Community Cooling Hubs
Date : February 20, 2023
Cooling is inter-linked with several aspects of human health and wellbeing. In a warming world, protection of fresh and nutritious food, safe medicines and protection of the population from extreme heat are essential. Cooling is also directly related to work conditions, economic productivity of the working population, and income generation. An estimate suggests that due to extreme heat, the Indian...
HCFC Phase-out Management Plan – The SME Foam Sector
Date : April 18, 2022
India recently commenced stage II of the HCFC Phase-out Management Plan (HPMP-II) under the Montreal Protocol. As part of the Plan, India seeks to phase out the consumption of HCFC-141b by 2020. HCFCs are primarily used in the foam sector as a blowing agent. While most large-scale foam manufacturers in India have been able to shift to alternate solutions like cyclopentane, around 422 Small and Med...
Low-GWP Readiness: Training and Certification of Servicing Sector Technicians
Date : April 13, 2022
Better living standards, disposable income and need for cooling have led to increase in the uptake of Residential Air Conditioners (RAC), Commercial Air-Conditioners (CAC), as well as Mobile Air Conditioners (MAC). Due to rise in the demand of cooling equipment, the market for servicing these appliances have also increased rapidly. Currently there are about 200,000 service technicians in the stati...
Implementing ICAP: Developing Optimal Cooling Pathways for India
Date : April 13, 2022
The India Cooling Action Plan (ICAP), launched by the Ozone Cell of the Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change (MoEFCC) in order to address the status and future scope of cooling and refrigeration demand, provides a long-term policy road-map for addressing India’s vast and unmet cooling demand in a sustainable manner with minimal environmental and socio-economic impact. However, wi...
Informing India’s Stance on the Global Phase-Down of Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs)
Date : January 19, 2022
In October 2016, India along with nearly 200 other countries adopted an agreement in Kigali, Rwanda to phase down the use of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). India agreed to move forward its proposed freeze year by three years from 2031 to 2028 and its proposed baseline by four years from 2028-2030 to 2024-2026. Efforts facilitated by Shakti have informed India’s stance on the global phasedown of HFCs...
Sustainable and Smart Space Cooling Coalition
Date : January 17, 2022
India is at the cusp of an exponential growth in the air-conditioner (AC) market. The growing demand for cooling will lead to a significant increase in overall energy demand for space cooling, stress on the electricity grid and more emissions. The criticality of addressing India’s escalating demand for cooling energy cannot be overstated, particularly against the backdrop of its global climate c...
Advancing Domestic Dialogue and Action in Support of an HFC Phase-Down
Date : January 17, 2022
India has adopted a positive stance on the phase down of HFC production and consumption by proposing an amendment to the Montreal Protocol. Despite this affirmative action, there are relevant concerns amongst domestic stakeholders with respect to the alternative substances that are expected to replace HFCs. In particular, there are concerns regarding their technical viability in the high-ambient t...
Cleaner and More Energy Efficient Cold chains in India
Date : January 17, 2022
Around Rs. 92,000 crores worth of major agricultural produce (at 2014 wholesale prices) is lost in India every year (Central Institute of Post-Harvest Engineering and Technology, 2016). The actual economic loss would be compounded if we consider retail price, hunger, farmer distress and farm loan wavers. While many factors contribute to post-harvest losses in India, one of the major causes is ...
Mainstreaming Thermal Comfort For All and Resource Efficiency in Affordable Housing
Date : January 15, 2022
The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) launched the India Cooling Action Plan (ICAP)—a 20-year roadmap to address cooling requirements in building, cold chain, transport and refrigeration sectors—in March 2019. The plan is unique in its pioneering attempt to develop adaptive thermal comfort standards for buildings to reduce energy guzzling. ICAP recommends the ‘...
The Way Forward for Green Cooling
Date : January 14, 2022
With heat waves sweeping across cities in India, the need for cooling solutions is more urgent than ever. India’s cooling demand is projected to grow by eight times in the next 20 years. This will lead to a significant increase in cooling demand, stress on the electricity grid and the release of high Global Warming Potential (GWP) refrigerants like HFCs. The landmark Kigali Amendment aims to ...