milan, Italy.
E-mail address: jacopo.barbieri@polimi.it (J. Barbieri).
**
Authors in alphabetical order.
source for heating and cooking”. Energy is also fundamental to pro-
vide safe and reliable access to water, as well as for water purifica-
tion. Moreover, access to energy is also related to five more general
key challenges in humanitarian contexts: ‘‘protection, relations
between hosts and displaced people, environmental problems,
household energy-related natural resource restrictions and
livelihood-related challenges” [4]. Indeed, if people living in camps,
and similarly in informal settlements, are provided with appropri-
ate energy services, they may access to a wide range of opportuni-
ties to change their condition, and conduct a more productive and
active life [5]. Despite the central role of energy in such a context,
several gaps are still present in humanitarian response for provid-
ing displaced people with an adequate access, and very few studies
exist on the matter, especially regarding technologies for food uti-
lization other than improved stoves [6]. As a matter of facts, very
few displaced people have access to modern forms of energy,
which makes their practices unsustainable, with high average
household costs per year and disproportionate CO2 emission com-
pared to quantity and quality of final energy consumption [7].
Therefore, a gap in giving the right importance to energy access

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.seta.2017.02.009
2213-1388/Ó 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Please cite this article in press as: Aste N et al. Innovative energy solutions for improving food preservation in humanitarian contexts: A case study from
informal refugees settlements in Lebanon. Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.seta.2017.02.009
2 N. Aste et al. / Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments xxx (2017) xxx–xxx
– in particular in linking relief, rehabilitation and development – is
evidenced.
In such regard, in recent years several pilot projects focused on
the utilization of energy-efficient equipment or renewable energy
in refugee camps [8]. However, such projects often failed for sev-
eral reasons: in many cases they did not properly consider local
socio-cultural conditions, habits or market structures [7]. In other
cases, successful pilot projects have not been scaled up because
funds have run out. Others have stalled due to a lack in the engage-
ment of the local community, which is often essential to ensure
acceptability and the effective management and maintenance of
new technologies. In addition, the quality of the evaluation work
was usually weak. The focus has tended to be on how many pieces
of a certain equipment were distributed rather than whether the
equipment was successful in establishing sustainable energy
systems.
More in detail, some representative examples of failures or poor
outcomes can be reported. For example, in Kutupalong refugee
camp in Bangladesh, compressed rice husks (CRH) were distributed
as a cooking fuel, but after a reduction in the quantity provided due
to a shortage, refugees returned to use firewood. In Nakivale camp
in Uganda, UNHCR lead the distribution of several types of cooking
stoves. Although the acceptance among local users was on average
good, most of beneficiaries tended to sell these stoves to the host
community rather than use them in their homes. Such results gave
evidence to the need for continued and effective sensitization and
training for refugees in order to get them used and comfortable
with the technology [9]. In 2008, the organization International
Lifeline Fund (ILF) began to distribute fuel-save-stove to refugees
living in the Ifo and Hagadera camps in Dadaab. Unfortunately, lack
of security in such camps affected negatively the activity of train-
ings and monitoring thus impacting on the outcomes of the whole
project [10]. In 2012 the Moving Energy Initiative (MEI) survey in
Goudoubo, Burkina Faso showed that only 1% of the surveyed ben-
eficiaries really adopted a solar cooker, which however was typi-
cally used just as a secondary cooking stove [11]. In Haiti, during
the humanitarian response to the 2012 earthquake, several inter-
national organizations decided to collaborate to produce a show-
case for renewable energy supply in displaced contexts. In this
framework, the consortium installed a biogas system and a mini-
grid system to provide street lighting in Santo 17, a relocation
camp in Haiti hosting 358 families. The systems consisted of five
bio digesters and a mini-grid with photovoltaic panels and batter-
ies, to provide energy for street lights. However, the project fell
into disarray due to poor planning of accountability structures,
inadequate assessment of the socio-cultural context and technical
failures. The bio digesters never functioned properly, and the street
lights stopped to work after a few months [5]. In Somalia, instead,
the use of biogas for cooking was rejected by groups of refugees
because they were not feeling comfortable using energy produced
from human waste [7,11]. In Sag-Nioniogo, Burkina Faso, solar
cookers and solar lanterns were distributed, and the construction
of mud stoves was introduced. In this case, while the cookers were
well accepted, the mud stoves were considered too cumbersome
and not durable during the rainy season [7]. In 2013, a natural
gas project was developed to cover 2500 households (10,000 refu-
gees) in Abala in Niger. However, although this project is generally
considered as a successful initiative which reduced the impact on
the environment, 40% of targeted population has continued to
use wood for cooking [7]. In the same year, in the framework of
the project Atmosfair, improved cooking stoves were provided to
3930 refugees in Kigeme, Rwanda. Although the new stove was
using 80% less wood to achieve the same performance compared
to a traditional three-stone fire, survey results have shown that
only 30% of users adopted such technology [12,13]. On the con-
trary, in 2014 UNHCR introduced improved energy-saving stoves
Please cite this article in press as: Aste N et al. Innovative energy solutions for improving food preservation in humanitarian contexts: A case study from
informal refugees settlements in Lebanon. Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.seta.2017.02.009
in Emkulu (Eritrea) with a good level of acceptance by the refugees.
However, there were difficulties to find further funding to continue
the project since the initial donor chose to support non-energy pro-
jects rather than continue with the same pilot. In the same way, in
2015, improved shelters including solar panels to provide energy
to power lights and charge phones were installed in Kawergosk
(Iraq); however, a lack of funds prevented an extension of the pilot
phase [7].
The previous examples give clear evidence on how a number of
different issues can threat the introduction of energy-efficient
technologies in humanitarian contexts. In this framework, specific
actions are needed to overcome the described barriers and prob-
lems, with the main objective of improving food utilization in
humanitarian contexts. To this end, the present research work
aims at describing some of the main outcomes from the SET4Food
(Sustainable Energy Technologies for food utilization) project [14],
which aimed at enhancing the knowledge on different energy-
related technologies for the preparation and conservation of food
in humanitarian contexts. The project was carried out by a consor-
tium that included COOPI-COOPERAZIONE INTERNAZIONALE,
Politecnico di Milano and Fondazione Politecnico di Milano, and
has been financed by the EU DG ECHO. Different case studies were
developed in Lebanon, Haiti, Central Africa Republic and Somalia,
to test innovative energy solutions in different refugee camps
and informal settlements, to improve food security, and in partic-
ular food utilization. More specifically, the work focuses on the
case of Lebanon, considering the methodological and technological
innovations put in place in two different informal settlements of
refugees mainly coming from Syria. The case study is presented
from the design to the implementation phase, to the results of
the monitoring that helped to highlight challenges, strengths,
and weaknesses of tested solution. The aim of the work is indeed
to increase the scientific knowledge on such topic, based on qual-
itative and quantitative data collected in the field. The results and
lessons learnt presented on the paper are likely to provide the basis
for more effective technological implementations in humanitarian
contexts.
Methodology
Existing methodologies to support local access to energy ser-
vices in developing countries usually aim at [15]: (a) supplying
people with electricity through off- and on-grid solutions (electrifi-
cation); (b) developing Integrated Energy Centers, which provide
various energy carriers in bulk for further retail to small house-
holds; (c) providing unplanned energy supply systems, such as local
firewood markets to meet households’ cooking needs; (d) imple-
menting isolated energy carrier/technology programs to enhance
the spread of improved energy technologies, e.g. standalone elec-
tric systems, biogas programs, improved cooking stoves, LPG sub-
sidy programs. The International Energy Agency (IEA) [16]
introduced the Advanced Local Energy Planning (ALEP), which con-
sists of six phases: (i) preparation, which is mainly the analysis of
the stakeholders and the current energy situation of the target
community; (ii) orientation, where the main issues related of exist-
ing energy systems are formulated, objectives of the planning pro-
cess are set, and system boundaries and socio-economic
framework are defined in parallel with the energy scenarios and
strategies; (iii) main study, which consists of a comprehensive anal-
ysis of the future energy system, especially considering the design
phase; (iv) evaluation and decision making, that is an assessment
and a ranking of the solutions identified before, and the adoption
of the eventual strategy; (iv) implementation and realization of
the chosen solution; (v) supervision and monitoring of the imple-
mented action planning. In the framework of sustainable energy
 N. Aste et al. / Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments xxx (2017) xxx–xxx 3

planning, some shortcomings were observed in few studies which

analysed rural energy systems with the aim of providing reliable
data for planning and modelling [17–19]. It mainly results that
usually the planning process does not properly take into account
the sustainability of the energy system, and published studies
rarely quantify the energy load at a sufficiently detailed level,
which is an essential input for modelling. Nissing et al. [19] sug-
gested to introduce more activities in third phase of the ALEP, such
as the identification and prioritization of the energy services
demanded according to energy drivers (viz. cooking, lighting, run-
ning appliances, water heating [20]), the local energy resource
assessment with focus on renewable energy sources, the setup,
control and adaptation of the energy services supply network sys-
tem. Based on the ALEP method and Nissing’s contribution, we for-
malized a more comprehensive methodology for energy
technologies selection planning, here adopted for choosing and
implementing technological innovations in the Lebanese camp
within the SET4Food project, which was also applied in the pilot
projects put in place in the other countries. The idea at the basis
of the methodology described hereafter is that innovative solutions
can come out from a process based on cross fertilisation and a mul-
tidisciplinary approach. Moreover, we introduced some concepts of
‘‘sustainability” (viz. more attention on people’s priorities and the
introduction of the capacity building phase) and a more careful
focus on the evaluation on the required energy demand. In such
framework, the core concept of innovation regards any adaptation,
improvement, or change that can be identified within the goal of
increasing the efficiency of the implemented actions. The idea is
therefore to identify a new solution able to meet a specific local
need in a more efficient way. In this acceptation, thus, also new
standards or business models can be considered as ‘‘innovation”.
Moreover, the methodology is people-centred, meaning that inno-
vation is motivated and promoted by the final user’s need, and
aims at providing humanitarian actors with a structured procedure Fig. 1. Adaptation/Innovation of Technology selection planning.
for selecting and introducing appropriate and innovative energy
technologies for food utilization. The methodology is based on actions, namely: (i) collection of the experience from local COOPI
the following premises: staff, which has a deep knowledge of the needs and dynamics of
Syrian refugees thanks to its long-standing work experience in
- in different contexts, a number of different innovative solutions the local context, including contacts with the refugees on a daily
can arise, since local needs drive the selection; basis; (ii) direct observation of the selected areas of intervention,
- for the same context, solutions selected by different teams of also guided by a questionnaire focusing on key technical informa-
professionals can differ, since innovation is a creative process, tion provided by researchers from Politecnico di Milano; (iii) semi-
which involves people with different background, ideas and structured interviews to potential beneficiaries, carried out by local
opinions: diversity, like in many other fields, is a positive ingre- staff, which speak the same language of the refugees, in order to
dient to make better decisions; avoid the necessity of a translator. Therefore, information collected
- different time constraints may also lead to different solutions, through the three different approaches is complementary, and can
since the process may require time to give best results, but, be put together in a second phase. At the same time, the fact of
on the other hand, time is often a scarce resource in humanitar- having three different sources of information permits a triangula-
ian situations. tion of information to detect and reduce possible biases due to
the presence of an interviewer, and to also collect information
Given the previous preliminary considerations, the methodol- which would not be directly provided by the beneficiaries, as it
ogy developed in the framework of SET4Food project may be sum- relates to illegal actions (e.g. unofficial connection to the electric
marized by the following steps (Fig. 1): grid). An in-depth review of the information collected allows get-
Priorities identification ting a first assessment about living conditions, priorities, chal-
lenges, barriers and needs regarding food security in the
a) this phase is necessary to identify the needs and define the humanitarian context, and setting the main goals of the
priorities in the area of intervention. Priorities have to be intervention.
identified according to the needs of the local community in
terms of: b) Analysis – during the analysis phase, the energy demand is
a. basic households needs; evaluated in accordance with the needs: the calculation of
b. community services; water and food consumptions defines the overall load that
c. productive activities. the energy solutions have to meet. It is important to conduct
a baseline assessment to identify the local institutional
Identified priorities show the path to implementers (here, framework and all the stakeholders involved. Any constraint
Politecnico di Milano and COOPI) to start a further and deeper or vinculum given by the specific characteristic of the settle-
phase of data collection. This phase is carried out through different ment is taken into consideration since this kind of elements

Please cite this article in press as: Aste N et al. Innovative energy solutions for improving food preservation in humanitarian contexts: A case study from
informal refugees settlements in Lebanon. Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.seta.2017.02.009
4 N. Aste et al. / Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments xxx (2017) xxx–xxx
strongly influences the design of the solution (household-
based and community-based solutions). This phase leads to
define the amount and kind of energy, which is required to
satisfy the needs, and to identify the constraints that the
technological solution have to meet and respect. Such phase
is supported by the analysis of the resources availability in
terms of amount of solar irradiation, wind speed and fre-
quency of the prevailing wind. Such analysis should be car-
ried out preferably in accordance with on-field data
collection, otherwise in accordance with selected weather
data generated from an appropriatedata bank.
c) Strategy selection – within this phase, the selection of the
intervention strategy is undertaken, keeping in mind the
information gathered in the previous phases. The strategy
selection considers the identification of the main macro-
area of intervention – viz. cooking, food preservation, power
generation, water supply and water treatment – and a possi-
ble ranking of feasible alternatives, based on technological,
economic, social and environmental aspects, and budget.
This phase leads to selecting the strategy of intervention
by coupling the most appropriate technologies with the local
needs.
d) Selection of technologies and innovation – In this phase, the
most appropriate technologies are selected, based on the
information collected during the previous ones. A process
of adaptation can be undertaken, in order to investigate
whether the current technology may be easily modified to
better match with local needs and habits. This phase leads
to the final choice of the most appropriate technologies.
e) Capacity Building – Finally, the installation of a defined tech-
nology is not sufficient without a proper tutoring to the final
users in order to promote an effective use of the device. Such a
task requires a close interaction between local tutors and
final users: the first have to evaluate the local habits and
the requirements identified in the first step, and the latter
have to learn and correctly follow the technology capabilities.
However, it is worth to note that in informal settlement the
field scenario is very dynamic and unpredictable, and the goal
is to support as much as possible the local population. Daily
habits are quickly changing as a consequence of the critical
living conditions of the people, who try to find out feasible
and affordable solutions to put up their needs day by day.
In the SET4Food project, the main discriminating factors that
have led to innovation, in accordance with this methodology, have
been the following:
 the multidisciplinary approach and the cooperation between
different stakeholders with different skills and scientific
backgrounds;
 sound attention to the local framework (priorities, need, and
constraints).
In particular, the synergy between the Department of Energy and
the Department of Architecture, Built environment and Construction
engineering of Politecnico di Milano, and the staff of COOPI – COOP-
ERAZIONE INTERNAZIONALE, made it possible to share different
ideas and points of view, mainly due to a different approach to
the same problem, as well as to different technical backgrounds
and competences.
Case studies
The previously described methodology has been applied in two
informal settlements in Lebanon, characterized by different needs
Please cite this article in press as: Aste N et al. Innovative energy solutions for improving food preservation in humanitarian contexts: A case study from
informal refugees settlements in Lebanon. Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.seta.2017.02.009
and constrains. In this regard, before selecting a specific technol-
ogy, the social and environmental conditions of the settlements
have been investigated to understand, for each type of candidate
action, its social acceptability and efficiency. In the following sec-
tions, the analysis of the settlements and the designed innovative
solutions are described.
Case A: Informal settlement in a community building
The first case study concerns innovative solutions applied to an
informal settlement in an unfinished shopping centre (Fig. 2),
placed in a peri-urban area. The building is 4 floors high and has
about 60 commercial spaces, with courtyard and common spaces.
The building was occupied since 1999 by some Syrians who were
working in the construction of the building. At the time of the pro-
ject, in the building were living about 134 families (670 people),
who were paying a regular rent.
The priorities identification and analysis phases allowed to get a
first assessment about living conditions, priorities, challenges, bar-
riers and needs of the community. The information collected by
local staff of the NGO has shown that the main need of the refugees
consisted in providing energy for lighting and also to increase the
shelf life of fresh food. Indeed, electricity was only supplied for few
hours per day and did not reach all the households. On top of that,
electricity was provided by unofficial connections to the electric
system (causing unsafe exploitation of electricity). Moreover, since
people were forced to eat mainly dried food, they were not familiar
with refrigeration systems, also because classical refrigerators
available in the market are not suitable and result oversized com-
pared to their needs. For such reasons, more appropriate solutions
for providing people with electricity and food preservation systems
were required. Table 1 reports the collected information and the
identified needs and constraints.
Following the diagnosis phase, based on people’s needs, food
preservation and power generation emerged as the main two
macro-areas of intervention. Regarding food preservation, the
ranking of possible solutions considered communitarian fridges
at the top, and small systems with lower storage capacity at the
bottom, due to their lower efficiency and higher specific cost when
compared with bigger components. For this reason, seven multi-
compartment vapour-compressor refrigerators were proposed.
More in detail, each refrigerator is specifically characterized by a
global capacity of 700 L and is divided in 8 independent compart-
ments of about 90 L. Each compartment, assigned to a single fam-
ily, is lockable with a personal key. The community refrigerators
have been placed in common spaces in the building, and were
Fig. 2. View of the shopping centre courtyard.
 N. Aste et al. / Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments xxx (2017) xxx–xxx 5

Table 1
Results of the Priorities identification and Diagnosis phase of the methodology for case A

Settlement Electric power Food preservation

- TYPE: Informal settlement
- STRUCTURE: Tents made of timber, plywood, and plastic/
metallic sheets and a cement structure of 4 floors
- RESOURCES: High solar potential (from 2.5 to 8 kWh/
m2/day); High wind potential, particularly on the roof of
the building; Moderate climate conditions (from 10 to
25 °C)
- NEED: people need electricity for lighting, exter-
nal night lighting, light up the common court-
yard and staircases, charging mobile phones
- TECHNOLOGY: Grid connection
- AVAILABILITY: Illegal connection for 6 h a day for
the tents; legal connection for 6 h a day for peo-
ple who live in the building
- CONSTRAINTS: community and sharing solutions
are accepted by people who live in the building
and in some tents
- NEED: to increase the number of people
with the possibility to preserve fresh
food
- FACILITIES USED: None
- TYPE OF FOOD: dry and fresh food
- CONSTRAINTS: community and sharing
solutions are accepted by people who
live in the building and in some tents

designed to work in discontinuous power supply conditions, by
integrating eutectic plates of about 870 Wh, which extend the
thermal capacity of the system of about 10 h (considering a differ-
ence between external and internal temperature of 22 °C). Every
refrigerator was designed to have a power absorption of 350 W,
and a maximum power consumption in standard testing
conditions of 3600 Wh/day. The use of a community approach
(big refrigerators where different people has access to different
compartments) is particularly efficient from an energy point of
view and simplifies the operation and maintenance of the system.
As per electricity supply, due to the weakness of the grid, a
stand-alone power system was the unique possible option. We
proposed an initial system design based on 12 photovoltaic panels
(260 W each one, totally 3.1 kW), which was later expanded up to
6.1 kW, a 2.5 kW wind turbine, a 40 kWh battery bank, charge con-
trollers, inverters, isolators, circuit breakers and other devices for
system security and users’ safety. The inverter and its control
allowed a sensible management of the loads according with two
priority levels: the primary loads (i.e. the fridges) were always
powered, while the auxiliary loads (e.g. lighting, ICT, pumping,
etc.) were powered only when the battery level was sufficient (this
was controlled by setting a threshold – see Fig. 3). Actually, during
the implementation, some problems arose due to difficult commu-
nication of the monitoring system, such that recorded data were
inconsistent and incomplete. Moreover, additional unexpected
loads were directly connected to the system, as described in the
next section.
This solution has been considered since the productivity of
the wind turbine was in practice unknown at the time of the
system design (within the project there was no room for an
anemometric metering campaign, and no similar wind turbine
was already installed in the area). Therefore, the PV sizing has
been initially carried out in order to assure power to the fridges
only, while the extra energy coming from the wind would
possibly support the PV, permitting to supply power also to
auxiliary loads.
The combination of primary sources (sun, wind) and the pres-
ence of the storage systems makes it possible to supply the system
based on renewables only, thus avoiding the use of diesel genera-
tors and the need of fuel. In other words, once the system has been
put in operation, there is no need to share further operating other
costs among users, and, from a more environmental point of view,
the system benefits from not using any fossil fuel. These were the
main motivations in the design phase. Obviously, the presence of
the storage system is paramount, as it allows supply of loads in
case of shortage of wind or during nights or cloudy days. It is worth
noticing that the system can be upgraded easily in case of need: PV
panels and storage modules can be added in order to make the sys-
tem flexible and able to face increased load and new conditions of
refugees’ requirements.
Microgrid deployment has been commissioned to local techni-
cians, pretending them (as a contract based payed service) to cover
also the microgrid maintenance, despite the criticalities in identi-
fying reliable technicians to manage these activities in informal
settlements. In the project, two public tenders have been arranged,
exploiting the local connection available thanks to COOPI experi-
ence in the area, in order to identify reliable local partners – an
activity that resulted particularly critical. The total cost of the

Fig. 3. Microgrid diagram.

Please cite this article in press as: Aste N et al. Innovative energy solutions for improving food preservation in humanitarian contexts: A case study from
informal refugees settlements in Lebanon. Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.seta.2017.02.009
6 N. Aste et al. / Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments xxx (2017) xxx–xxx
microgrid with the refrigerator apparatuses required an invest-
ment of roughly 78710 US$.
A real-time monitoring system was implemented in order to
collect data about power generation and consumption, and sharing
them online through a dedicated web platform. The monitoring
system was very important because it allowed understanding the
technical performances as well as the level of success of the initia-
tive in terms of acceptability and proper utilization of the system
from the refugees. In fact, from the technical point of view, given
the uncertainty on the quality of the components of the electrical
system put in operation, a monitoring system makes it possible
to identify in time design errors, installation mistakes, misuses of
the electrical system. Moreover, it shows eventual room for possi-
ble improvements based on the actual use of electricity, which
might be different from expected patterns. On the other hand, as
per acceptability and correct utilization of the system, unexpected
load patterns might be evident and suggest the best countermea-
sures either on users’ habits or on the design of the electric system.
In the case of the microgrid put in place in Lebanon, some meters
were installed to measure the PV output and the wind output sep-
arately, as well as the energy consumed by refrigerators (see
Fig. 3). Moreover, the state of the storage system was also moni-
tored, in order to use the battery system in a coordinated and opti-
mized manner. In particular, the State of Charge (SOC) and the
voltage were measured and monitored (data samples were col-
lected each 15 min, managed in a local memory for one single
day and, eventually, stored in the datalog memory as hourly
samples).
It is worthwhile to highlight how the system is based on a
hybrid storage solution, i.e. the electric microgrid was designed
with a 40 kWh electric storage and each refrigerator was designed
with a thermal storage apparatus (eutectic plates of about
870 Wh). This solution was supposed to increase the reliability of
the application.
Case B: Informal settlement in other building
The second informal settlement, in which innovative solutions
were introduced, is placed in a rural area of Lebanon and, at the
Fig. 4. Sample of hollow block building in Case B.
Please cite this article in press as: Aste N et al. Innovative energy solutions for improving food preservation in humanitarian contexts: A case study from
informal refugees settlements in Lebanon. Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.seta.2017.02.009
time of the project, was occupied by 82 Syrian refugees. Refugees
were living in shelters and uncompleted buildings made of hollow
block (Fig. 4), paying a regular rent.
The preliminary analysis showed a lack in food preservation
capacity, illegal connection to the grid, and utilization of private
generators in order to provide energy for lighting needs. Table 2
reports the collected information based on the priorities identifica-
tion and diagnosis phases. Food preservation and power generation
emerged as the two main macro-areas of intervention.
In that respect, during the diagnosis phase we identified stan-
dalone solutions as the most appropriate technologies for this set-
tlement. In fact, community-based options, especially for food
preservation, resulted to be not appreciated by people due to their
different social conditions and habits. For the electric supply, the
low electric loads made small standalone system more suitable
than distributed generation options. The solution finally proposed
consists in a movable standalone system supplied by PV panels
(total 200 W) and a battery for each family, to provide electricity
for a thermoelectric refrigerator and artificial lighting. More in
detail, the electrical system is composed by 2 photovoltaic panels
(100 W each one), a 100 Ah@12 V battery, charge controller and
a fuse for system’s and users’ safety. Devices and fittings can be
easily removed, transported and re-installed somewhere else. The
system powers 4 LED lights (5 W each one) for indoor and outdoor
lights, and a thermoelectric refrigerator with a 24 L capacity with
an absorption of 50 W and a daily consumption lower than 180
Wh/day. Thermoelectric refrigerator technology was considered
as the most suitable solution for the considered settlement, since
it is characterized by small size, low maintenance and great dura-
bility due to the absence of moving parts subject to wear.
The whole system is quite easy to be removed, transported and
re-installed in a different place. The chosen lights and refrigerators
are not very energy-demanding and can be effectively used even
with cloudy weather. Lights improve quality of life, increasing and
supporting activities in the evening and night (e.g. study, breast-
feeding, housekeeping), and giving an improved perception of
safety. The refrigerator improves food preservation, saving money.
Moreover, some households consider the food safer and healthier
to consume.
In this case, from the energy point of view, the particular appli-
cation was not suitable for a monitoring system: the components
are very small and each device is coupled to its own supply system,
thus making a monitoring system almost useless. Moreover, the
small energy system have to be movable with the tents and there-
fore, it would have been meaningless to design a specific monitor-
ing system in order to get information not necessary to improve
the efficiency and performances of the overall system.
Finally, such a standalone system is asked to be reasonably
cheap, consequently, no monitoring architecture was adopted. In
order to evaluate the effective operation of the solutions, very sim-
ple local meters were adopted, reporting just the total amount of
energy managed by the electric plant from the activation time.
It is worth to notice that the absence of the monitoring system
made it impossible to constantly monitor in a quantitative manner
the success of the initiative, as we are not able to follow devices for
the future neither to monitor their efficiency. That is why, in the
following section, only the performance results of Case A are
described.
Results and discussion
In this section the main performance of the designed solutions,
as well as the social impact of initiative on the refugee are shown,
based on the qualitative and quantitative data collected on the
field after the implementation of the innovative energy solutions.
 N. Aste et al. / Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments xxx (2017) xxx–xxx 7

Table 2
Results of the priorities identification and diagnosis phase of the methodology for case B

Settlement Electric power Food preservation

- TYPE: Informal settlement
- STRUCTURE: Settlements made of some hollow blocks
and plastic sheets on roofs
- RESOURCES: High solar potential (from 2.5 to 8 kWh/
m2/day); High wind potential, particularly on the roof
of the building; Moderate climate conditions (from 10
to 25 °C)
- NEEDS: lighting, charging phones, some TVs
- TECHNOLOGY: Grid and Diesel generators
- AVAILABILITY: Legal connection for 6 h a day
- CONSTRAINS: movability of refugee
- NEED: to increase the number of people with
the possibility to preserve fresh food
- FACILITIES USED: None
- TYPE OF FOOD: dry
- CONSTRAINTS: movability of refugee

Performances, monitoring and implementations of the systems
Performance analysis
The supply and installation of the solution designed for case
study A, were carried out by a local contractor by mean of detailed
specifications about the minimum requirements that the system
must fulfil in terms of performance. However, a preliminary mon-
itoring had shown that most of the installed devices did not satisfy
the requirements.
In fact, as reported in Fig. 5, the hybrid system was not able to
feed continuously the refrigerators, which internal temperature
was suddenly increasing from the set point (4 °C) to 14 °C during
the night.
The fault of the system is due to the fact that:
 the thermal insulation used in the refrigerators is not enough to
allow an energy consumption lower than 3600 Wh;
 the used eutectic plates did not have the desired capacity.
Such kind of problem led to a higher consumption of the refrig-
erators that, thus, required a greater amount of energy than
expected.
The discontinuous supply of load can be explained as follows: as
it is well known, the main problem of isolated systems is to keep
the balance of generated and consumed power. The system was
characterized by a total consumptions higher than expected
(design data), with the consequent difficulty in providing the
power necessary to keep power balance. The reason is that not only
refrigerators were actually supplied (showing, at any rate, an
energy need significantly higher than the design value): often,
refugees misused the system by connecting improperly a set of
other electrical devices (e.g., lighting) by means of temporary
(and not safe!) connections to the system. The result was that
the system experienced often blackouts and shortages due to the
excessive load compared to the available generated power.
Power imbalance can also be explained by other factors, as it is
well known that PV panel efficiency decreases when the tempera-
ture raises, thus reducing the PV output during hot days (this was
known and somehow taken into account in the microgrid design).
Moreover, the wind power generation has been very low since the
beginning (400–600 W versus a rated power 2.5 kW), due to many
reasons: the technology adopted, integration problems with the
microgrid controller with PV panels and storage system, and, of
course, the primary resource availability, which was roughly esti-
mated initially due to incomplete information on wind. Wind con-
ditions were almost totally unknown during the design stage, thus
making very difficult to forecast the contribution of the wind tur-
bine. After the wind turbine deployment, samples of generated
power and samples of wind speed were collected and compared,
depicting high discrepancy with respect to nominal performances.
Several checks, controls, replacements were carried out involving
the local contractor: unfortunately such actions resulted ineffec-
tive (just minor improvements were obtained).
Finally, it is worth noticing that unexpected operating condi-
tions often resulted in shortage of supply and blackouts, thus mak-
ing sometimes users frustrated and disappointed versus the overall
system. This is why PV installed capacity was doubled up to
6.2 kW, in order to make the electric system more robust against
primary source variability and uncertainty and versus anomalous
withdrawal of power by refugees.
Next adaptations
As already introduced, the monitoring system installed in Case
A was very useful to cope with a set of unexpected conditions and
situations: according to the data analysis, several adaptations were
adopted. In particular, in December 2015 the system was
upgraded, doubling the PV installed capacity up to 6.2 kW, and
consequently increasing storage capacity. In the present subsec-
tion, some of the situations typically occurred during the operation
of the electric system are described.

Fig. 5. Internal temperature of the refrigerator in 4 days in row.

Please cite this article in press as: Aste N et al. Innovative energy solutions for improving food preservation in humanitarian contexts: A case study from
informal refugees settlements in Lebanon. Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.seta.2017.02.009
8 N. Aste et al. / Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments xxx (2017) xxx–xxx

Fig. 6. Energy rate in no windy days.

Fig. 7. Energy rate in some windy days.

Daily refrigerator temperature

30

25
Temperature [°C]

Average temperature Maximum

20

achived temperature Minimum

15
achived temperature

10

0
May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb

Fig. 8. Daily refrigerator temperature.

Fig. 6 shows some of the monitored variables under unexpected
conditions: red bars show the total load, while the yellow line
depicts the voltage at the battery terminals. In this case, wind con-
tribution is zero. Batteries are charged during the first hours of the
days, and voltage raises; on the contrary, in the first hours of the
afternoon, the load increases, due probably to some additional
unexpected loads, and causes the storage discharge. When the
SOC and battery voltage become low, during night, the only possi-
ble solution is to shed load until the first hours of the morning,
when there is availability of PV power. The disconnection of refrig-
erators during a few hours of the night, however, does not signifi-
cantly impact on the quality of food preservation thanks to the
thermal storage apparatuses (eutectic plates).
Fig. 7 shows a different scenario, with lower values of loads
(refrigerators only), and with the contribution of wind turbine
(green bars) to the overall load. As it can be seen, while in the
absence of wind the nightly trend of battery voltage is decreasing,
due to the discharge of the storage system, when wind power is
available (even if at low values), the battery can be charged also
during night, when wind production is higher than load consump-
tion (green bars higher than red bars).
The long-term performance monitoring, has also shown that
after the implementation of the hybrid system, the maximum daily
temperature of the refrigerator decrease significantly, from almost
26 °C in July to 12 °C in January and February (Fig. 8). Moreover, it
should be noted that, from July to November the temperature

Please cite this article in press as: Aste N et al. Innovative energy solutions for improving food preservation in humanitarian contexts: A case study from
informal refugees settlements in Lebanon. Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.seta.2017.02.009
 N. Aste et al. / Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments xxx (2017) xxx–xxx 9

HDDS WDDS
10 5

9 4..5
8 4
7 3.5
6 3
5 2.5

4 2

3 1.5

2 1
May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

Fig. 9. HDDS and WDDS monitored along the project.

swing of the devices is relatively high since several unexpected
system faults occurred. In such respect a first outcome from the
upgrade shows that problems have been minimized, but further
tests and analyses are needed in order to get well definite conclu-
sions also considering stressing operating conditions.
Social impact
The feedback from some Syrian refugees was better than
expected, entailing an improvement in household economy, food
saving, time saving, children health, night breastfeeding practices,
and, in general, life-style and opportunities. Dietary diversity was
assessed as a proxy of the outcome of the use of refrigerators on
people’s nutritional intake in Case A. In the monitored period from
July to December, the household dietary diversity score (HDDS) –
that indicates the diversity of food items consumed by all the
household members at home – decreased due to the reduction of
the value of food vouchers distributed to Syrian refugees. However,
in the same period, the women dietary diversity score (WDDS) –
that indicates the diversity of food items consumed by pregnant
and lactating women – seemed to show an increasing trend
(Fig. 9). Actually, a much longer observation period should be nec-
essary in order to limit the standard deviation and the reliability of
the results; however, the trend shown by data suggests a change in
such indicators. Moreover, since the paper is devoted to present
the project’s output achieved in the first months of field tests, in
the final user’s perspective, such tests could represent a strong
change with respect to the past: the understanding of the technol-
ogy, the awareness of the new opportunities provided, and the
trust-ability of the solution changed. From a qualitative point of
view, this is confirmed by the women, which reported that refrig-
erators allowed them to store food for a longer period in a safer and
healthier way. Also, food leftovers can be preserved, and were
generally consumed later on by women at home and children,
improving their dietary diversification. It is interesting to notice
that such an improvement was not perceived, in particular because
of the worsening conditions due to a reduced purchasing power.
Finally, some households reported that the use of refrigerators
changed composition and frequency of grocery shopping, and it
had a positive impact on family expenditures.
However, it should be noted that the potentiality of vapour
compressor refrigerators was not totally used by refugees in the
period before the system upgrade. As already said, in fact, refriger-
ators’ internal temperature was not as low as expected, thus
majority of households were using the refrigerators to preserve
only water and bread (Fig. 10). In particular, cold water was
requested and appreciated during summer.
In Case B, refrigerators were used to preserve especially some
types of food (Fig. 11), for a limited amount of time. It was mainly
due to a limited food availability, but also a certain unfamiliarity
with food refrigeration played a role. The potential of this technol-
ogy was not fully exploited by the users, although some house-
holds declared that the food was perceived safer and healthier to
consume.
Main challenges and conclusions
As per electricity provision in humanitarian contexts, the expe-
rience in Lebanon shows that a high level of expertise is necessary
to properly design electric systems, and in particular microgrids. As
regards technical and logistic considerations, independently from
the technical configuration, hybrid systems have to be well-
balanced and require appropriate installation, operation and main-
tenance. The above issues depend on both the designer and the
installer. For this reason, when the two are different entities, they
have to communicate to each other to make sure that there are no
misunderstandings about the system. In this framework, the choice

Most preserved food Average time of preservation

Yogurt; 1% Other; 0.4%

Other

Yogurt

Bread; 42% Water

Rest of cooked food

Water; 55% Bread

Rest of 0.0 2.0 4.0 6.0 8.0

cooked Day
food; 1%

Fig. 10. Case A: type of preserved food and average time of preservation.

Please cite this article in press as: Aste N et al. Innovative energy solutions for improving food preservation in humanitarian contexts: A case study from
informal refugees settlements in Lebanon. Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.seta.2017.02.009
10 N. Aste et al. / Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments xxx (2017) xxx–xxx
Types of food preserved in fridges
Meat; 0.3%
Juice; 2%
Milk; 1.1%
Lebneh; 0.8% Other; 0.8%
Yogurt; 5%
Bread; 31%
Vegetables &
fruits; 16%
Rest of cooked
food; 12%
Water; 31%
Fig. 11. Case B: type of food preserved and average time of preservation.
of local resources in terms of materials and capacity, on the one
side is to be desirable for ensuring the technology transfer and
an adequate knowledge of the local context, but on the other side
can make it difficult to realize an efficient and safe system. Indeed,
in the case considered, it has been very difficult to get information
about the components offered by local manufacturers and sellers
or to verify that the technical characteristics of components
installed were as expected.
As regards non-technical considerations, it is pivotal to under-
stand that a solution, which looks the most suitable according to
technical parameters only, is not necessarily the most appropriate
solution to implement, since many non-technical factors must be
considered. In particular, sub-optimal solutions from the technical
point of view may result the most appropriate option because they
are easier to install, to operate or to repair in case of faults.
Advanced solutions from the technical point of view may require
a deeper knowledge and expertise from local manufacturers and
installers, which are not always available, thus resulting in a solu-
tion that will not be exploited for the best.
It should also be further highlighted that the design of the elec-
tric system supplied by renewables to obtain a hybrid system is not
straightforward. Data regarding renewable energy sources are usu-
ally not readily available and rough estimation can result in over or
undersized components. Installation requires specific capacity,
including an appropriate setting of parameters. Adopting energy
storage (i.e. battery banks), makes it necessary to estimate fluctu-
ations in both production and consumption. As demonstrated, this
is very difficult especially in not stable situations in terms of type
and number of users, like refugee camps.
Based on these challenges that arose from the implementation
and monitoring of the SET4Food project, we can summarize in con-
clusion some of the key determinant factors for the success of
energy projects in the peculiar context of humanitarian situations.
First of all, the results and experience showed that there is a strong
need to build capacities of local NGOs operators in order to make
them able to have sufficient knowledge of technical issues in the
energy field, and to have a proper dialogue with technical staff
which has a limited knowledge and understanding of the local con-
text in the field. As a second element, the importance of providing
local contractors with very detailed specifications about the mini-
mum requirements that the system must fulfil in terms of perfor-
mance and product warranty is underlined, in particular in the case
of very innovative systems. Moreover, the compliance of the
requirements should not be taken for granted, and must be verified
by carrying out tests on sample systems supplied by the contractor.
The experience gained in the project also suggests that in case
of particularly innovative systems, which are not available in the
local market, the involvement of international contractors should
be strongly suggested. If this solution is not possible (e.g. due to
Please cite this article in press as: Aste N et al. Innovative energy solutions for improving food preservation in humanitarian contexts: A case study from
informal refugees settlements in Lebanon. Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.seta.2017.02.009
Average time of preservation
Milk
Meat
Juice
Lebneh
Yogurt
Vegetables & fruits
Rest of cooked food
Water
Bread
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Day
security reasons, impossibility to have an in-presence support in
case of failures or trouble), a direct involvement of the headquar-
ters of a brand with a local dealer and installer could be a good
solution. Specifically trained staff can in fact support technology
introduction and provide capacity building, as well as backstop-
ping and troubleshooting. This consideration leads to the conclu-
sion that the utilization of local materials and capacity should
not always be considered as the most appropriate solution, since
in some cases this option can represent a limiting factor more than
an added value, reducing the quality and reliability of the intro-
duced solution.
Lastly, another key factor for the reliability of the action results
to be the monitoring architecture. Monitoring of the technical sys-
tems is of paramount importance, as it makes it possible to take
appropriate corrective actions on the design and/or on the control
logic, in order to cope with unexpected operating conditions, often
occurring in such environments. Lack of monitoring can result in
faults, blackouts and load curtailment that, in turn, can make peo-
ple complaining about the facilities and leaving them unused, thus
making the overall action ineffective.
Acknowledgments
This research was partially supported by European Commis-
sion’s Humanitarian aid and Civil Protection department (ECHO).
We thanks to other partners of the consortium that included
COOPI – COOPERAZIONE INTERNAZIONALE and Fondazione
Politecnico di Milano.
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Please cite this article in press as: Aste N et al. Innovative energy solutions for improving food preservation in humanitarian contexts: A case study from
informal refugees settlements in Lebanon. Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.seta.2017.02.009