In a keynote address at the Green Cooling Summit this week, Professor Armin Hafner professor in refrigeration in the Department of Energy and Process Engineering at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), called for more public financing to help drive investments in natural refrigerant systems.
The Green Cooling Summit was hosted by the German Environment Agency (UBA), Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and Germany’s Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU).
“Investment in green cooling is often ‘killed’ by slightly higher capital expenditures (CapEx) for new energy efficient NWF systems,” said Hafner, who for many years has done some of the leading research on CO2 refrigeration and heat pump technology.
“World Bank, Multilateral funds, national governments and funding programs should support end users (investors) to cover additional first costs for cooling units applying natural working fluids with affordable loans following the unit. So, the end users (operators) can return the debt during the operational phase.”
In his keynote address, Hafner argued that natural refrigerants were the best alternative for the global HFC phase down under the Kigali Amendment.
“A successful and global fast phase‐in of green cooling units applying natural working fluids requires understanding that green cooling is not at all possible with non‐natural working fluids.”
He added that training and knowledge transfer as well as end-user awareness are key factors for a successful and global fast phase‐in of green cooling units.
End users must be aware of the kind of equipment they are ordering and by searching the Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) to find out the seasonal energy demand and GWP of the working fluid, he said.
Additionally, he said it should be mandatory for a supplier of a cooling unit to provide end users with more environmental impact data than GWP values for working fluids, including byproducts during production and degradation.
“A successful and global fast phase‐in of green cooling units applying natural working fluids requires understanding that green cooling is not at all possible with non‐natural working fluids.”
Professor Armin Hafner, Norwegian University of Science and Technology
