Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** lack of availability of reliable…

Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** lack of availability of reliable distributed cold storage CO-located with food production anddistribution poses limitations for local food supply chains for farmers and marketers. Radiantinnovation LLC (radiant) seeks to address the demand for climate friendly, off-grid cold storageand, in collaboration with colorado state university (CSU), proposes to calibrate and deploy ourmodel-predictive-control strategy with food quality and food safety assessment into our solar-poweredrefrigerated containers for reliable off-grid, cold storage to support local food distribution. Themodel will integrate dynamic weather forecasting and model-training to sustain reliable batteryenergy management and overcome limitations of other solar-powered cold storage systems.radiant proposes to achieve the following technical objectives for facilitating commercialdeployment of off-grid, solar-powered refrigerated shipping containers: 1) improve thermal andventilation models for predictive controls with data-driven model training for off-grid operation;2) integrate food quality and safety with ventilation and microbial analysis derived from testing in the r & d solar-power unit; and 3) develop a commercialization strategy to access markets that address USDA strategic goals for food safety, food access, and economic development. Successful controls development and demonstration for reliable off-grid operation of solar-powered refrigerated containers will drive customer confidence in these units for reliable distributed cold storage. In this effort, radiant will establish a solar-powered refrigeration research unit to use forcontrolled experiments in implementing design changes; update and deploy energy andair-conditioning models for cloud-based model-predictive controls and adaptive model training; develop and test models for assessing fresh produce quality and proliferation of food bornepathogens for maintaining food safety; refine energy, air-conditioning, and food-storage controlmodels for commercial deployment; and develop commercialization strategies for local and regionalfood supply chains.at the end of phase II, radiant will have validated design changes that provide customers withreliable cold storage in a variety of climate zones and across various weather events. The goal ofthis work is to show that produce stored in the off-grid units maintains safety and salability atleast as long as on-grid commercial cold storage options. These two components will givecustomers confidence in this off-grid cold storage solution and allow radiant to expand sales tocustomers who desire a reliable, climate-friendly, off-grid, easily deployable cold storage option.