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The Danish approach to a chiller market based on natural refrigerants

time2011/08/05

In Denmark, the market for chillers with natural refrigerants has increased as a consequence of the Danish taxation rules and the maximum charge of 10 kg of HFC per refrigerant circuit. That applies to all refrigerants with a GWP value > 150 kg CO2 equivalents since 2007. As a consequence, the Danish Electricity Board (Dansk Energi) has published a list of energy labelled chillers in the range of A and B rating, corresponding to the Eurovent certification. Today, the list includes 39 Danish chillers in the capacity range from 17 to 1400 kW with natural refrigerants. The potential for replacing all chillers with synthetic refrigerants, including HFC, on the Danish market is restricted by the present limited production numbers, reflected by higher manufacturing costs. Indeed it is very potential for the availability of chillers with natural refrigerants with better performance to a very low marginal increase of first cost. The only limiting factor is the lacking international market of a sufficient size to justify the investment in cost-effective production facilities. It will be demonstrated that proper international incentives will make it possible to replace HCFC, HFC and CFC-based chillers with natural refrigerant chillers for all applications.