-- Eight teams from around the world invent affordable cooling solutions with 
potential for five times less climate impact

A global coalition led by the Government of India along with Rocky Mountain 
Institute (RMI) today announced the Finalists of the Global Cooling Prize ( 
https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=2643488-1&h=363208961&u=https%3A%2F%2Fglobalcoolingprize.org%2F&a=Global+Cooling+Prize 
), an innovation competition to develop super-efficient and climate-friendly 
residential cooling solutions. The competitors showcased breakthrough cooling 
technologies that not only use less electricity but also reduce the use of 
refrigerants linked to climate change; advances that will be vital as the 
number of room air conditioners around the globe will nearly quadruple by 2050. 

Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktynXCWCL5o

The Finalist teams are led by some of the world's largest air conditioner 
manufacturers, including Gree Electric Appliances Inc. of Zhuhai, Daikin 
AirConditioning India Pvt. Ltd., and Godrej and Boyce Mfg. Co. Ltd.; startups 
and corporations S&S Design Startup Solution Pvt. Ltd., Transaera Inc, M2 
Thermal Solutions and Kraton Corporation; and Barocal Ltd. The selected teams 
showcase a wide range of innovative residential cooling technology solutions, 
including smart hybrid vapor compression cooling, evaporative cooling, and 
solid-state cooling technology designs. 

"It gives me immense satisfaction to say that we have received some absolutely 
revolutionary cooling ideas," said Richard Branson, founder and CEO of the 
Virgin Group and global ambassador for the Prize. "What makes this competition 
exciting is the market transformation opportunity. It could be one of the 
biggest technology-based steps to arrest climate change. I look forward to 
following all of you on your journey to winning the Prize and scaling your 
technology."

A global coalition led by the Department of Science and Technology, Government 
of India, RMI, a leading global research institute; and Mission Innovation, a 
global initiative of 24 countries and the European Union to accelerate global 
clean energy innovation, launched the Global Cooling Prize ( 
https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=2643488-1&h=1930990698&u=http%3A%2F%2Fglobalcoolingprize.org%2F&a=Global+Cooling+Prize 
) in November 2018 with the aim of spurring the development of a 
climate-friendly residential cooling solution. 

RMI Chief Executive Officer, Jules Kortenhorst, highlighted the impact of such 
innovations in the future. "The Residential AC industry represents a 
60-billion-dollar market today and is set to grow to nearly four times that 
size by 2050," he said. "The Prize initiates an era of transformation for the 
cooling industry. The winning breakthrough technology has the potential to 
prevent up to 0.5 degrees of global warming by 2100."

Contact: Nick Steel, nsteel@rmi.org 

SOURCE Rocky Mountain Institute