Colombia. The Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development confirmed the approval of the second phase of the Thermal Districts project in which they joined from the beginning with the Embassy of Switzerland- Economic Development Cooperation Program (SECO) and Public Companies of Medellín (EPM) to promote its implementation as a strategy to mitigate climate change, reduce emissions of ozone-depleting substances and meet energy efficiency targets.
The objective is to consolidate this type of initiative in the main cities of the country, adding more strategic partners involved in sustainable air conditioning.
The announcement was made at the installation of the II International Congress for the Ozone Layer and climate- Thermal Districts, which was held the previous week in Medellín, where the Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development, Ricardo Lozano, referred to the second phase of the project as "a valuable opportunity to learn by doing and replicating this initiative of the thermal districts of Medell I go to other cities such as Cartagena, Cali, Bucaramanga, Villavicencio, Bogotá, among others".
For her part, and on behalf of the Embassy of Switzerland Economic Development Cooperation Program, Amalia Urrea Siegrist, stressed the importance of the steps taken during the first phase of the project, in terms of knowledge and institutional articulation, which demonstrated the viability and belonging of a second phase.
The role of Swiss economic cooperation has been to contribute its experience of more than 100 years in the implementation and operation of about 150 thermal districts. It was also highlighted that this experience will continue to nourish the second phase, which will have a support of around 4.9 million dollars and with the participation of more strategic partners and the main Colombian cities.
With the local governments it is intended to formulate the institutional instruments, the different ways to improve the processes of identification and viability of the Thermal Districts.
In the axis of market maturation, the project seeks to continue strengthening the commercial and financial tools for the development of thermal districts and focus it on different levels or market scales, such as intramural thermal districts in smaller commercial areas in which actors of different scales can intervene and thus massify this alternative.
Other actions of this axis are the accompaniment of studies to the end users, to the designs so that they can connect and have market niches in the industry, commercial sectors and real estate complexes.
To guarantee the sustainability of knowledge, there will be an exclusive research axis for thermal districts in charge of ACAIRE and the Research and Development Center for Sustainable Air Conditioning, where the interests of the different actors converge, such as developers, end users, entities and academia, to continue with the contest of universities that allows to take the experience of Colombia to another country that wants start developing thermal districts.
In the country, thermal districts have been promoted and implemented since 2013. The result of this has been the construction of the La Alpujarra thermal district in Medellín that is now in operation, supplying ice water for the air conditioning systems of four buildings in the center of the city.
Thermal districts have also been developed in a shopping center in the City of Montería, in the Serena del Mar macroproject in Cartagena, and progress is being made in projects to implement Thermal Districts in Cartagena, Bucaramanga, Cali and Bogotá.
Source: Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development.
