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New Energy World
New Energy World embraces the whole energy industry as it connects and converges to address the decarbonisation challenge. It covers progress being made across the industry, from the dynamics under way to reduce emissions in oil and gas, through improvements to the efficiency of energy conversion and use, to cutting-edge initiatives in renewable and low carbon technologies.
Meeting growing global cooling energy demand will require a radical rethink of the essential role of cooling across large parts of the world. So argues Professor Toby Peters from the University of Birmingham.
Cooling is critical infrastructure essential for food, health, safe places to live and work, and the production and storage of data that defines our modern world. At the same time, the lack of cooling has material impacts. For example, in a warming planet, a gigatonne of CO2e is produced annually from food lost due to lack of ‘cold chain’ (continuous refrigeration during transportation and storage).
Global demand for cooling is already putting energy systems and the environment under increasing pressure. It accounts for more than 10% of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions and is emerging as one of the fastest-growing sources. But despite the rapid growth, by 2030 more than 1.2bn people will still suffer the consequences of lack of cooling.
If we want to deliver access to cooling for all, projections suggest that 18 cooling appliances need be sold every second over the next 30 years. Achieving this sustainably and within the confines of a renewable energy system will require a radically different approach to cooling and cold-chain provision. Such an approach needs to minimise the need for mechanical cooling and to leverage available renewable, thermal and waste energy resources, while also identifying synergies between processes and systems, along with aggregation opportunities.
In short, without a radical intervention we shall miss our UN Social Development Goals (SDGs) and climate targets.
The first problem is that when we talk energy, we often mean electricity; and when we talk energy storage, we mean chemical batteries. But most of our energy demand and growth is thermal: historically, heating in the Global North and cooling the Global South. Until we stop locking ourselves into electrons, we will not see the paradigm shift required.
Second, where there has been intervention to facilitate transition to more sustainable cooling provision, solutions have been focused on improving the energy efficiency of individual technologies. Such approaches result in sub-optimal outcomes and missed opportunities if they disregard the interdependencies and feedback loops that exist amongst the opportunities for cooling provision, including natural resources, the technology and innovation landscape, and social, cultural, political, and regulatory systems.
What are the benefits of thinking holistically about cooling?
By taking a holistic, systems approach, we could better integrate our cooling service needs into the whole system. This would allow us to harness and leverage synergies between processes and other sub-systems. In addition, we could identify, plan for and mitigate potential negative/unintended consequences, and also identify and reap potential indirect benefits that are often overlooked.
Third, the broader societal benefits of access to cooling are typically treated as a ‘soft win’, rather than the core driver for provision. Realising a truly sustainable and resilient cooling system demands understanding and valuing the broader and strategic impacts of cooling with links to climate and developmental goals, targets and commitments. The key is to recognise that social and environmental benefits do have financial value, which often translates to reductions in other costs or lower economic losses.
As to the why: each day 25,000 people die from hunger, while the lack of effective refrigeration results in the loss of 526mn tonnes of food production annually that could feed an estimated 1bn people. At the same time, globally, more than 1.5mn people lose their lives annually due to vaccine-preventable diseases, while estimates suggest that 25% of vaccines reach their destination with degraded efficacy mainly due to failures within the cold chain.
Extreme heat also restricts human physical functions and capabilities, impacting health and reducing work capacity and productivity. Rising temperatures lead to high levels of discomfort and heat stress. Increased heat stress is projected by the International Labour Organisation to reduce total working hours worldwide by 2.2% and global GDP by $2.4tn in 2030.
The global demand for cooling is already putting energy systems and the environment under increasing pressure – it accounts for more than 10% of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions and is emerging as one of the fastest-growing sources.
What is the most important question to ask about cooling?
Cooling is a critical infrastructure vital for every aspect of our society – and the need for it is increasing as temperatures rise. Limiting equitable access to sustainable cooling is not an option, as this would deepen societal divides; that is, those with access to cooling and those without.
But to transition from an unsustainable into a sustainable state equitably, to ensure community and system resilience, and to meet climate targets and help deliver the UN SDGs, it is critical to look at the dynamics between sub-systems within the whole system.
Rather than presupposing cooling technology demand, and asking ‘How much green electricity is required?’ we need to ask: ‘What are the services needed?’ From there, we can work out how to deliver these services in the most energy-efficient and resilient way possible.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are strictly those of the author only and are not necessarily given or endorsed by or on behalf of the Energy Institute.
