The delegation of the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) shared the progress of the “Cooling Innovation Fund” with representatives of Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit gmbH (GIZ) Proklima and the Technical Support Unit of the NAMA Facility.
Background
The NAMA Support Project (NSP) “Thailand Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning” (Thai RAC, for short) supported Thailand in initiating a transformation of the cooling sector towards climate-friendly and energy efficient cooling technologies using natural refrigerants. The project’s objectives were to contribute to Thailand’s energy and climate target, strengthen industry competitiveness and bring additional climate finance to the sector through the RAC NAMA Fund. The project has ended in July 2021.
The RAC NAMA Fund, established in November 2017 with a Grant Agreement between GIZ and the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT), promoted the market introduction of green cooling technologies with financial instruments designed for various targets beneficiaries, including supply, demand and service sector.
The fund was able to leverage over EUR 142 million in private contributions, mostly through purchases of climate-friendly and energy-efficient cooling equipment.
As part of the Thai RAC project successes, ten producers of refrigerators, chillers and air conditioners lined up as front runners of green cooling technologies and more than 170,000 green cooling units entered the Thai and export markets.
From RAC NAMA Fund to EGAT Cooling Innovation Fund
After the RAC NAMA Fund accomplishments, EGAT was considered efficient in managing the fund and signed a new agreement with GIZ to create the “Cooling Innovative Fund”. The fund’s objective is to promote sustainable innovation and market transformation toward climate-friendly and energy efficient cooling technologies using natural refrigerants. The scope of support includes: (i) cooling technologies and refrigerant use; (ii) alternative cooling technologies;(iii) special cooling applications; (iv) demand flexibilization; (v) centralised cooling; (vi) business innovation and (vii) life-cycle management, e.g., refrigerant destruction.
Study trip
With the support of the Green Cooling Initiative (GCI) project funded by the International Climate Initiative, the delegation visited GIZ’s headquarters on 8th August and met with representatives of GIZ Proklima and the Technical Support Unit (TSU) of the NAMA Facility to present and share the recent progress of the Cooling Innovation Fund.
The Fund focuses on three measures: 1) to support training about refrigeration technologies that use natural refrigerants (Training and Education), 2) to promote the refrigeration technology that uses natural refrigerants (Demonstration and Pilots Project) and 3) to develop measures to support the testing centre for refrigeration equipment using natural refrigerants (Standard and Testing). It also works together with the GCI project in Thailand to further sustainable transformation in the cooling sector.
The group participated in a guided visit of the pump equipment and application at GIZ headquarters, a recycling centre for waste electrical and electronic equipment and to a supermarket chain.
Visit the Green Cooling Initiative (GCI) III Project in Thailand and Asia webpage to learn more about it.
To learn more about the NSP Thai RAC, visit its page on the NAMA Facility website.