Fish exporting is a race against temperature. The businesses winning it on the West African coast are the ones whose cold chain no longer depends on a generator that fails at 2 a.m. This is how a solar frozen store is built for that job.
Key facts
- Target hold: −18 to −25 °C, 10–50 tonnes per store.
- Solar carries the daytime load and pre-freezes; a battery sized for 12 hours carries the night at 60–70% of daytime demand.
- Coastal sites need C5 corrosion-rated enclosures — standard equipment lasts two seasons in salt air.
- Frontières Bay's first coastal store, for Acto in Nouakchott, runs refrigeration with no diesel.
The design
A 10-tonne frozen store needs about 46 kWp of solar and a ~150 kWh lithium-iron-phosphate battery to hold −25 °C through the night. Multi-room sites for exporters handling fresh and frozen product scale to 250 kW+ of solar and up to 500 kWh of battery. Everything ships in a single 40-foot container, which arrives about 70% full — the rest is yours.
The record buyers ask for
European and Asian buyers increasingly require a continuous temperature log, not a thermometer photograph. Our stores log every few minutes to a dashboard, alarm to your phone, and export monthly reports — the same records development banks want when they finance the exporter.
Why dollar exporters get the best terms
Fish exporters are paid in dollars or euros. That matches our dollar-based service contract, so standard Energy-as-a-Service terms apply from a single site with no bank guarantee — the fastest route to a diesel-free store we offer.
Exporting fish? Ask for the coastal cold store spec.
Talk to Frontières BayFrequently asked
Fresh fish straight to −25 °C, or pre-cool at 4 °C?
Both are possible; pre-cooling to 4 °C first reduces compressor and battery size. We size the system around your actual throughput.
Which ports do you serve?
Lagos and Nouakchott have local installation partners; Freetown, Dakar and Tema are served on request.