With demand for air conditioning units set to cross one billion by 2050 in India, the climate change-conscious Government is now looking for an energy-efficient technology that will have at least five times less climate impact than the standard room ACs sold at present.
To encourage innovation in this regard, the Government on Monday announced the launch of the first-of-its kind $3 million Global Cooling Prize, an international competition asking the researchers and innovators from across the world to develop such a cooling technology to combat the climate change threat.
Announcing the award, Dr Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister of Science, Technology and Earth Sciences said rising temperature will affect the health and productivity of billions of citizens. We support this innovation challenge, which aims to develop sustainable and efficient technology to provide thermal comfort to all, he said while speaking at the inaugural of the two-day Global Cooling Innovation Summit here.
Presently, there around 1.2 billion room air conditioning units in service around the world. The number is set to increase to at least 4.5 billion by 2050, according to an estimate. India alone will see over 1 billion air conditioning deployed in the market by 2050. The energy consumption associated with comfort cooling represents one of the largest end-use risks to the climate, putting the most vulnerable populations at risk.
The prize is supported by Government’s Mission Innovation through the Department of Science and Technology and its partner organizations Ministry of Power, Bureau of Energy Efficiency, and Environment Ministry while a coalition of research institutes-Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), Conservation X Labs, the Alliance for an Energy Efficient Economy (AEEE), and CEPT University will oversee it.
John Loughhead Vice-Chair, Mission Innovation Steering Committee said, “This is exactly what Mission Innovation was set-up to deliver - new collaborations between governments, innovators and the private sector to unleash innovation in climate critical technologies.”
Iain Campbell from RMI said, “A technology developed through the Global Cooling Prize has the opportunity to capture a $20 billion market and transform the global AC market for the better.”
Over $3 million will be awarded in prize money over the course of the two-year competition. Up to 10 short-listed competing technologies will be awarded up to $200,000 each in intermediate prizes to support the design and prototype development of their innovative residential cooling technology designs. The winning technology will be awarded at least $1 million to support its incubation and early-stage commercialisation, said an official from the S&T Ministry.
On the occasion, “Solving the Global Cooling Challenge” report prepared by the RMI was released. It said adoption of a 5X solution by year 2040, about 75 per cent less electricity will be needed globally to operate the room air conditioners in 2050. “The 5X solution can achieve cumulative emissions reductions of up to 100 gigatons by 2050 — equivalent to taking 50% of today’s global stock of passenger vehicles off the road — and help mitigate up to 0.5º C in global warming impact,” it added.
