Humans have seemingly perfected the science of staying cool and air conditioning and refrigeration units are relatively cheap, the mechanics are pretty simple, and access to them is on the rise, reports Quartz.
The downside is that they are horrible for a planet grappling with a growing climate crisis.
Globally, about 12% of non-carbon dioxide emissions can be attributed to refrigeration and air conditioners, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency.
That number is expected to increase as the earth heats up and populations swell in already-warm climates such as India, which, by launching an air conditioning innovation competition, is on the front lines of the effort to re-envision the globe’s cooling technologies.
In Delhi, where temperatures during the summer regularly crest 40.5°C, cooling currently comprises 40% to 60% of summer peak electricity generation. And that is in a city where a minority of residents use air conditioning at all; about 5% of residents have cooling in their homes.
As more Indians enter the middle class, they will likely spend disposable income on basic luxuries that include energy-intensive air conditioning units.
Research shows that by 2100, in a best case scenario, close to half the earth’s population will face 20 days of potentially-fatal heat and humidity each year.
Some areas of northeast India, research has shown, will become so hot that being outside for more than a few hours could be deadly, according to The Verge.
With that in mind, the Indian government in November 2018, along with two global energy nonprofits, launched The Global Cooling Prize, a competition worth $3 million to find new and sustainable technologies to cool the planet’s workspaces and homes in which more than 440 applications were submitted from 56 countries.
It is an effort to totally re-think how we cool the spaces in which we live and work. Currently we use compression technology, which circulates coolants through a compressor and condenser to remove heat and moisture from indoor air.
Rethinking that approach means throwing out every aspect of the compression technology we use today to embrace newer, environmentally-friendly approaches, says Vitalij Pecharsky, a scientist at the Ames Laboratory, a US Department of Energy facility in Iowa.
“In my mind, at least, the future of refrigeration is really not in the traditional compression technologies as we know them,” Pecharsky says.
The race to create a better way to cool ourselves has already begun and in November 2019, The Cooling Prize will announce their 10 finalists, each getting $200,000 to develop prototypes to be tested.
Keeping in mind India’s role with the whole initiative, some of the testing of these prototypes will be done in Delhi where for two months straight, contestants will keep their submissions operating in local apartments while being judged on their efficiency—and the ability to work under intense heat.
