When Coming Together Cools the Environment... and the Economy

Costa Rica takes the first steps towards District Cooling, an environmentally and economically friendly technology

Rodolfo González

Air conditioning is present in public and private buildings throughout the country: offices, surgery rooms, laboratories, computer units, and social environments.

However, the air conditioning that increases comfort in our daily work represents an environmental challenge of international proportions.

Why? Science has increasingly determined the negative impact of refrigerant gases on the ozone layer and the planet's average temperature increase. It has mobilized international political will through agreements that limit their manufacture and promote the replacement of these gases by environmentally friendly options. With this objective in mind, the Montreal Protocol (1987), the Paris Agreement (2015), and the Kigali amendment (2016) were conceived. To implement these agreements at a national level, the Costa Rican Congress passed the corresponding laws, one of them being Law7223.

And what are the provisions of these regulations? Basically, they seek to protect life on the planet by reducing and eliminating refrigerant gases that damage the ozone layer and contribute to global warming.

Part of the solutions includes implementing the transition to new refrigerants and new technologies for building air conditioning. However, this requires investment, time, awareness, and adaptability to change.

Therefore, as an effort to promote change and through the sponsorship of the "Kigali Cooling Efficiency Programme (K-CEP)," the Ministry of Environment and Energy (MINAE, for its acronym in Spanish), supported by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) as implementing agency, is promoting the concept of District Cooling. What does this concept entail?

Cold Water Synergy

District Cooling are systems for building air conditioning through the centralized production of chilled water distributed from an isolated network of subway pipes between different structures of an industrial, housing, tourist, hospital, and administrative complex. The objective is to air-condition1 infrastructures that share the same area to reduce costs and energy expenditure, in other words, to take advantage of synergies.

This type of project already exists in Spain, Sweden, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, and France. Their data are encouraging. For instance, District Cooling reduces refrigerant needs by up to a third of what is required by current individualized systems. They can also achieve savings in energy consumption for their operation of up to more than 50% compared to conventional air conditioning systems. In addition, with District Cooling, it is possible to reduce synthetic refrigerants of the HCFC, and HFC ranges with high global warming potential.

The advantages are clearly numerous. We may also add that the equipment used has a longer lifespan than the individual units; the initial investment, which may be high for institutional budgets, is distributed over time and can be shared among several institutions connected to the service.

A viable option in Costa Rica

Shirley Soto, director of the Department of Environmental Quality Management (DIGECA, for its acronym in Spanish) of MINAE, considers that moving towards District Cooling is important for the country to comply with international environmental commitments

According to Soto, as part of a pilot study, the government was interested in analyzing the potential of implementing District Cooling in three areas: the Costa Rican Electricity Institute, the Juan Santamaria International Airport, and the Costa Rican Social Security Administration. Why in these institutions?

According to the director of DIGECA, showing the effectiveness of the District Cooling from State institutions will help the private sector to feel confident about the novelty of technological change.

"The theoretical and exploration part of the projects has already been done. Now we are waiting for the funds and support to execute the experience," said Soto.

At this stage, the challenges to be overcome include defining who the service providers and users will be and under what legal, rate, and regulatory framework they will operate. A further challenge is to harmonize the implementation of this technology with each institution's different administrative and legal schemes.

The Costa Rican Social Security Administration takes a step forward

The Costa Rican Social Security Administration (CCSS, for its acronym in Spanish) is taking the most advanced steps along this path.

Ronny Ruiz, CCSS maintenance manager, notes that air conditioning in hospitals is almost always used for human comfort in geographical areas with high humidity and high temperatures.

"We work in the tropics and have variations throughout the day, in waiting rooms, but also patient treatment areas. For instance, in operating rooms, there are very clearly established conditions of humidity and temperature that must be met. The same applies to the storage areas for medications and hospital supplies. Air conditioning is also important for electronic equipment. It becomes indispensable to have the right conditions for the physician and nursing staff to provide services. Also, so that the patient feels at ease," said Ruiz. 

Considering this context, the CCSS welcomed the proposal of District Cooling, proposed by UNDP and MINAE, which seeks to analyze the potential at the hospital level. What benefits does the CCSS expect to achieve?

According to Ruiz: availability, and reliability in the supply of chilled water as a continuous source to supply the air conditioning needs of the different health centers. He added that if all this is done with energy efficiency, pollution reduction, and cost savings, this is what the CCSS needs.

"We have several hospitals, such as those in Alajuela and Heredia, where centralized systems are managed at the hospital level. It generates reliability and optimizes costs by having many distributed units working together.  Centralization is an effective solution in hospital buildings; it makes me think that if we centralize not only in one hospital but in three, then we could be more practical and cost-efficient," stated Ruiz.

Suppose the results of the study lead to the implementation of the projects. In that case, Costa Rica could initiate the transformation of the systems to adapt buildings to the goal of having a green economy and an emission-free, resilient and inclusive country by 2050.