About

The Sustainable Cooling project is supported by Innovate UK under Phase 1 of the GCRF “Demonstrate impact in meeting the sustainable development goals” programme.  This forms part of a much larger Global Challenges Research Fund that supports cutting-edge research to address challenges faced by developing countries. It is part of the UK’s official development assistance (ODA).  The fund addresses the United Nations sustainable development goals. It aims to maximise the impact of research and innovation to improve lives and opportunity in the developing world.

Spoilage of agricultural produce due to a lack of cooled storage is a major problem for many countries.  To address this, the Sustainable Cooling project is validating a technology that can thermally couple to lower underground temperatures simply and economically. It will adapt screw pile technology (widely used globally for foundations) to use screw piles as heat exchangers with the earth. Water circulating in pipes within the pile will discharge heat into the ground and return as chilled water. This can be used passively to cool buildings, or to improve greatly the efficiency of refrigeration cycles within active air conditioning. The application focus will initially be on: zero-carbon domestic cooling particularly to off-grid communities; high-efficiency cooling for urban domestic and commercial buildings; and low-carbon refrigerated storage to reduce wastage in food supply chains.

The Phase 1 project is running from 1 October 2020 to 31 March 2021.  Results will be assessed to determine the investment case for a subsequent Phase 2 project.