As India is urbanising fast, the demand for sustainable, clean, and energy efficient cooling solutions is rising in tandem.
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India's cooling needs now need energy efficiency
- The story: As India is urbanising fast, the demand for sustainable, clean, and energy efficient cooling solutions is rising in tandem. Heat makes humans less efficient, and in modern workplaces, access to cooling is a development need and an equality issue.
- If not cooling, then what: A large part of the population lies at the risk of being exposed to life-threatening temperatures, as the frequency of heatwaves across India increases due to climate change. So access to cooling has become a 'development need' and an equality issue. It can add on to the larger developmental goals on clean energy, sustainable cities, health, and well-being. But India has to address this without adding to global warming creating emissions.
- Policies and global commitments: Energy efficient and sustainable cooling lies at the heart of key international multilateral agreements - (i) The Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol, (ii) the Paris Agreement under the UNFCCC, and (iii) the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
- Recognizing 'cooling as a development need' is important, as it is linked with achieving the SDGs, such as the health and well-being (SDG 3), decent work and economic growth (SDG 8), sustainable cities (SDG 11), and climate action (SDG 13).
- The Kigali Cooling Efficiency Program (K-CEP) is a philanthropic programme on the global scale, which has been launched to support the successful implementation of the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol. It promotes collaborative research to help countries find innovative cooling solutions and make an accelerated shift away from hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). Ratification by 65 countries or parties brought the amendment to force on 1st January 2019.
- However, India and major countries such as China, USA, Brazil, Thailand, and South Korea, which make up about 77% of AC compressors' trade flow, have not yet ratified the Kigali Amendment.
- India's plan: The Government launched the India Cooling Action Plan (ICAP) in 2019 to provide a 20-year view on the evolving cooling demand, along with several short-term and long-term recommendations to achieve sustainable cooling. If robust policies are implemented to encourage the use of best available energy efficient cooling technologies in the cooling sector, the associated emission (GHG) reductions from cooling will also decrease. The ICAP has close links with several other governmental programmes, such as the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Housing for All), Smart Cities Mission, and National Mission on Enhanced Energy Efficiency.
- Future of cooling in India: A major share of the increase in energy use for space cooling comes from emerging economies, such as India, China, and Indonesia – the three nations that are predicted to account for half of the global cooling energy demand growth by 2050. In India, roughly 8% of the households were air-conditioned as of March 2018. This coverage is expected to rise to 50% by 2050, which would translate into a significant increase in energy needs in addition to HFC leakage from AC units. The government can support interventions and energy efficiency measures in cooling through standards and labelling schemes, as well as by introducing new ways to regulate energy consumption, such as MEPS (minimum energy performance standards). Energy efficient appliances will not only help consumers save money, but also reduce overall energy consumption and therefore emit less CO2 over their lifetime. The interplay of a variety of factors is important to understand in order to encourage energy efficiency in cooling.
- Poor choices: There is a need to bring energy efficient and low global warming potential (GWP) non-HFC-based refrigerants to the mainstream. To enable this, the ICAP highlights the importance of an accelerated 'HFC phase-down' process and further development of cooling technologies. The current models of high efficiency ACs are unaffordable for majority of Indian consumers. Public procurement of energy efficient equipment is crucial.
- 'Not-in-kind' solutions: These will play a key role in the area of climate-friendly HFC-free cooling, and include evaporative cooling, adsorption cooling systems, and district cooling, where a central cooling facility is in use and cool water is delivered to houses in the district. Other climate-friendly systems are available that reduce the electricity consumption by being paired with a waste heat energy source or a solar thermal energy source, such as solar adsorption chillers. Many 'not-in-kind' technologies are still in the early stages of research and development.
- Building code amendment: India needs to define thermal comfort in order to guide interventions for energy efficiency in buildings. Building codes should be amended to ensure all buildings are designed such that passive design is preferred. Passively cooled building design and natural ventilation can reduce cooling load and minimize peak power requirement. The PMAY is primarily aimed at achieving government's objective of housing for all and has also been included in the COVID stimulus package. The scheme attempts to boost demand for affordable housing and create jobs. However, it is important that the building envelope should comply with the requirements of Eco-Niwas Samhita 2018 to ensure thermal comfort for the occupants of these upcoming housing projects.
- Summary: The COVID-19 pandemic has affected all sectors of the economy and economic package and structural reforms were announced by the government. As a positive side effect, the opportunity for a faster transition to clean energy across key sectors of the economy has opened up. Better data collection on cooling needs across different sections of the society, urban and rural areas, and commercial and residential sectors will lead to more reliable estimates of the cooling requirement, energy demand projections, and appropriate technical solutions. The new 'clean cold chains' must be seen as a key component of the agri-supply chain. The journey of produce from the farm to end consumers should occur with minimal environmental impact.
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