Raising Ambitions for Off-grid Cooling Appliances

This Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL) knowledge brief reviews best available cooling technologies and their capacity to be supported at different levels of the Multi-Tier Framework (MTF) for Measuring Energy Access. The goal of this assessment is to better understand the potential off-grid use of these cooling technologies and to develop a methodology to identify the best available cooling technology for a variety of situations with challenging access to electricity, such as in off-grid or weak grid settings.

The knowledge brief includes a survey of current efficiency levels across a range of off-grid cooling appliances and identifies best practices for adoption and promotion of efficient off-grid cooling appliances. It shares recommendations for development and financing programmes to help them identify high-quality, efficient off-grid cooling appliances and lays the groundwork for deeper technical work related to off-grid appliance standards.

Recommendations

In areas where affordable cooling solutions are now available and with the right market interventions, communities are positioned to leapfrog to more efficient technologies that are more suitable to off-grid settings. The following recommendations, aimed at multilateral development banks, bilateral donors, climate funds, project developers and governments, can support new opportunities to deliver access to sustainable cooling for all in off-grid settings at different stages of energy access.

• Encourage and incentivize the use of the most efficient, best available off-grid cooling appliances
• Support the use of passive and climate-friendly cooling solutions
• Support information sharing for decision-making
• Design programmes to meet the needs of vulnerable populations
• Adopt and implement standards
• Support testing infrastructure to enable accurate measurement and comparison
• Include measurement and evaluation in programme design
• Conduct deeper technical work for off-grid appliances