By Eamonn Ryan
Africa’s transition towards lower-GWP refrigerants and more sustainable cooling technologies has received a significant boost, with more than USD22-million approved for projects across eight African countries.
The investment is significant because Africa’s demand for cooling is increasing rapidly.
Supplied by UNDP
The funding, approved through the Montreal Protocol’s Multilateral Fund, will support countries as they implement the Kigali Amendment to phase down hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) and develop more sustainable refrigeration and air-conditioning sectors.
The investment is significant because Africa’s demand for cooling is increasing rapidly. Population growth, urbanisation, rising temperatures and expanding food, pharmaceutical and industrial supply chains are all increasing dependence on refrigeration and air conditioning. At the same time, many African countries face a difficult combination of limited technical capacity, unreliable electricity supplies and rapidly increasing demand for cooling equipment.
Moving beyond refrigerant replacement
The HFC phase-down is often presented primarily as a refrigerant issue. In practice, however, the transition affects almost every part of the HVAC&R value chain. Equipment manufacturers need to introduce systems using lower-GWP refrigerants, while importers and distributors need to understand the changing equipment landscape. Contractors and technicians need appropriate training, and end users need to understand how equipment selection affects both energy consumption and operating costs.
The Multilateral Fund funding therefore extends beyond simply replacing one refrigerant with another. Projects include measures aimed at strengthening national implementation, improving servicing practices and developing the technical infrastructure required to support the transition.
Nigeria is expected to receive the largest share of the latest funding, with close to USD18-million allocated to activities including HFC phase-down measures, implementation of its Kigali plan and strengthening the refrigeration and air-conditioning servicing sector. That emphasis on servicing is particularly important for Africa.
The technician is central to the transition
The performance of a refrigeration or air-conditioning system depends not only on its design and equipment, but also on how it is installed, commissioned, maintained and eventually decommissioned. Poor installation and maintenance can result in refrigerant leakage, reduced efficiency and shortened equipment life. As the industry moves towards lower-GWP refrigerants, technicians will also need to become familiar with the different characteristics and safety requirements associated with alternatives.
Natural refrigerants such as hydrocarbons, carbon dioxide and ammonia already have an important role in parts of the African market. Their wider adoption, however, requires appropriate design practices, safety procedures and technician competence. This makes skills development a critical component of the refrigerant transition.
Africa’s cooling demand is not going away
The need for more sustainable refrigeration needs to be considered alongside the continent’s enormous unmet demand for cooling. Cooling is essential to food security, healthcare, manufacturing, data centres, commercial buildings and increasingly to residential comfort. In many parts of Africa, access to reliable cooling remains limited, while demand is expected to increase substantially as economies develop.
The challenge is therefore twofold: Africa needs to expand access to cooling while ensuring that the additional equipment does not lock the continent into unnecessarily high energy consumption or high-GWP refrigerants.
That makes energy efficiency just as important as refrigerant selection. A highly efficient system using a lower-GWP refrigerant can reduce both direct environmental impacts and the indirect emissions associated with electricity consumption. Conversely, simply replacing a refrigerant without addressing system efficiency can leave a substantial part of the environmental problem untouched.
An opportunity for the African HVAC&R industry
The latest funding represents more than an international environmental commitment. It could help accelerate the development of a more formalised and technically capable African HVAC&R sector. For manufacturers, it creates an incentive to introduce appropriate low-GWP technologies. For contractors and service companies, it reinforces the need for training and professionalisation. For governments, it highlights the importance of refrigerant management, standards and enforcement.
For the industry as a whole, the transition presents an opportunity to address some longstanding weaknesses in the cooling sector.
The refrigerant transition will ultimately succeed or fail not only in factories and government policy documents, but in workshops, plant rooms, supermarkets, cold stores and homes across the continent.
Africa needs more cooling. The challenge is to ensure that the cooling it adds over the coming decades is efficient, affordable, safe and environmentally sustainable.
