GoHubs Mozambique Green Fishing and Cold Chain Hubs

GoHubs Mozambique is a transformative network of solar-battery microgrid hubs serving the artisanal fishing sector in coastal communities of Mozambique. The primary objective of GoHubs is to provide smart reliable renewable energy solutions, infrastructure and equipment to unlock market access, reduce fish losses, and bolster the local fishing sector.

The artisanal fishing industry plays a crucial role in Mozambique, accounting for 90% of the total catch and with over 15% of households depending on it for their livelihoods. However, inadequate energy and transport infrastructure in coastal areas restrict the availability of resources such as ice, cold storage, and access to non-local markets. These limitations lead to significant fish losses and reduced incomes within the sector.

To address these challenges and create new opportunities, GoHubs introduces a pioneering business model that combines significant technological and commercial innovations. From a technical perspective, GoHubs integrates energy-intensive operations like ice production, cold storage, water pumping, and electric refrigerated transport into an integrated hub, powered by an on-site solar-battery microgrid.

Smart control and load management system, ensures a reliable and efficient power supply and optimises across the critical loads. The entire systems is also integrated onto a single monitoring platform to simplify operations.

From a commercial standpoint, this bundling approach ensures that a continuous reliable cold chain from boat to market is effectively and sustainably established. Furthermore, this strategy facilitates economies of scale, resulting in lower unit costs for ice and services. GoHubs not only sells ice and cold storage services but also supports the trading of local fish, providing electric refrigerated transport to larger markets.

The business model also enhances resilience by diversifying revenue streams, and by including electric vehicle charging reduces the impact of volatile fossil fuel costs on transportation. By providing ice and services instead of selling energy units, GoHubs mitigates the uncertainty associated with the current regulatory environment.

GoHubs is a pilot deployment in Inhambane Province on a public-private partnership model with a community fish market. GoHubs expects to improve the livelihoods of the fishing sector workers and the broader community through improved catch quality, better and reliable market access, and reduced losses and wastage and replicate the model across Mozambique and other countries where renewable and reliable cold chain can unlock green growth.