Cooling demand is increasing? So what!
We hear it more often these days: the demand for cooling is expected to increase. Personally, I hear this story told with a sense of drama: "we have to pay more attention to cooling", "increased cooling demand will become a challenge to our electric grids" etc.
It is however a fact that the demand for cooling is very low as we speak and I dare say, that our first priority must be to decarbonise heating. In order to to this, we shall take a combined perspective on heating and cooling, which will most likely help to solve the cooling challenge, too. If we use heatp pumps, we will always have both services available: If we provide heating, we have waste cooling at our disposal and vice versa. The challenge is to make use of this waste.
Having said this, here is my personal opinion on the cooling challenge in 5 bullet points:
- Cooling demand occurs mainly in regions with a lot of sunshine. That's good, because a lot of sunshine allows for the generation of large amounts of electricity, using PV panels.
- From #1 I deduct that daytime cooling is neither a problem in itself nor for the grids, because the smart combination of electric compression cooling with PV allows a sufficiently develop society to solve this.
- From the quite conclusive @IEA report on "the future of cooling" (Well done, John Dulac) we know, that despite their availability, best in class cooling and refrigeration system are not the standard solution. Thus governments are called on to create higher ambition via Ecodesign and energy efficiency legislation - if executed, electricity demand for cooling can significantly be reduced using already existing technology. Then there is also the quest for more efficient, lower cost cooling solutions. Check out the global cooling price if you want to know more.
- If cooling is also needed at night, electric and thermal batteries can help. Either a system can store surplus electricity generated during daytime and use it to run cooling equipment at night OR water/ice storages are charged during daytime and the cooling is provided from these thermal batteries during nighttime.
- An important aspect of all these considerations is the use of the waste heat from cooling. Buildings that have a cooling demand should be designed in a systems perspective. The waste heat should be used or stored (in hot water tanks, in "PCM batteries" or feed into energy grids) for later use. Its discharge into the environment should only be a matter of last resort.
If you find this interesting, let me know what you think in the comments.
EHPA will also host a table a the upcoming cooling workshop during sustainable energy week in Brussels. If you are traveling to Brussels and have time for a coffee, let me know.
The power of positive energy efficiency ?Thermo.Katwijk, using R744 (CO2) Refrigerant and heat-pump technology. F-gas1 certificated.
5 年Nothing new, well insulated building with smart ventilation and adiabatic cooling for the night is able to get enough heat out in the night, to stay cool at daytime. The cooling demand is indeed way to far dramatized, as a selling story to the unknown for expensive cooling options with we need to avoid by insulation and smarter ventilation and buffers. Because we make 65oC water with a co2 heat pumps, the cooled air can be send back into the building as a extra no waist of cooled air options. Staying stuck on HFC and/or HFO's, and low temperature heating systems, there is no heating demand and no "waist cold air available" when necessary, because there is no heating demand during those times.. ??
CEO @ Smart Energy | BIO-PCM Thermal Batteries, Liquid Cooling, Load shifting , Radiant Conditioning and innovations MANUFACTURER
5 年I can say that some solutions are already on their way . I like to share with you my last article.? https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/thermal-energy-storage-tes-more-interesting-than-electrical-feo/
As Prof. - Research Scientist & International R&D Project Manager at Technical University of Sofia
5 年Dear Thomas, Thank you for this intriguing and valuable viewpoint. You are absolutely right that heating and cooling demands must be handled simultaneously in an integral way. The best option to do this is to use heat pumps (occasionally called refrigeration machines :)). For me, it should be a routine, not an extravagancy. Nevertheless, the understanding that the “demand for cooling is very low” is perhaps true for the building applications in Northern countries. As a patriot of cooling/refrigeration, let me remind that the sector is really huge, given it includes: cold chain for refrigerated processing, storage, transport, distribution, retail and household handling of chilled and frozen food commodities, vaccines, medicines and pharmaceuticals; blood and tissue banks; gene banks; keeping in-vitro materials and embryos; cryosurgery; cryotherapy; cold spray anesthetics; cooling of medical diagnostic equipment; liquefaction and separation of gases, and LNG businesses; superconductivity; ice rinks, artificial ski runs, bobsleigh, luge and skeleton tracks, snowmaking machines; ice generators; cryogenics for powerful particle accelerators and thermonuclear reactors; cryogenic energy storage; cryorecycling; process cooling in brewery, chemical and metallurgical industries; cooling of electronic equipment and data centres and many others. Hence, let me encourage you to be a stronger believer in the importance of cooling/refrigeration when hosting the round table at the upcoming CoolingEU event. It is extremely cool to make things cold! Yours, Kostadin
Gentleman | Passionate working striving to immagine and build a greener future | Sustainability Advisor, Green Building, Green Product, Green Infrastructure, Sustainable Cities and Communities
5 年I agree Thomas The focal point is that buildings are complex systems. An important question is “are Buildings designed in this systemic perspective?”. The green building holistic approach is the answer and the methodology is represented by energy-environmental protocols (LEED-GBC, BREEAM, DGNB, ESTIDAMA, CASBEE, ESTIDAMA, ...)