Global Cooling Prize Winner Goes to Gree!
In the morning of April 30, the award ceremony of the Global Cooling Prize was held in Beijing. Liu Yanhua, director of National Expert Committee on Climate Change and former vice minister of Ministry of Science and Technology, awarded the Grand Winner prize to Gree Electric Appliances, Inc. of Zhuhai with partner Tsinghua University. The award signifies another core technology breakthrough of Gree in the field of residential air conditioners.
The Global Cooling Prize is jointly initiated by Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), the Government of India and Mission Innovation, aiming to explore ground-breaking and innovative refrigeration technologies and decrease the climate impact (including carbon emissions generated by grid electricity and carbon emissions corresponding to the greenhouse effect of refrigerants) of residential air conditioners to less than one fifth of conventional air conditioners, thus solving the climate threat caused by the unceasing increase of cooling demand for residential air conditioners.
It’s learned that Gree’s “Zero Carbon Source” cooling technology integrates the advanced vapor compression refrigeration, photovoltaic direct drive, evaporative cooling and ventilation technologies, which efficiently utilizes renewable energy sources and free cooling sources. By adopting this technology, the climate-adaptive air conditioner will have a much lower carbon emission, which is less than one fifth of that of today’s conventional air conditioners.
Specifically in this technical solution, the air conditioner utilizes free cooling sources (air and water) to operate in one or several of the three modes—vapor compression refrigeration, evaporative cooling, and ventilation, depending on different weather conditions. It can greatly reduce the air conditioning load and provide a more energy-saving and comfortable air conditioning solution for the indoor environment; the high-efficiency vapor compression refrigeration system can achieve efficient operation and accurate control of cooling and dehumidification, improving the level of use comfort; moreover, the application of photovoltaic direct-driven technology further lowers the grid electricity consumption and saves the electricity bill for users. According to the organizer, if this technology is widely promoted and adopted, it could prevent 132 GT of CO2-equivalent emissions by 2050, and help the world to mitigate up to 0.5℃ of global warming by 2100, while enhancing living standards for people in hot and humid climate areas.
“To meet people’s aspirations for a better life is what Gree is striving for”, said Ms. Dong Mingzhu, the chairperson and president of Gree Electric Appliances. With core technologies as the sword, the company will continue to create an energy-saving and comfortable way of living for consumers while contributing its wisdom and strength in promoting the transformation and innovation in the global cooling industry.
