The ‘Cold Economy’
A talk given to an IET audience earlier this month by Dr. Tim Fox, Royal Academy of Engineering Visiting Professor. Brief notes follow, starting with some overall statistics, moving on to specific problems with suggested solutions, and ending with relevant institutions and links to further reading. Statistics: refrigeration uses around 17% of global electricity supply at present. Cooling equipment deployed globally is expected to to grow from 3.6bn units in 2018 to 9.5bn by 2050. The associated energy consumption would grow from 3,900 TWh/yr to 9,500 Twh/yr, and the total CO 2e emissions for sector from ≈4GT to ≈8.9GT. Global space cooling is expected to consume more energy than global space heating by 2070 and 60% more by the end of the century. Some specific examples: Built Environment Use of Natural Resources 60,000m 3 of stored winter snow from road clearing has been used to cool Sundsvall Hospital, Sweden. District Cooling (DC) can improve efficiency...