Its true the world is embracing air conditioners at a wholesale rate and there is no sign of this trend stopping anytime soon. In fact the world is about to install another 700 million air conditioners. CCN translates the damage and looks at what it means for the planet.
Obviously this unstoppable trend is great news for the HVAC industry. According to a report from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in the US 'hundreds of millions' of air conditioning units will be installed by 2030 with 1.6 billion installed by 2050.
In terms of electricity use and greenhouse gas emissions, that’s like adding several new countries to the world. The report identifies two ways to keep a lid on this level of growth in terms of the environment. Both options require a commitment from industry.
The first is for all 197 United Nations member countries to reach agreement on how to phasedown hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) under the Montreal Protocol. Australia is hopeful an agreement will be in place by 2017.
The Lawrence Berkeley report said a HFC phase-down would avoid the equivalent of 100 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide and more than 0.5°C of warming by 2050.
It would also bring significant energy efficiency benefits that past phase-outs have produced when phasing out refrigerants.
The second option put forward by the report is to make air conditioners more energy efficient.
“A 25 to 30 per cent improvement in efficiency, which is technologically possibly, can have an enormous impact on peak demand for electricity going forward,” the report said. Its also important to ensure already efficient technologies are more widely available.
The report pointed to Korea as an example. “Some mini split air conditioners available in Korea are already 50 per cent more energy efficient than the standard model on the market today,” it said.
The Berkeley Laboratory study found that if the world can shift toward 30 per cent more efficient air conditioners, and phase out HFCs at the same time, it could effectively offset the construction of as many as 1,550 peak power plants.
To give you an idea of the speed of air conditioner adoption take a look at China. In just 15 years, urban areas of China went from a few percentage points of adoption to exceeding 100 per cent, that is more than one air conditioner (AC) per urban household.
The link between household income and air conditioner adoption is well established. A growing middle class in Asia is certainly driving the massive installation of more units. Air conditioner sales are now increasing in India, Indonesia and Brazil by between 10 and 15 per cent per year.
The biggest country for air conditioning growth is India. This nation of 1.25 billion people, had just five per cent air conditioning penetration in the year 2011. This is set to change drastically as India takes steps to bring electricity to several-hundred-million people in the next few years.
Another factor that will impact this growth is continuing investment in clean energy. 2015 broke the global record for renewable energy installations, according to the 2016 Renewables Global Status Report available at www.ren21.net/gsr
It found that the power sector experienced its largest annual increase in capacity ever, with significant growth in all regions. Wind and solar PV had record additions for the second consecutive year, accounting for about 77 per cent of new installations, and hydropower represented most of the remainder.
The world now adds more renewable power capacity annually than it adds (net) capacity from all fossil fuels combined. By the end of 2015, renewable capacity in place was enough to supply an estimated 23.7 per cent of global electricity, with hydropower providing about 16.6 per cent.
When it comes to clean energy Australia is certainly playing its part. Last year Australia had the 7th highest number of solar PV systems installed globally that's one solar panel for every resident.