Brazil. Brazil is the sixth country with the most expensive energy in the world. Here, the cost of this strategic input to the economy is 46% higher than the global average. The analysis, made by the Federation of Industries of Rio de Janeiro (Firjan) at the end of 2018, measures the financial weight of energy for the industrial sector.
But this item also represents important values for the owners and tenants of commercial buildings, where air conditioning is, in some cases, responsible for up to 60% of electricity consumption, according to data from the Energy Research Company (EPE) of the Ministry of Mines and Energy (MME). In food and beverage retail, refrigeration systems are the big villains.
The search for energy efficiency in refrigeration acquires importance in the face of the demand for air conditioning equipment, the main element in the debates that will occur during the 21st Febrava - International Fair of Refrigeration, Air Conditioning, Ventilation, Heating and Air Treatment that takes place in September, in the city of São Paulo to be held from September 10 to 13 in Sao Paulo.
Segundo Luciano Marcato, president of Abrava, energy efficiency in HVAC/R systems is driven in Brazil by industry and market demand. "Various products and technologies of state-of-the-art and high-tech systems have been introduced in the Brazilian market in recent years, but the legislation is outdated or in some cases non-existent, either in the part of central air conditioning or commercial and industrial refrigeration systems", highlights the manager.
In 2018, EPE presented the technical note "Use of Air Conditioning in the Brazilian Residential Sector: Perspectives and contributions for the advancement in energy efficiency" which presented scenarios of electricity consumption by residential air conditioners in Brazil until 2035 and estimates that the demand for electricity due to the use of these systems by families can grow by 5.4% at the same time. ño and reach 48 TWh in 26 years. "On the other hand, if more rigorous minimum indices are applied along the analyzed horizon, the avoided electricity consumption could reach 15 TWh in 2035, equivalent to a 3.5 GW plant," the note says.
The EPE document highlights that sustainability and the promotion of energy efficiency in Brazil involves some actions, such as the reinforcement of the database, the conformity assessment of the devices, the reinforcement of the laboratory base, the development of efficient buildings, for example, success depends on coordination between different market players, including government, energy distributors, appliance manufacturers and importers, and consumers.
For Marcato, the challenge is "to identify methodologies and laboratories for the Invest equipment, of variable speed and lower energy consumption, as well as to implement policies to update the minimum levels by category in order to gradually eliminate those less efficient".
As positive examples, Marcato cites the new families of exhibitors in commercial refrigeration system, the use of CO² cooling system in both commercial and industrial refrigeration, the increased use of variable refrigerant flow systems, both in VRF equipment and in high capacity splits and also in liquid coolers.
"On the building side, we have a significant increase in the processes of property energy certification, LEED of the Green Building Council, Acqua and also Procel Edifica, this being the main, if not the only public program in search of increasing energy efficiency in property air conditioning systems with application in the governmental sphere. This PROCEL Edifica project is in the review phase," he says.
Source: Abrava.
