Progress 09/01/23 to 08/31/24

Outputs
Target Audience:Our team at Radiant Innovation (Radiant) has spoken with numerous potential partners and customers in food production and food distribution about the use of our off-grid, solar-powered refrigerated container. In parallel with this research grant, we havepursued opportunities to establish customers of our solar-powered refrigerated containers, albeit without the implementation of the unique control technology under development in this Phase II SBIR program. During the first year of this grant, we have successfully deployed some new units intofood production and distribution, in addition to the research unit funded under this grant which has been deployed for this project at the farm with our collaborators at Colorado State University's Agricultural Research Development and Education Center (CSU ARDEC). These additional solar-powered refrigeration units have been sold to different target customers in the food distribution space including the following. Abound Food Care, a registered 501(C)3 corporation in Orange County, CA, who are using four solar-powered freezers from Radiant to support storage of excess restaurant food converted into meals for emergency food relief for the region; Kaizen Food Rescue, a non-profit organization in the Denver metro area, who have acquired a solar-powered refrigeration unit from Radiant to support produce distribution to families in need; Food Cycle LA, a non-profit organization based in the LA area, who are using one of Radiant's solar-powered refrigerated containers for distributing recovered produce to address food insecurities in LA county. These deployed units have been extremely helpful for this Phase II project on multiple fronts. They have provided our team with valuable targeted client feedback particularly for food distribution and emergency relief. In addition, although these units do not have the model--predictive controls technology under development with the SBIR, they are equipped with remote monitoring capabilities and therefore have provided us with incredibly rich data sets for helping us to improve our understanding of the off-grid unit performance and to train our control models. The broad array of performance data has also enabled us to communicate more effectively with other potential customers. The fact that these units are in both Colorado and California has provided performance data from two different climate regions. We have had the opportunity to speak to a wide array of other potential customers in food production and distribution, who are interested in the off-grid, solar-powered refrigerated containers. These potential customers include various farmers in Colorado and Kansas, as well as ranchers and small-scale meat processors in Colorado, Kansas, and Wyoming. In addition, we have spoken with potential customers who work in food distribution for disaster relief in the Gulf Coast region as well as in other regions. Recently, we also engaged in conversations with the U.S. Forest Service and their partners who are interested in food storage at off-grid sites such as firefighter camps and other locations where cold storage requires remote power generation. These conversations have informed some functional needs and have encouraged us to run our thermal/energy models of the units over various climates to assess the battery energy storage needs and off-grid reliability for systems in other climates. The research unit, which has now been operational for a few months at CSU ARDEC, has been deployed for studies on food safety. The scientificdata being collected by our co-investigator, Prof. Gutierrez-Rodriguez, will support scientific analysis of reliability and food safety with the off-grid operation of our units. This data, while supporting the model-predictive controls development, will also allow us to communicate more effectively with potential customers who have very detailed safety concerns and want to understand best practices for supporting cold-storage of fresh produce with an off-grid solar-powered refrigerated cooler. Changes/Problems:The most significant challenges in the Phase II effort have risen from delays, but our team feels that these delays do not prevent Radiant from living into all of the main objectives of this program. Three areas where delays have impacted progress and caused some changes are listed here. 1) Progress in the model development was delayed due to some challenges in implementing the model into Python scripts. To accelerate these efforts, Radiant has hired a consultant who is a local expert in model-based controls who is located here in Colorado. Radiant's technical staff and the consultant are now working together to accelerate the deployment of the model for training and eventual deployment for cloud-based controls. 2) Delays in food-storage experiments at the research unit were encountered due to challenges in identifying an appropriate fogging system that was appropriately sized for the container space. A system was finally identified and is now being tested before the beginning of produce storage experiments starting in the next quarter. 3) Some challenges were encountered with respect to the TABA efforts due to staffing and uncertainty with some consultants through the LARTA Institute. Radiant and LARTA have agreed on a path forward and Radiant has hired someone to work with our CEO on this effort in support of developing an updated business plan and a commercial scale-up plan. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The Phase II SBIR program has provided several training opportunities for young professionals and students. The grant efforts supported a summer mechanical engineering intern from the Univ. of Colorado, who worked on design and deployment of units. The student learned a lot about cold storage requirements and the technology needed to support food storage. The grant supports students at Colorado State Univ. (CSU), who work at ARDEC. Currently, a graduate student in Food Science at CSU is being trained on the project on the protocols for food safety inspection, sanitization, and cold storage technology. She is expected to publish her findings in the scientific literature. Radiant has hired a young mechanical engineer, who has been leading the design and assembly efforts for this project. He hasbeen provided with opportunities to attend conferences on renewable energy technology and to attend webinars on power electronics and batteries to enhance his engineering skills. Through the TABA program, Radiant has begun training of team members on critical issues related to business strategy, marketing, and scale-up of operations. These efforts will become more significant in the second half of this Phase II program. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Radiant and our collaborators at Colorado State University have not presented any formal documentation in the professional or archival literature.Radiant has prepared press releases that are being distributed to professional communities in the relevant agricultural industries, emergency relief management communities, and the renewable energy technology communities.As mentioned previously in the discussion targeted audiences, Radiant has been very active in conversations with potential customers both within the food production and distribution spaces as well as alternative interests who may benefit from off-grid, solar-powered cold storage. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?In Year 2, the Radiant team is confident that in collaboration with CSU ARDEC, we can successfully live into the objectives of this program and provide our company a launching point for expanding markets for off-grid, solar-powered refrigeration. Below are the activities that are planned around the seven distinct objectives for the second year of this Phase II effort. Objective 1: Improve integration of weather forecasting in the current energy and ventilation model WIth multiple working units and the deployed research unit with its additional diagnostics, we will be working on the automated training of our thermal/energy models for the solar-powered refrigerators in order to establish the key model parameters that can be tuned by minimizing errors between model-predicted performance and past measurements. These trained models will then be implemented in collaboration with our cloud-based monitoring system through Wattch.io to serve as the basis for the implementation of our patent-pending model predictive controls integrated with dynamic weather forecasting.Our expectations are to have these models up and running this winter in order to have sixmonths of testing before the end of this programsuch that they are ready for roll-out to commercial partners next summer. Objective 2: Demonstrate reliable off-grid operation of solar-powered refrigerated containers for at least 180 days We will continue to monitor off-grid operation and report out fully on the off-grid reliability of our solar-powered refrigerated units in Colorado and California for Phase II. Controlled experiments at CSU ARDEC will be combined with food safety inspection to provide additional confidence in the effectiveness of our technology for reliable cold storage of fresh produce. Objective 3: Incorporate quantitative assessment of food quality and safety into the control strategy CSU ARDEC researchers will complete their studies on a variety of produce and document these studies in a publication for the community. These studies will be linked to the Radiant website and reported at appropriate conferences. Objective 4: Demonstrate refrigerated storage of fresh produce in an off-grid unit with comparable food quality as conventional warehouse In Year 2, ARDEC and Radiant will utilize strict humidity and CO2 ventilation controls in the research unit to explore best environmental control strategies for selected produce types. These experiments will also be part of the publication reporting out on the unit by ARDEC researchers. Objective 5: Enact training protocols for users to implement best practices to enhance off-grid reliability and food safety Radiant will update the preliminary training videos based on the knowledge gained from the Phase II experiments and from the continued operation of units in the field.These videos will be deployed, and modified forms of the videos will be used in company pitches to potential new customers. Objective 6: Increase off-grid unit sales of units to double current production levels Radiant has set up the processes and relationships to achieve double digit sales in 2025. We have some promising conversations with new markets for emergency food relief and support of remote off-grid food storage and production. Objective 7: Develop commercialization strategies to facilitate new market opportunities for off-grid cold storage Radiant will increase our TABA activities with the LARTA Institute to formalize a business strategy and plan for scale-up of operations. Radiant will also seek to develop a more active partnership with our neighbors at National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to support efforts to perform a demonstration, perhaps at the Energy Systems Integration Facility, to provide further documentation on unit performance for increasing potential customer confidence.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? This Phase II SBIR project focuses on a primary objective to implement model-predictive controls integrated with dynamic weather forecasting to maintain off-grid operation of our solar-powered refrigerated containers. This objective requires that the model on which the controls are based is validated against the performance of the refrigeration system and the solar and battery energy system that sustains the unit operations over a broad range of operating conditions and scenarios. The following summary of accomplishments over the first year of our Phase II SBIR program highlights the efforts around each of the seven objectives that frame the effort. Objective 1: Improve integration of weather forecasting in the current energy and ventilation model Our team has completed the transfer of the original thermal and energy model of the solar-powered refrigeratorsinto platform independent Python scripts. The scripts include automated calls (via API's) to weather forecasting as well as historical data from the National Weather Service hosted by Visual Crossing. The Python-based model now can give automated forecasts of unit performance given its location. In addition, the models can utilize historical weather data to provide a basis for prognostics of critical components (solar panels, batteries, refrigeration unit, and power electronics) and to update critical model parameters to track system performance as it evolves. The Radiant team is now beginning the process of training the full models for more accurate tracking of system performance before deploying these to a cloud-based model-predictive control framework. Objective 2: Demonstrate reliable off-grid operation of solar-powered refrigerated containers for at least 180 days In the past year, Radiant has deployed several new units to the field including the research unit at CSU ARDEC as part of this program. The three most recent units represent significant improvements in terms of energy efficiency and off-grid reliability with improved battery and power electronics integration. Although Radiant has units that have been running for longer in the field, these recently deployed solar-powered refrigeration units, including the research unit installed at ARDEC, are being monitored more closely for robust off-grid operation. A 20-ft. solar-installed at Food Cycle LA has been operating steadily off-grid without generator backup for 75 days supporting their local food distribution hub in Hollywood, CA. A second unit installed in Englewood, CO for Kaizen Food Rescue serving theirfood distribution hub has been operating reliably now for over 50 days on solar power with battery energy storage backup. The research unit at ARDEC has been in refrigeration mode completely off-grid, continuously for over 100 days, but that unit is not yet being regularly utilized for food storage as the CSU research team are doing controlled microbial inspections of the unit for food safety experiments as part of this program. Our team has full confidence that we will continue to be operating all of these solar-powered refrigeration units reliably off-grid for well past the 180 day target through the second year of this program. As such, we are fully confident that this goal will be met fully this fall. Objective 3: Incorporate quantitative assessment of food quality and safety into the control strategy CSU ARDEC researchers have been investigating the research unit for areas of concern regarding contamination and have currently been exploring the research unit for microbial activity (Enterobacteriaceae, Coliforms and E. coli) and the effectiveness of fogging system for controlling the humidity and also providing sanitization through misting. These experiments are ongoing and will be followed up with controlled assessment of food quality as a function of storage conditions in the solar-powered refrigeration units. Objective 4: Demonstrate refrigerated storage of fresh produce in an off-grid unit with comparable food quality as conventional warehouse The researchers at ARDEC will perform controlled food storage experiments this fall to provide a documented form of this experiment. The experience of recent customers in Hollywood and at Kaizen have been able to operate their solar-powered refrigerators at desirable storage conditions in terms of temperature windows throughout the summer months. The units have not implemented strict humidity and CO2 ventilation control, but experiments at ARDEC will inform ventilation strategies for humidity and CO2 control. The most recent units are built with controlled ventilation capability with CO2 and humidity monitoring and cloud-based controls of the ventilation fans based on CO2 and/or humidity setpoints. Objective 5: Enact training protocols for users to implement best practices to enhance off-grid reliability and food safety Our team has prepared some videos that discuss the added user responsibilities that come with upkeep and maintenance of a solar-powered refrigerated cooler.These videos will be updated as further insights are derived from the ARDEC research studies and continued operation of the most recently deployed units at local food distribution sites, and they will be released in Year 2 of this program. Objective 6: Increase off-grid unit sales of units to double current production levels Radiant has been pursuing an increase in sales and production capacity of our solar-powered units. As presented in our efforts to reach target audiences, our team has explored new markets. This has led to some new sales and increased production. The production rates have increased as we have developed robust engineering drawings, bills of material, and relationships with key suppliers including for batteries, solar panels, power electronics, and refrigeration units. In calendar year 2024, Radiant has built four units and deployed three of them. We have not yetdoubled production levels from 2023, but we have set up the processes and relationships to meet that goal when driven by an expansion in sales, which we expect in 2025. Objective 7: Develop commercialization strategies to facilitate new market opportunities for off-grid cold storage To support the development of a broader commercialization strategy, Radiant, through the TABA program, has partnered with the LARTA Institute to work with leaders in business strategy and scale-up of operations to prepare our company for expected growth in the off-grid, solar-powered cold-storage market. This effort has begun in earnest this summer and will be in full swing during year 2 of this Phase II effort. Radiant has also been in conversation with leaders in deployment of renewable energy technology at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory to support efforts to expand markets tied to resiliency, emergency relief, and remote operations.

Publications