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Pitch

Cooling and a/c based on water as natur refrigerant and renewable thermal energy sources such as solar, district heating, biomass etc.


Description

Summary

The demand for cooling and a/c is rapidly growing globally, while the annual sales have reached more than 135 mill. systems p.a. in 2016. In EU, energy demand for cooling is expected to increase by 70% within 2030.

Yet, consumers are left with no option for selecting sustainable product types applying natural refrigerants and based on low carbon and low quality energy sources such as solar thermal, district heating, biomass, waste heat etc.

At PURIX, we believe in providing sustainable and competitive plug&play cooling and a/c systems building on conventional and simple absorption cooling technology, reducing power demand and GHG emissions by 70%.

Designed to match consumer applications, the agro, service, public and industry sector, the plug&play split type cooling systems offer a great opportunity for retrofit as well as new installations.

As the products contain an acquaous working solution only instead of industrial refrigerants, the products may be installed by anyone without authorisation or product specific training.

Integrating green cooling systems into the existing regional distribution and sales channels for HVAC equipment and renewable energy products, is a great advantage for penetrating the market and an opportunity for reducing environmental impact in the short term.

PURIX A25s Solar Cooling plug&play


Is this proposal for a practice or a project?

Practice


What actions do you propose?

Penetration of the global market for cooling a/c systems require a critical mass of installations at regional level, as the industry sector is less comfortable with a position as 'first mover'.

Adopting plug&play absorption a/c systems powered by solar thermal, biomass, district heating etc., calls for support in terms of regional demonstration projects with high replication potential, as well as awareness raising towards policy makers, installers and end users.

This project proposes the following actions for adopting commercial green cooling technology:

1) Intergovernmental organisation stakeholder engagement with for creating awareness of competitive solar cooling (UNEP, UNIDO, IEA, donor organisations)

2) Regional governmental  and non-governmental stakeholder engagement for awareness raising and adopting competitive and mature solar cooling products into existing and future incentive programmes for energy efficiency and GHG emission reductions.


3) Fundraising for large scale regional pilot implementation programme for solar cooling in households, public administrations and selected private sub sectors.

4) Engaging with country specific networks of installers, as well as architect and engineering companies for introduction of solar cooling at the design stage, as well as business opportunity for installers within renewable energy and HVAC.

5) Engaging with regional manufacturers of HVAC equipment for local job creation within cooling and a/c by establishing local assembly/manufacturing of solar cooling equipment.


Who will take these actions?

Adoption of solar (and district) cooling systems calls for a continuous and intensive branding and communication of the technology as the market for cooling and a/c is dominated by compression technology manufactured by a handful of corporations.

As a representative for a competing and attractive technology and product type, the green cooling industry, to which PURIX belongs, may speak through the communication and political channels with interest in improving environmental performance.

Representing a negligible budget for external communication, branding and marketing compared to the handful of global industry leaders in cooling and a/c, the green cooling industry thus may build the communication towards users of cooling through the stakeholdes mention in the above section.

Creating a successful market 'pull' of solar cooling, thus requires support from commercial stakeholders with interest in extending solar thermal market into toe cooling and a/c segment.


Where will these actions be taken?

This activity aims at addressing the highest impact by targeting regions which 1) represent a high energy demand for buildings such as the USA, Australia and Europe, and 2) regions with high growth rate in energy demand for buildings such as India, Brazil, China, and South Africa representing the African continent.

The high volume market segment for a/c globally, is characterised by split type air cooled systems with a capacity <10kW.

 


In addition, specify the country or countries where these actions will be taken.

United States


Country 2

South Africa


Country 3

India


Country 4

Australia


Country 5

China


Impact/Benefits


What impact will these actions have on greenhouse gas emissions and/or adapting to climate change?

The proposed activity will replace industrial refrigerants such as R410 or similar with water. While the GWP value for water is 0kg_CO2eqv/kg_substance, industrial refrigerants applied for a/c, all have high GWP values of +1600kg_CO2eqv/kg_substance.

With annual sales of a/c systems exceeding 135mill. units p.a. the GHG emission reduction potential is substantial when replacing refrigerants with water.

In addition, solar cooling and district cooling based on e.g. district heating, represent a unique fuel switch opportunity for replacing electricity with a low carbon and low quality thermal energy source.

At present as well as in the futire +10 years, the electricity GHG emission grid factor in many countries reflect the use of coal and fossil fuels.

Replacing power consumption for compression cooling in a/c systems with solar and district cooling thus represent a unique opportunity for expanding the use of low cost and available energy sources.


What are other key benefits?

Most cities in EU, Russia, Canada and China struggle to include cooling in the term "district energy".

Plug&play district cooling based on ´locale absorption cooling systems powered by available district heating, is a unique opportunity for introducing district cooling while utilising existing district heating infrastructure.
 

Plug&Play solar cooling offers an opportunity for power peak shaving at national and regional level. Many developing countries struggle with a rapid increase in the power demand, which the capacity of the electricity grid is limited and expensive to expand.
As a fuel switch measure in urban and rual areas, replacing electricity with solar thermal energy, solar cooling offers a great advantage for society as well as for off grid installations.


Costs/Challenges


What are the proposal’s projected costs?

Feasibility of Solar cooling varies between individual geographical markets as well as applications.
Benchmarking solar cooling against high end multi split systems, the competitiveness depends on unit costs of electricity as well as annual cooling demand.

Simple payback period of solar cooling systems based on natual refrigerants, typically varies between 0 and 8 years. The benchmark is further improved then considering the impact of peak shaving of the power demand.
 


Timeline

Impact is immediate as plug&play solar cooling and district cooling systems are readily commercially available.

Plug&Play systems (2,5kW - 160kW) from PURIX are readily available for global distribution from the PURIX facility in Italy.

In the short term, implementation of the green cooling technology would be suitable for introduction in new constructions, refurbishing projects as well as replacement of obselete cooling systems. Due to the time for generating a market pull, it is estimated to represent a value of 1mill. units sold within 5 years globally, corresponding to 0,7% of the currect annual global sales.

In the medium term, the estimate is to reach a market share of 20% of the global market for split type cooling systems through solar and district cooling systems.

 


About the author(s)

PURIX is a company headquartered in DK and manufacturing in IT.
The company mission is to provide attractive, clean and competitive solutions which supports a sustainable development while addressing essential problems to the global society.


Related Proposals

N/A

 


References

purix.com

Plug&Play District Cooling system

Plug&Play Solar Cooling system

International Energy Agency Solar Heating and Cooling porgramme

Advances in solar heating and cooling