International. Deploying super-efficient air conditioners around the world could prevent the use of more than 120.5 billion watts from power plants by 2020, and saving more than 360TWH (Terawatt hours)/year, according to a new report from the U.S. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
The authors support their predictions that air conditioning efficiency could be cost-effectively improved by 20 to 40% in most large economies, which can have a major impact on the energy efficiency strategy for countries such as India and China, as they attempt to cope with the high demand for energy and the capacity needed to find the maximum load.
"The main significance of this study is that the estimated future electricity footprint of air conditioning is on par with or exceeds electricity generated from renewable sources such as wind and solar," said Berkeley lab scientist Nihar Shah, lead author of the report. "This implies that policies to promote more efficient air conditioning equipment must be carried out with similar seriousness and concern."
In India, China and Brazil alone, it is expected that the demand for air conditioning electricity could reach more than 500TWh/per year, so the adoption of cost-effective efficiency levels would save more than 140TWh/per year until 2020.
