The Board Perspective: Mariano Covolo

Mariano Covolo is the Knowledge Manager at Mitsubishi Electric Hydronics & IT Cooling Systems S.p.A. and a Eurovent Board Member. For our ‘The Board Perspective’ series, he gave us his views on the F-Gas Regulation and the initiatives impacting the HVACR sector.

Mariano started his career in 1991 designing low noise chillers and air handling units after an experience as a technician in the jewellery industry shinning gold and platinum. He has developed simulation software’s for refrigerant circuits and has had the opportunity to cover other complimentary roles such as Project Leader and Development Manager and, more recently, as Technologies and Laboratories Manager. At Mitsubishi Electric Hydronics & IT Cooling Systems S.p.A., as the Knowledge Manager, he is responsible for collecting and sharing the company’s knowledge. The Eurovent Team has asked him interesting questions about F-Gas and some initiatives which play a major role in the HVACR sector.

From your view as a Eurovent Board Member and the Chairman of ECC Programme Committee for Liquid Chilling Packages and Heat Pumps, which initiatives have been a great advantage to the HVACR sector in the recent past 5 years?

The HVACR sector is already driven by the European Green Deal published on 19 December 2019 with additional measures that appeared in the year 2020. On 04 March, the European Commission adopted a legislative proposal for a European climate law, setting the objective for the EU to become climate-neutral by 2050 and establishing a framework for achieving that objective. Only six days later, the Commission laid the foundations for an Industrial Strategy that would support the twin transition to a green and digital economy, to make EU industry more competitive globally, and enhance Europe’s open strategic autonomy.

There was the establishment of the Circular Economy Action Plan, which hovered over several policy areas, and sectors alongside measures to support a systemic change through innovation and investments. The unveiling of the Biodiversity Strategy for 2030, the Sustainable Product Initiative and both Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability and the Renovation Wave for Europe have all been instrumental in the development of products in the HVACR sector. Recently, the European Commission issued the REPower EU Action Plan on 18 May to rapidly reduce the EU's dependence on external fossil fuels and speeding up the ongoing green transition. We see that the European Green Deal mentioned above, despite the complexity, is a great deal. It will help us cut carbon emissions while creating jobs and new opportunities. To be effective, from the general context studded by a variety of issues, we should focus on specific tasks at the moment. One is the declaration and verification of the Embodied Carbon on each raw material, component, and system.??

Another task is the energy monitoring of all products and systems in the HVACR sector that has a great potential of integration on smart grids. Such products and systems are great players to stabilise the electrical grid, they can accumulate thermal energy when the electricity is more available and shut down when there is a peak of electricity demand. In the market, we find examples of both initiatives, but the methodology is not yet harmonised, so from one side, the manufacturers are wasting time on collecting and providing different solutions and different types of data country by country, on the other side, the customers can hardly make a consistent comparison between suppliers and solutions. At the end of the day, the decision is likely to be linked to the price and not linked to the carbon emissions. The awareness of embodied carbon and indirect emissions from energy monitoring should be the rational base for every action to prevent global warming and improve energy saving.??

What is the status and proposals for the F-Gas Regulation and how much of an impact is it having on the HVAC manufacturers?

The F-Gas Regulation (EU) No 517/2014 is in place once again with the aim to prevent global warming impact by limiting and controlling the usage of greenhouse gases with special care for saturated fluorinated gas that has high Global Warming Potential (GWP). The limitation is given by a quota system that imposes a progressive reduction since 2015 of total quantity of refrigerants expressed in tons of CO2 equivalent. The F-Gas Regulation defines also the maximum GWP, the proposal of April 2022 is pushing for refrigerants with GWP lower than 150. Unfortunately, apart from the refrigerant CO2 that is not efficient in comfort applications, the remaining refrigerants with GWP lower than 150 are toxic and/or flammable.

These additional hazards challenge the design, the production, the transportation, the installation, the maintenance, and the decommissioning of HVAC systems. Despite huge investments, on many cases, the alternatives are not acceptable from safety and the cost point of view is that, sooner or later, it will be transferred to the end users. To find out a better solution, HVAC manufacturers are gathering around the table of the Eurovent Association to define common suggestions to the European Commission and the Member States for the next F-Gas Regulation.