Launch of District Cooling Pilot Sites under the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) Project entitled “Energy Efficiency through the Development of Low-carbon Refrigeration and Air Conditioning (RAC) Technologies in Trinidad and Tobago”

 

Trinidad and Tobago is continuing its thrust toward sustainable cooling. Cooling is a critical element for the sustainability and development of the economy.  It is required to ensure homes, offices, and cars are comfortable; industrial processes run safely and efficiently, and societies have preserved foods and vaccines for their population. Notwithstanding being identified as essential, cooling also has a significant adverse environmental impact.  The cooling technology used for refrigeration and air conditioning (RAC) mainly utilize synthetic refrigerants that can either deplete the ozone layer or contribute to global warming and climate change.  As the effect of climate change such as increases in temperature continue to be experienced worldwide, the demand for cooling also continues to increase, there is therefore an urgent need to cut cooling related pollution and energy wastage.

 To ensure that Trinidad and Tobago is prepared for the increased demand for cooling and ready to mitigate the identified threats to the environment and sustainability, various environmentally friendly, energy saving and economical cooling methods are being explored.  Under the grant funded Global Environmental Facility (GEF) Project entitled “Energy Efficiency through the Development of Low-carbon RAC Technologies in Trinidad and Tobago, this country is seeking to introduce district cooling technology which is a modern, energy efficient way to air condition a network of buildings. In this system, central cooling plants house large, highly efficient equipment that produces chilled water for supply to customer buildings through an insulated underground piping network. These systems have been found to reduce costs and environmental impact associated with air conditioning. 

 After several years of feasibility studies and technical assessments performed by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) who is the implementing partner for this GEF Project, the district cooling pilot sites have been launched. These pilot sites will be implemented at Couva through the Edan K Properties Ltd. and at Marabella through TOSL Engineering Ltd. The launch of these sites is a significant step toward the achievement of sustainable cooling at the national level and the transformation of the RAC market toward new, innovative and low carbon RAC technologies. The Couva site will also explore the concept of Cooling as a Service which is a business model to develop service providers engaged in the distribution of cooling. This model eliminates upfront investment in cooling technology for customers or end users, who instead pay per unit of cooling they consume from the service provider thereby strengthening incentives for efficient consumption.

 These activities are all in keeping with the National Cooling Strategy for Trinidad and Tobago, and through the overall implementation of this Global Environmental Facility (GEF) Project this country is expected to avoid direct emission of at least 644,396 carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2eq) of over the 4-year project period.

Site Visits by International District Cooling Specialists