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E&E News
07-07-2025
- Business
- E&E News
How one carbon market is helping industry fight climate change
States looking to create their own carbon markets should consider taking a page from Washington state, new research finds. The reason? Washington's cap-and-invest program provides financial incentives to oil refineries and other big businesses that can help them pay for decarbonization efforts — aiding the climate fight in the long run. Washington state's approach is 'broadly applicable to any jurisdiction that's thinking about carbon pricing,' said Drew Veysey, a senior associate with the Rocky Mountain Institute, which produced the report. 'There are lessons for … lots of places, potentially, if they are interested in how you treat industry under carbon pricing.' Advertisement The Washington state system sets a yearly limit on greenhouse gas emissions and forces regulated businesses to buy state-issued pollution allowances, with each representing a ton of emissions. The state uses the revenue to find climate-focused projects.
Time Magazine
25-06-2025
- General
- Time Magazine
Should I Feel Guilty About Using My AC?
Air conditioning is one of our great guilty pleasures. When your town is suffocating under a 100-degree heat dome, there's nothing like the sweet relief that comes from returning home, cranking up the AC, and leaving behind the sweltering outdoor atmosphere for the cooler, crisper indoor one. As the first major heat wave of 2025 bakes the Northeast, South, and Midwest, nearly 150 million Americans are discovering that fact anew. But air conditioning comes at a high price. The two billion units operating worldwide are responsible for 7% of annual global greenhouse gas emissions, according to the United Nations Environment Program—a figure that is expected to double by 2030 and triple by 2050, when more than five billion units are projected to be in use. This will drive a climate spiral, with increased carbon output pushing global temperatures even higher, leading to still more air conditioning use and still higher temperatures and on and on. 'Air conditioning is becoming a lifeline in this overheated world,' says Ankit Kalanki, a cooling expert at RMI, a research and public policy group originally known as the Rocky Mountain Institute. 'It's no longer a luxury. We rely on air conditioning for comfort, to feel productive, to feel safe and healthy, and this is an invisible driver of electricity demand and emissions.' That fact leaves a lot of people feeling guilty over their own AC use. Our grandparents got by with fans, light clothing, drawn shades and cold drinks; even in the face of climate change, couldn't we do the same for at least routine summer heat? 'The feeling of guilt comes from a sense of responsibility to do something,' says Fionnuala Walravens, senior campaigner at the Environmental Investigation Agency, a green advocacy group. 'We ask ourselves 'What can we change?'' AC guilt is only a piece of the larger phenomenon of climate guilt, the responsibility and even shame many people feel if they aren't recycling perfectly, composting regularly, driving minimally, and keeping energy consumption as low as possible. 'There are often a lot of emotions that are connected,' says Wendy Greenspun, a clinical psychologist who is affiliated with Climate Psychology Alliance North America, an educational nonprofit. 'There is sadness, anger, anxiety, fear—lots of different emotions that I put under the umbrella of climate distress. Guilt may be one of those.' Managing all of those emotions—and taking all of the green steps to ameliorate them—can be a considerable lift, and almost no one can claim to be a perfect climate citizen. But when it comes to air conditioning there are plenty of coping measures—ways to keep your use of cooling in check while at the same time accepting that in an increasingly sweltering world, air conditioning is a daily essential. The most significant—if most expensive—step you can take to reduce the carbon footprint of your air conditioner is to scrap any model you bought 15 years ago or earlier and upgrade to a new one. In 2010, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) banned the sale of new AC units (either central AC or window models) that use Freon—also known as R-22—as a coolant. Freon, which can leak from home units and often has to be replaced and topped off by a service person, has a so-called global warming potential (GWP) of nearly 2,000—meaning it packs 2,000 times the planet-heating punch of an equivalent amount of carbon dioxide. New units now use Puron Advance—also known as R-454B—which has a GWP of just 465. That's still considerably more than CO2 (which, by definition, has a GWP of 1), but a whole lot less than R-22. 'Industry is transitioning to alternatives that have a much lower environmental footprint,' says Kalanki. 'There is a lot of promise when it comes to what kind of refrigerants can provide similar cooling without impacting performance.' Disposing of old units is a bit more complex than just tossing them in a town dump. Many state or local laws require that refrigerant first be drained by an EPA-certified technician, after which the AC can be recycled or carted off by local curbside pickup programs. Kalanki also recommends buying what are known as smart air conditioners, units that connect to WiFi and can monitor energy use and be controlled remotely via phone. Smart AC's make it possible to pre-cool your home, turning the unit on when you're away to lower the temperature before you return, allowing you to shut the AC off—or at least turn it down—during peak evening use when air conditioners are commonly operating at their maximum. That can make a big difference to the larger world as air conditioners currently account for 40% to 60% of peak demand on the grid in the summer. Keeping your electricity use low in those hours also saves money, as energy companies often charge more for power consumed in that window; curbing consumption at such times can also help avoid grid crashes or blackouts. 'A smartly designed unit,' says Kalanki, 'can sense and measure how much of an energy load is required to cool a space. You can really reduce energy consumption significantly.' Architects and designers of apartments and single family homes have a role to play too. Better insulation, for example, can not only keep out the cold in winter, but keep in the cool during summer. Shades and awnings to screen out the sun can help too, as can painting roofs white—instead of the common black tar seen in cities—which reflects away the heat and light that black roofs absorb. 'There are a host of these passive strategies that can be used when buildings are designed,' says Kalanki. Buying, renting, or renovating a home with a mind toward these efficiencies, as well as installing new, upgraded AC units and heat pumps can not only reduce your carbon load, but reduce your emotional load—bringing down some of the guilt that comes with gobbling too much power in the summer months when energy use spikes. A few other simple adaptations can help as well. Businesses like law firms and banks can relax their suit and tie rules during the summer, says Walravens, lightening the load on office air conditioners that have to make the environment cool enough for people wearing dark layers in triple-digit temperatures. Adjusting our own internal thermostats can help too. As of 2022, 88% of American homes had air conditioning, compared to fewer than 10% of European homes, according to MIT Technology Review. And we drive our units hard. One TIME analysis from 2022 found that U.S. residences are kept at around 74° F even when no one is home, and 70° F when the family returns. 'We have to change our mindset a little,' says Walravens. 'The reality is we can survive and be productive at higher temperatures. That may at first seem a little bit daunting, but it's going to use a lot less energy and cause a lot less guilt.' Of course, you didn't cause the climate crisis all by yourself and you can't remotely fix it alone either. The best you can do is play your small part and let go of the sense that you're to blame. 'We as individuals can be change agents,' says Michaela Barnett, a civil engineer and the owner of KnoxFill, a bulk sales business that seeks to limit the use of single-use containers. 'We can reconceptualize the way that we think about our individual actions for change and the way we're living in line with our values. But we should also give ourselves grace and patience, not bearing all of the weight either, because that's not productive.'
Reuters
18-06-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Chemicals industry struggles to kick its fossil fuel habit
June 10 - In May, Europe passed a milestone in its drive to decarbonise: the opening of the world's first commercial scale e-methanol plant, at Kasso in Denmark. European Energy's facility will produce 42,000 metric tonnes of the liquid fuel for the shipping industry, cutting emissions by as much as 95%, as well as low-carbon plastics for drugmaker Novo Nordisk and toymaker Lego to use in their products. Instead of using hydrogen derived from natural gas, three Siemens electrolysers convert renewable energy from Europe's largest solar park into green hydrogen, which is combined with CO2 captured from the local biogas plant to create the synthetic fuel. Excess heat generated from the plant will be used to warm 3,300 households in the local area. But Kasso, and a smattering of other e-methanol plants around the world, are rare examples of disruptive green innovation in an industry that remains heavily reliant on fossil fuels. The $3.5 trillion industry produces primary chemicals such as ammonia, methanol and ethylene, which are omnipresent in our daily lives: they are in 96% of manufactured goods in sectors ranging across healthcare and agriculture to construction, transportation and textiles. The sector accounts for 5-6% of global greenhouse gas emissions – running a close third behind steel and cement – but could steam ahead of them, as its emissions are on track to more than double by 2050 with no intervention, according to an analysis by the Rocky Mountain Institute. A 2022 report by green systems change firm Systemiq and the Center for Global Commons says the fact that the industry also supplies building blocks for the energy transition means the chemicals sector has the potential to reinvent itself as a climate solution, even to go carbon negative, if it can substitute fossil-fuels feedstocks with sustainable sources and ramp up the use of carbon capture and storage. Circular approaches such as reusing and recycling chemicals, meanwhile, could reduce total demand for chemicals by up to 31% by 2050, the report argues. Indeed, more than 70% of the world's top 100 chemicals producers have committed to carbon neutrality by 2050, and even more have set interim targets through the Science Based Targets initiative, according to S&P Commodity Insights. But a new report from Planet Tracker, which benchmarks the climate transition performance of eight of the world's top chemical companies, finds that only two: French industrial gases firm Air Liquide and Australia's Incitec Pivot, have credible targets. Brianne Cangelose, a manager in Rocky Mountain Institute's climate-aligned industries programme, says the industry's complexity and ubiquity means decarbonisation pathways aren't straightforward. 'There's no silver bullet for chemicals – we need a myriad of solutions to effectively reduce emissions from the sector,' she says. Most impactful, however, will be scaling up the development of cleaner sources of hydrogen, which is a core building block of many chemicals and is already widely used in the chemicals industry as a reagent in chemical reactions. It could also provide an alternative process heat source to natural gas. Hydrogen is colour-coded depending on how it is made. Today, that is primarily from steam reforming of natural gas (grey) and gasification of coal (brown). There is also blue hydrogen, where the CO2 from grey hydrogen is captured and stored, and pink hydrogen, made using nuclear energy to power electrolysers, which split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen. Only when electrolysers are powered by renewable energy such as solar and wind can hydrogen be considered green. The problem is that less than 1% of all hydrogen produced today is green, due to the high relative cost of renewable energy. Those costs will only increase in the near term, with the Trump administration vowing to cut $15 billion in renewable energy funding, and threatening trade tariffs on China and countries in South-east Asia, where 80% of U.S. solar module imports came from in 2023. Under the Biden administration's Inflation Reduction Act, $7 billion in funding was allocated to establish seven regional hubs to speed development of cleaner production of hydrogen in the U.S. But while the first tranche of funding was delivered before Biden left office in January, Politico reported in March that four, in primarily Democratic-learning states, are slated to be axed by the Department of Energy under the new Trump administration. However, among those whose funding is expected to be safe is the HyVelocity Hub on the Gulf coast in Texas, where one-third of U.S. hydrogen production capacity is located. Although most of the technology focus will be on blue hydrogen production through CCS, the hub includes Orsted Energy's planned e-methanol facility, which will be powered by onshore wind and solar projects, and uses captured CO2 to create a liquid fuel for marine and aviation applications. In Europe, one startup that claims to have made a breakthrough in affordable clean hydrogen production is U.K.-based HiiROC, which has developed a thermal plasma electrolysis technology to convert methane into hydrogen, without CO2 emissions. The company says its process is as cheap as steam methane reforming (SMR) and can produce hydrogen using a fraction of the energy required by water electrolysis. It also creates a valuable by-product, carbon black, which can be used in commercial applications such as tyres, rubbers, plastics and inks, as well as in the construction industry. HiiROC has raised more than 40 million pounds from investors including Melrose, Wintershall Dea, Centrica, HydrogenOne, Hyundai, Kia and Cemex, which announced late last year that it would deploy HiiROC's low-carbon hydrogen solution at scale at its cement plant at Rugby in the UK. Another technology option for the chemicals industry is to electrify energy-intensive processes, such as steam cracking. Electrification has the potential to reduce CO2 emissions by at least 90% compared with using fossil fuels, according to BASF. Last year BASF, SABIC and Linde inaugurated the world's first large-scale demonstration plant to use electricity for its steam cracking furnaces that produce ethylene and propylene. Three years in the making, the demonstration plant at BASF's Verbund site in Ludwigshafen, Germany, is powered by 6 megawatts (MW) of renewable energy and will test two different heating concepts. Dow has also been investigating the viability of e-cracking, along with Shell. In June 2022, it began operations at an experimental e-cracking furnace in Amsterdam, aiming to test equipment that could be retrofitted to existing gas-fired steam cracker furnaces. It was planning to install a multi-megawatt pilot plant this year. In the U.S., meanwhile, Dow and advanced nuclear reactor developer X-energy have applied to build a grid-scale nuclear installation in Texas to produce clean power and industrial steam to decarbonise manufacturing at Dow's 1,900-hectare Seadrift site. However, Bernd Elser, global chemicals lead at Accenture, points out that the potential for renewable energy to decarbonise chemicals production will be restricted by the sheer amount of energy needed. Analysis carried out by the consultancy in 2022 found that the European chemicals industry alone would need additional renewable energy installation of 3.2 petawatt-hours, some five times that energy generated in the EU today, at a cost of around 1 trillion euros. 'This translates into wind turbines covering the whole of Spain, or solar panels on the full land area of Ireland,' he says. The electricity produced also needs to be sold at a competitive price, he adds. The European Chemical Industry Council has warned that the industry is 'at breaking point', facing energy prices five times that of the U.S. and substantial costs of meeting EU green regulations, including phasing out of restricted chemicals. Firms including Dow and LyondellBasell are reported to be reassessing their European footprint, including shutting down some facilities, as a result. They are urging the Commission to expedite the rollout of the affordable energy component of its recently announced Clean Industrial Deal. RMI's Cangelose acknowledges that the cost of more innovative decarbonisation technologies is challenging for the chemicals industry. 'It's a very capitally intensive, somewhat risk-averse industry, with really slim margins, so it's a challenging place to rapidly adopt innovation,' she says. 'It's really going to be a question of how much money we can funnel towards research and development to get these earlier stage technologies off the ground.' There is certainly growing demand for greener chemicals, according to Accenture, whose research found that more than half of consumers are motivated to purchase eco-friendly products, and often willing to pay a premium price for them. One example is in the home and personal care sector, where products with bio-based or sustainable ingredients grew at a rate more than double that of overall growth. Accenture predicts that demand for bio-based chemical products will increase by around 70% through to 2028, rising from $340 billion in 2023 to $570 billion - a rate 4.5 times greater than conventional products. Desire to capture this growth, along with the regulatory push provided by the EU Green Deal and the bloc's Emissions Trading Scheme, will push the European industry along a more sustainable path, Elser says.
Chicago Tribune
20-05-2025
- Business
- Chicago Tribune
Environmental advocates worry about Cleveland-Cliffs delayed maintenance
Cleveland-Cliffs has announced plans to delay hundreds of millions of dollars in maintenance at its Burns Harbor facility. 'Every year this coal project is delayed, the future of steel comes into focus a little bit more,' Hilary Lewis, steel director at Industrious Labs, said in a statement. 'Now, Cleveland-Cliffs needs to get serious about clean steel and develop a plan to rebuild this furnace with clean, modern technology.' The steelmaker announced on May 8 that it was delaying the scheduled maintenance at one of Burns Harbor's two blast furnaces, which was originally planned for this year. In 2023, the project was delayed until 2026, and it has now been delayed again until 2027. A representative for Cleveland-Cliffs did not respond to request for comment. Near the end of a blast furnace's life, the equipment will require up to $400 million in reinvestment to continue operations for another 20 years, according to the Rocky Mountain Institute, a nonprofit that looks at how to transform global energy systems to create a zero-carbon future. According to Industrious Labs, Burns Harbor ranks as one of Indiana's top three biggest polluters among industrial sources for nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, fine particulate matter, carbon monoxide and lead. The group's 'Dirty Steel, Dangerous Air' report that was published in October 2024 found that Burns Harbor is responsible for more than 250 premature deaths, more than 74,000 cases of asthma symptoms and more than 13,000 lost school and work days annually. The report details national and local health and economic costs of steel industry pollution. 'The adverse health effects of air pollution on multiple organ systems are well-documented and indisputable,' Allan Halline, an Ogden Dunes resident and member of Gary Advocates for Responsible Development, said in a statement. 'We would hope this postponement in relining the outdated and highly polluting blast furnace indicates Cleveland-Cliffs' reconsideration of building a more cost effective and economically sustainable direct reduced iron furnace, a proven technology that can reduce air pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions by over 95%. Such a move would demonstrate a commitment to the health of their workers and the surrounding communities and to the long-term stability of jobs in our region.' Susan Thomas, policy and press director for Just Transition Northwest Indiana, said in a statement that due to Burns Harbor's proximity to Lake Michigan and the Indiana Dunes National Park, natural resources will continue to be harmed by fossil fuel use. 'With this delay, we call on Cleveland-Cliffs to move off dirty coal-reliant steelmaking, pursue green technologies to enhance our quality of place, and prove that jobs and a thriving economy can co-exist with community health and a sustainable environment,' Thomas said. Environmental advocates nationwide worry that Cleveland-Cliffs applied for presidential exemptions to sections of the Clean Air Act. A representative from the Group Against Smog and Pollution, a southwestern Pennsylvania-based nonprofit, said in an email that Cleveland-Cliffs did submit an exemption request for its Monessen Coke plant. It is unclear whether Cleveland-Cliffs also submitted an exemption request for its Northwest Indiana location. President Donald Trump will make a decision 'based on the merits' of each corporation. According to an analysis by the Environmental Defense Fund and Environmental Law and Policy Center, more than 500 facilities in 45 states were invited to apply. 'Signing onto the two-year Trump exemption provided to the fossil fuel industry increases the already alarming health statistics tied to this corporation,' Carolyn McCrady, member of GARD, said in a statement. 'We in GARD advise Cleveland-Cliffs to move in the right direction, to put people before profits to save lives and the planet itself.'
Mint
11-05-2025
- Business
- Mint
ACs heating up your electricity bill? Here's how that could change
New Delhi: In October 2023, Palava City, an urban township developed by the Lodha Group near Dombivli in Mumbai, was witness to an unusual study. For nine months, the township, in a hot and humid location, took part in a field test of super-efficient AC prototypes. The results of the study, which was conducted by the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), a Colorado-based clean energy non-profit, along with CEPT University, Ahmedabad, and the Lodha Group, are very encouraging: the test units consumed 60% less energy and could potentially slash electricity bills by half over their lifetime. The study was published last month. The super-efficient split AC prototypes were among the winners of the Global Cooling Prize—a $3 million challenge announced in 2018 to develop and demonstrate transformative cooling solutions. The prototypes are made using components similar to those in use today. But what sets them apart is how they sense and adjust to real world conditions, said Ankit Kalanki, principal at RMI. They run on more efficient compressors, improved coil design and advanced sensors to achieve target indoor conditions. The units won't come cheap, but the payback period is estimated to be under four years. An AC that cuts energy consumption by 60% will be a gamechanger for India. The country is already the world's fastest-growing AC market and projected to have over 1 billion room units by 2050. That will propel electricity demand for cooling nine-fold compared to 2022, as per the report released last month by RMI, which cautioned that widespread adoption of current AC technology may jeopardize both the electricity grid and national climate goals. This, in no small way, is because the backbone of cooling technology has not seen a radical reset in more than a century. A few startups, in India and globally, are now working on a mix of technologies to change that. They are trying to marry age-old methods such as evaporative cooling with the latest compressor technology to reduce energy use. Last year, for instance, Ambiator, a Hyderabad-based startup, started selling a machine it claims 'cools like an AC, but costs like a cooler". The technology takes a leaf from traditional desert coolers, which use evaporative cooling technology. In this rather ancient method, hot air drawn in by a powerful fan passes through a wet cooling pad, supplying fresh and cool air indoors. Some, such as the Florida-based Blue Frontier, are using desiccants to soak up excess humidity instead of using energy-intensive compressors (studies show that ACs use up to 25% more energy just to manage humidity). Others, such as the UK-based Barocal, are exploring a brave new world of solid-state cooling, using low-cost organic crystals instead of polluting refrigerant gases. A business on steroids A factory floor can be meditative. At a manufacturing unit run by Haier Appliances in Uttar Pradesh's Greater Noida, hundreds of hands work in silence. Multiple parts of a machine flow in a stream, like fragments of an idea. Copper coils, compressors and blowers pass by on conveyor belts, moulded by human touch. At the end of the assembly line, every two minutes or so, a completed outdoor air conditioning unit pops out, as if by magic. In one corner of the Haier factory floor, heavy-duty units are tested in a lab, which simulates extreme weather conditions, to ensure that air conditioners (ACs) can still cool a space when outside temperatures touch an unthinkable, skin-scorching 60°C. And that they are able to deliver crisp breeze when the air outside is soaked with moisture. For manufacturers, the climate crisis is as much a test as it is an opportunity. They have to deliver machines that can function in extreme conditions, at an affordable price point. Last year, when the summer was the warmest on record, residential AC sales surged nearly 30% on-year to touch a record 14 million units. Room AC makers clocked a revenue of around ₹45,000 crore, the highest ever. Sales are estimated to double in four to five years, as the segment is growing by more than 15% annually, top industry executives told Mint. It's a business on steroids. In the consumer durables business, ACs are the engine that will drive both volumes and value in future, said N.S. Satish, president of Haier Appliances India. Household AC penetration in India is at sub-10%, compared to nearly 40% for refrigerators. So, there is enormous headroom to grow, assuming every family that owns a refrigerator today will eventually own an AC. India's room AC production capacity is estimated to grow by 40% in the next three years, ratings agency Icra said in a report last October. On its part, Haier Appliances, whose parent company is headquartered in Qingdao, China, is expanding its annual production capacity in the country from 1.5 million units currently to 4 million units. The growing demand for cooling solutions and other consumer durables presents a lucrative opportunity, and large corporations that are not already in the business are looking to get in on the action. Late last week, Bloomberg reported that Bharti Airtel founder Sunil Mittal is in advanced talks to acquire a 49% stake in the Indian unit of Haier, citing people familiar with the matter. On the flipside, more ACs will strain electricity grids, and increase both energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions manifold. Also, an ever-increasing number of ACs running for longer hours will worsen the heat island effect in cities—ACs spew out hot air, often 5-10 degrees warmer than the ambient air temperature. When heat trapped by the dense concrete of cities during daytime is released at night, hot air from ACs is an added load, turning them into pockets of heat, relative to the cooler areas around them. Nights will turn uncomfortably warm. Besides, ACs use chemical refrigerants that are potent greenhouse gases, trapping more heat in the atmosphere than even carbon dioxide. For instance, R-32, a commonly used hydrofluorocarbon refrigerant gas, comes with a global warming potential (GWP) of 675. This means R32 traps 675 times more heat than the same amount of CO2, over a 100-year period. So, even minor gas leaks from ACs have a significant impact. Driven by discomfort The business of cooling is driven by discomfort, joked one senior industry executive. Although it was made in jest, the remark is spot on. Last summer, when temperatures breached 50 degrees celsius in many Indian cities, consumers made a beeline to purchase ACs. The pain was so acute that families that did not own a refrigerator or a washing machine queued up for ACs, upending the standard hierarchy of purchase. Despite an early onset in April, the summer has been more bearable this year, though the Met Office has forecast a higher-than-normal number of heatwave days. 'The cooling challenge will intensify as India gets to 30 million ACs by 2030. Technology gains have been incremental so far…what we need is a breakthrough," said B. Thiagarajan, managing director of Blue Star, a leading brand. While televisions went from being bulky boxes using power-hungry cathode ray tubes to slim LED-variants, air conditioners remain just as bulky as they were decades ago. And the technology driving them hasn't evolved much. The first modern air conditioner was developed in 1902 by Willis Carrier, an engineer, while trying to solve a specific problem: excess humidity damaging magazine pages at a publishing house in Brooklyn, New York. Carrier developed a system that blew air over coils filled with cold water. While excess humidity condensed on the coils, the system also produced cooled air. Within two decades Carrier developed a finer version, a centrifugal compressor, which was widely used to cool air inside movie theatres. Present-day ACs follow the same scientific principle first used a century ago: using a compressor to repeatedly alter the state of a refrigerant gas. The process follows from a law of thermodynamics: when a liquid converts into a gas, it absorbs heat. Inside ACs, chemical refrigerants evaporate and condense in repeated cycles within a closed system of coils, allowing heat to be transferred and ejected outside, while cooling the air within a room. This is vapour compression technology, and it continues to be the backbone of room AC technology more than a century on. The process is energy intensive. Despite improvements driven by energy efficiency standards, both globally and in India, a typical split AC still consumes 15-20 times more electricity than a fan. In short, there is a heavy price to pay for human comfort. District cooling solutions Vapour compression technology has reached the theoretical limits of efficiency, argues Chandra Bhushan, chief executive of the Delhi NCR-based climate think tank iFOREST. 'It's time to switch to hybrid technologies and use green refrigerants with a low global warming potential. We must think beyond individual ownership of ACs and look at centralized solutions like district cooling, which is more energy efficient. But manufacturers will want none of it…that's the politics of cooling," adds Bhushan, who is also a member of the refrigeration and air conditioning sectional committee of the Bureau of Indian Standards. District cooling is a solution where multiple buildings in an area are connected to a centralized system. In this model, large centrifugal chillers produce chilled water, which is piped to buildings for cooling. The process uses water instead of refrigerant gases and can reduce energy use by at least a third. 'Think of it as cooling-as-a-service, like piped gas or electricity supplied to homes. In India, the only notable project is the GIFT city in Gujarat. A regulatory push can hasten adoption in upcoming residential and commercial projects," said Anju Mary K., head of sustainability at Danfoss India, which offers industry-scale energy solutions. Globally, district cooling is gaining in popularity, powering iconic buildings such as the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, schools and hotels in Hong Kong, and the Louvre museum in Paris. Happening now Is it possible to reduce the energy required for cooling by making devices more efficient? Can a radical shift in the way ACs are built slash energy consumption? Also, is it possible to move to a benign refrigerant, one that is more planet-friendly? These are the questions driving the push to find more energy-efficient solutions. Since the advent of modern ACs a century ago, compressor technology has undergone some changes. A notable one was moving from fixed-speed to variable-speed compressors (inverter technology) in the early to mid-2000s. Inverter ACs are more energy efficient, by at least 30% or more, compared to those using older generation compressors. However, as the RMI assessment shows, this is not enough. The good news is that companies around the world are working on alternatives. For instance, Ambiator, the Hyderabad-based company cited earlier, upgraded conventional air cooler technology by adding sensors to regulate water flow and alternate between dry and wet cooling to achieve thermal comfort. Unlike traditional coolers, the Ambiator model exhausts air outdoors. The air circulation prevents the mugginess associated with coolers. And unlike ACs that recirculate air within a space, pushing CO2 levels higher, Ambiator promises a more lung-friendly alternative. The pitfall is that the machine is a bulky five-tonne capacity unit more suited for commercial spaces. Also, it won't work within 100 km of India's coastline, where humidity levels are high. 'It still solves for 70% of India, which faces dry-heat conditions. We are now working on a compact residential system combining evaporative cooling with a compressor. The latter will kick in to manage excess humidity while low-energy evaporative cooling will take care of dry heat," said Jeeten Desai, Ambiator's founder. Godrej Appliances showcased a similar technology at the Global Cooling Prize. The Godrej prototype, which was among eight short-listed finalists announced in 2019, uses a hybrid technology integrating vapour compression with advanced evaporative cooling. The prototype used a green, propane-based refrigerant (R290) with negligible global warming potential (224 times lower than R32, to be precise). Godrej is now working towards a commercial launch of this model in the next 2-3 years. In fact, way back in 2012, Godrej began selling an energy-efficient model with the R290 refrigerant. It sold some 500,000 units before withdrawing it from the market after a few years. Why? 'Back then, it was the most energy-efficient model. The market perception was that R290 is highly flammable (it still is). But so are domestic LPG cylinders, which hold 14 kg of inflammable gas—a much higher quantity compared to the refrigerant used in an AC (less than a kg for a 1.5-tonne unit)," said Kamal Nandi, business head and executive vice president at Godrej. In the near future, when regulations mandate use of green refrigerants, R290 will be the fallback option, Nandi said. Being a signatory to the Kigali amendment to the Montreal Protocol, India will have to phase down polluting HFCs beginning 2032. Meanwhile, unmindful of the rather technical debate around refrigerants and compressors, a quiet change is underway in India's hinterland. Annual air-cooler sales are now estimated to be at 18 million units, with branded ones accounting for a third of the market, said Deba Ghoshal, former vice president at Voltas Ltd. Air coolers use a tenth of the energy consumed by ACs and can comfortably cool in dry-heat, low-humidity regions. 'With new cooling-pad technology like honeycomb pads, humidity control sensors, powerful air throw and energy-efficient motors, air coolers are turning out to be a promising and sustainable solution. Families are no longer embarrassed to own one," said Ghoshal. To some, air coolers may seem like going back in time. But it's a sensible choice, being both pocket and planet friendly.
