Energy Efficient Cooling in India

Over the past decade, rising temperatures have added to the enormity of India’s developmental challenges. Rising temperatures present a grave danger to thermal comfort impacting overall economic productivity, making access to cooling a necessity for all sections of the population. However, owing to the high built and population density in cities, the rising temperatures impact the urban areas disproportionately. The seminal work done while developing the India Cooling Action Plan (ICAP) and published by MoEF&CC in 2019 took a holistic, cross-sectoral view on cooling and proposed ratcheting-up of efforts under the existing government initiatives and importantly urged for increased activities on new technologies, approaches and demand-groups. Aligning closely with the recommendations of ICAP, the project proposes a multidisciplinary, integrated approach to advance the agenda of energy efficient and environment-friendly centralized cooling system through sustainable urban cooling planning including technologies such as district cooling, environment-friendly refrigerants with low or no global warming potential. The proposed project from GIZ is a timely initiative to define an integrated approach along with technical solutions to enhance the potential of application of energy-efficient centralized cooling systems using natural refrigerants with low or no global warming potential.

The key success factors identified for ensuring successful execution of the proposed project are as follows: • Partnership and collaboration: Successful partnership with BEE, MoEF&CC, MoHUA, technology and service providers, developers, state, and local governments will be critical to achieving the desired results and outcomes • Policies and regulations: Formulation/amendment of business-enabling and environment-friendly policies for advancing the agenda of energy efficient and environmentally friendly centralized cooling systems as long-term drivers • Business models: Development of innovative and cost-effective business models to implement and scale up the adoption of identified solutions, and de-risking investment with innovative, quantitative framework to assist policymakers to cost-effectively promote and scale-up private sector investment in centralized cooling • Technology demonstration: Identification of pilot projects to provide evidence of successful scale-up through the design, construction, and commissioning, and demonstrating overall benefits of the identified solutions