Page 30 - Climate Control News March 2020

Energy Efficiency
Australia’s biggest year yet for renewable investment
Record new renewable capacity in 2019
AUSTRALIA SET NEW records for renewable capacity installation and total electricity gener- ated from renewables in 2019.
The Clean Energy Regulator estimates that a record 6.3 gigawatts (GW) of new renewable ca- pacity was installed in 2019, 24 per cent above the previous record set in 2018.
Electricity generated from renewables is also es- timated to have increased to a record 44 terawatt hours (TWh), 20 per cent
above the previous year.
Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction, Angus Taylor
The Clean Energy Regulator expects that 2020 will be the biggest year yet for electricity genera- tion from renewables (both in absolute terms and year-on-year growth) with a forecast 26 per cent increase.
Based on Bloomberg New Energy Finance data, Australia invested $7.7 billion or $308 per person in renewable energy in 2019.
Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction, Angus Taylor, said this figure places Australia ahead of countries like the United States ($233 per person), Japan ($179 per person) and the United Kingdom ($109 per person).
On a per capita basis, Taylor said it is more than triple the per capita investment of coun- tries like Denmark ($95 per person), France ($90 per person) and Germany ($73 per person).
“Our per capita installation rate has increased more than five-fold since 2015,” Taylor said.
“Last year, an Australian National University (ANU) study confirmed this is four times the per capita rate of the European Union, United States and Japan and 10 times the global average.”
Emissions from the electricity grid are forecast to fall by 23 per cent by 2030 as the share of renew- able energy increases to more than a third in the early 2020s and 48 per cent by 2030, he said.
“The key challenge to ensuring continued strong growth in new renewable capacity is to drive down the cost of storage and backup, in- cluding grid updates,” Taylor said.
View the energy policy blueprint here: https:// www.energy.gov.au/energy-policy-blueprint- fair-deal-energy.
Prototype tested in simulated convenience store
DAIKIN HAS LAUNCHED the Natural HVACR 4 LIFE research project.
Co-funded by the European Union’s LIFE pro- gram, the project is coordinated by Daikin Eu- rope N.V in partnership with Daikin Aircondi- tioning Germany GmbH and Daikin AC Spain.
The project is embedded in the company-wide initiative to reduce carbon emissions to net zero by 2050, including the emissions generated throughout the life cycle of Daikin products.
The research project will demonstrate and evaluate “Conveni-Pack”, a combined refrigera- tion, comfort cooling and heating solution which is preassembled and easy to install.
The unit recovers heat from the refrigeration display cabinets and evaporators and reuses it to heat other areas of the building at no extra cost.
Current Conveni-Pack uses refrigerant R-410A, an HFC refrigerant that allows for high energy efficiency and a compact design, ideally
suited for locations with limited outdoor space. Using a diverse range of refrigerants and con- tinuously exploring ways to provide the best bal- ance between refrigerant GWP, safety, energy ef- ficiency, affordability and total environmental impact is an integral part of Daikin's refrigerant
policy, the company said in a statement. Through the Life project, Daikin will demon- strate a Conveni-Pack which uses a non-HFC refrigerant, R744 ( CO2 ) , and research further mitigation options to ensure safety and en- hance energy performance, typical challenges of using CO2 as a refrigerant, especially in
warm climates.
At the Daikin Europe Ostend plant in Belgium,
the first prototype will be tested in a simulated convenience store, followed by the demonstra- tion and monitoring of prototypes in actual su- permarkets in Germany and Spain. The total project duration is expected to be three years. ✺
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