Click on the following links to view the video presentations of the six (6) companies that participated in the Virtual Green Cooling Technology Road show organised by the NOU and GIZ on September 16th, 2020, World Ozone Day.
In addressing the Virtual Technology Green Cooling Road Show organised by the National Ozone Unit and GIZ, National Ozone Officer of Grenada, Mr. Leslie Smith outline two key take away messages:
- Cooling is no longer a luxury: Increased global atmospheric temperatures is one of the main reasons for comfort cooling in poorer nations of the hottest regions in the world and;
- We must get (sustainable) cooling right: It goes way beyond air-conditioning equipment and refrigerants. It has to take into account a wholistic approach with considerations for:
(a) Policy and regulations to reduce or avoid the need for cooling in buildings and to support energy efficiency and energy performance standards
(b) Increasing the thermal efficiency of buildings through design and construction
(c) Better urban planning and expansion of green spaces in cities
(d) Incentives for behavioural changes that would promote less use of cooling and greater uptake in energy efficient cooling appliances
(e) Smart investments and technology upgrades with improved energy efficiency
(f) New financing and business models that would encourage green cooling
(g) Training and capacity development of RAC technicians
(h) A robust public awareness and education initiative to inform technology choices
View the entire Virtual Green Cooling Technology Road show (unedited) at the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXYlUhkJTkQ
September 17th, 2020. St. George’s, Grenada. The National Ozone Unit in collaboration with Giz Proklima under the Sustainable Phaseout of Ozone Depleting Substances (SPODS) Project successfully hosted a Virtual Green CoolingTechnology Road show as part of the activities held to commemorate World Ozone Day on September 16th, 2020.
The Road Show which featured six of the leading refrigeration and air-conditioning companies in Grenada was streamed on the major social media platforms and Zoom with a world-wide audience of over 4000 viewers (Facebook) .
Participants received insightful presentations from each of the companies on the green cooling technologies offered to their customers and clients.
Technology choices ranged from the ultra low GWP, Zero ODP natural refrigerant (R-290) to the low GWP HFCs (R-32) air-conditioning systems.
Many of the companies also highlighted the huge energy savings realised from replacement of conventional AC units with the higher energy efficient inverter type units.
Several questions were asked from the participants (viewers) at the end of all the presentations during which time specific issues were addressed.
A Message By The Hon. Gregory Bowen; Minister For Infrastrurce Development, Public Utilities, Energy,Transport and Implementation, in Observance of World Ozone Day September 16th 2020
The National Ozone Unit, Grenada, pays special recognition to the three (3) females out of the six (6) presenters representing their Air-conditioning companies today at the Virtual Green Cooling Technology Road Show. Women continue to prove themselves in the traditionally male dominated technical sectors. #watchmework#womeninrac
Natural refrigerants – in particular, propane (R290) – are key to reducing Grenada’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions as part of its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) to the Paris agreement, according to a new report. Read More here:
http://hydrocarbons21.com/articles/9744/natrefs_seen_as_key_to_reducing_emissions_in_grenada
The National Ozone Unit publishes Greenhouse Gas Emissions Report for the Refrigeration and Air-conditioning Sector. The publication is a product of the Cool Contributions fighting Climate Change (C4) Project implemented by Giz Proklima and executed by the National Ozone Unit. An Official presentation of a copy of the report was presented by Ms. Marion Geiss of GIZ to National Ozone Officer, Mr. Leslie Smith during the 2020 World Ozone Day Celebrations at the Grenada Trade Centre on September 16th.The publication can be found at the following link:https://gov.gd/sites/default/files/docs/Documents/reports/report-ghg-report.pdf
On Monday March 16, 2020, the Refrigeration and Air-conditioning Technicians Association (RACTA) of St. Vincent and the Grenadines hosted a general meeting for all RAC technicians on the island. Among the items on the agenda was the election of officers to serve on the new executive committee.
During the election of officers, the RAC technicians demonstrated their extended confidence in Mr. Gary Peters and re-elected him to serve as President of the association for another term.
Gary Peters is a Lecturer and Course Coordinator of the Refrigeration and Air conditioning programme at the Division of Technical and Vocational Education of the St.Vincent and the Grenadines Community College for the past 26 years. He holds a Bachelors of Science Degree in Building Services Engineering and a Diploma in Refrigeration and Air-conditioning Engineering.
Mr. Peters is also an international consultant and is responsible for preparing the Hydrochlorofluorocarbon Phase-out Management Plan (HPMP) for St.Vincent and the Grenadines. Additionally he is a certified United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) Trainer in Good Refrigeration Practices and Alternative refrigerant technologies. He has conducted several training workshops for Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Technicians, Custom Officers and Custom Brokers in the handling of Refrigerants and Alternative technologies and is one of the pioneers in the advocacy and application of natural refrigerant technologies in the Caribbean.
Due to his passion for training and capacity development of technicians in the refrigeration industry, he is determined to see the standards and practices of RAC technicians in the field raised to the highest possible levels.
Mr. Peters has been the beneficiary of attending several training courses in Grenada on alternative refrigerant technology, particularly, Natural refrigerants. The National Ozone Unit of Grenada congratulates Mr. Peters and the entire executive and wish them a very successful tenure in office.
Friday June 26th, 2020, marks the first anniversary and the second celebration of World Refrigeration Day. The theme for this year’s celebration focuses on the cold chain and is dubbed “Cold chain 4 life”.
Whereas, the National Ozone Unit, Grenada is unable to stage any major activities to celebrate this year due to the COVID pandemic, we join the rest of the world in celebrating this very significant day in the life of refrigeration and air-conditioning technicians.
World Refrigeration Day is of particular significance in creating greater awareness of the invaluable roles that RAC technicians play in ensuring comfort cooling, refrigeration of perishable foods and products and preservation of medicine. This has been very well articulated by David of carrier in his WRD message when he stated that, “…. one third of the food produced globally is wasted, when refrigeration is the answer…”.
Today we salute all RAC technicians globally. Happy #WRD2020.
Friday May 22nd, 2020, St. George’s, Grenada. Local appliance supplier, Jonas Browne & Hubbards (G’da) Limited joins the list of air-condition suppliers that sells the ozone-friendly, low global warming potential (GWP), energy efficient, R-32 air-conditioners. JBH has been a key stakeholder of the National Ozone Unit (NOU) dating back to 2002, as one of the leading suppliers of refrigeration and air-conditioning (RAC) equipment in Grenada.
Manager of the Appliance Department, Mr. Anthony Phillip demonstrated with pride the new line of products to the National Ozone Officer, Mr. Leslie Smith, at the company’s showroom at their main store on the Carenage, St. George’s. Mr. Phillip credits the support and encouragement provided by the NOU as a major factor in introducing this new line of environmentally friendly ACs. Earlier this year, from February 1-5, Mr. Phillip was a beneficiary of attending the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) Winter Exhibition & Conference in Orlando Florida, where he was exposed to the latest available RAC technologies on the market.
In a noticeable small market, this brings to three the number of AC suppliers that have taken early initiatives to introduce this relatively new technology to Grenada. The other two current suppliers are Modern Electrical Solutions and Cooling Tech Limited. Other leading RAC companies, such as Viking Engineering and Total Engineering have also signalled their intention to include R-32 equipment in their catalogue of AC units in 2020. Grenada has already being recognised regionally for being among the first countries in the Americas to have R-290 (natural refrigerant – propane) air-conditioners commercially available.
Air-conditioning equipment using R-32 AC refrigerant is one of the alternative low-global warming potential (GWP) options to replace the high-GWP, R-410 unitary/splitAC units. As of 2019, it was discovered that R-410A was the dominant refrigerant used in Grenada and indications are of an increasing demand. However, since Grenada has already ratified the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol which came into effect on January 1, 2019, the use of these high GWP refrigerants must be phased down over the next two and half decades.
Many RAC experts have proven that R-32 AC units are a much better choice than R410A in terms of their impact on the environment and the economic benefits to the end users. Although they both belong to the same family of gases referred to as, hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), R-32 has about one third the GWP of R-410A and is more energy efficient. Therefore it is much less damaging to the environment (if it is released into the atmosphere) and uses less electricity to operate.
The early actions taken by these companies is a clear indication of their contributions to the global effort, at the national level, to ultimately reduce global atmospheric temperatures and reverse the impacts of climate change.
St. George’s, Grenada: The Grenadian refrigeration and air-conditioning (RAC) company, Cooling Tech Limited (CTL) is among five countries selected as winners of the Cooling as a Service (CaaS) Initiative by the Basel Agency for Sustainable Energy( BASE). The other four winners come from India, Nigeria, Costa Rica and Argentina.
CaaS involves building and business owners paying for the cooling service instead of investing in the infrastructure that delivers the cooling. The technology provider owns the cooling system, maintains it, and covers all operational costs including electricity. The periodic payments made by the customer are fixed-cost-per-unit and based on metered usage, whereby the client does not bear any risk related to the performance of the cooling equipment and the technology provider has the incentive to install the equipment offering the lowest life cycle cost to make the service more cost-effective.
The clients benefit from high quality cooling at better prices, and don’t need to distract any budget to acquire the system. Technology providers benefit from a continuous income stream and can establish long-term relationships with their clients.
Read more on the five winners here: https://www.caas-initiative.org/news/winners-of-the-caas-incubator/
St. George’s, Grenada. March 4th, 2020: Three (3) local refrigeration and air-conditioning (RAC) technicians would leave the island on Sunday March 8th, 2020 to attend the American Society of Heating, Ventilating and Air-Conditioning Society (ASHRAE), HVAC Design training in Miami Florida, from March 9th – 13th, 2020.
The HVAC Design Level I and Level II training is a widely recognized training conducted by ASHRAE. ASHRAE is one of the leading institutions globally that focuses on building systems, energy efficiency, indoor air quality, refrigeration and sustainability within the HVAC industry. The need for this type of training was identified by the NOU since it was recognized that insufficient attention is given to this area in the design and construction of buildings in Grenada. Also energy efficiency in the cooling sector is a major thrust of the NOU; the design of HVAC systems is a critical factor in achieving this objective.
The training will cover a wide range of topics relative to HVAC design and would include in depth presentations and discussions on: design of air and hydronic systems, heat load and pressure drop calculations, duct design and sizing, systems selection, codes and standards, sustainability/Green/LEED, air moving equipment and designs for single and multi-story buildings, among others.
The technicians selected to attend the training represents a cross section of the RAC sector in Grenada, including academia (T A Marryshow Community College – TAMCC), the Grenada Refrigeration, Air-condition and Ventilating Association (GRAVA), and the private sector. The technicians are: Mr. Henry Frederick adjunct HVAC lecturer at TAMCC, Mr. Oral Ferguson representing the Grenada Refrigeration, Air-conditioning and Ventilating Association (GRAVA) and Ms. Jamie St. John representing the private sector company, Viking Engineering Co. Ltd.
The participation of these technicians at the training is facilitated by the National Ozone Unit (NOU) in the Energy Division of the Ministry of Infrastructure Development, Public Utilities, Energy, Transport and Implementation under the Sustainable Phase-out of Ozone Depleting Substances (SPODS) Project. The SPODS project is funded by the European Commission and the Federal Goverment of Germany and is being implemented by the United Nations Industrial Development Programme (UNIDO).
January 15, 2020, St. George’s, Grenada. Article 5 countries that are parties to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer are required to have an effective and functioning license and quota system to assist these countries in meeting their phase out of production and consumption of all ozone depleting substances. Grenada was successful in establishing a License and Quota System in November 2013, to restrict the importation ozone depleting substances (ODS) into the country. (The refrigerant (HCFC 22 or R-22) is the only ODS imported).
The Quota System which regulates the amount of ODS that can be imported by each of the registered importers is distributed to the importers in the preceding year, of the year of import. These annual import quotas assigned, have been reduced every year (since 2013) to coincide with the Montreal Protocol phase out targets.
Data on importation of ODS from the National Ozone Unit (NOU) indicates that only 64% of the import quota issued in 2019 were used up by the importers. Further details revealed that of the seven (7) registered importers for importation of ODSs, three (3) companies did not used up any of their quotas while another two (2) did not use up all allocated to them. However, two companies used up their full quotas. More information from the NOU also indicates that although the NOU could have issued quotas up to 65% of its baseline, only 33% was issued in 2019.
According to National Ozone Officer, Mr. Leslie Smith, “there is a clear indication that the importation or consumption of ozone depleting substances at the national level is on the steep decline from 15.8 metric tonnes in 2009 to approximately 3.2 metric tonnes at the end of 2019. This is primarily due to the very successful implementation of the licensing and quota system along with the co-operation received from refrigeration and air-conditioning equipment importers in introducing alternative technologies with zero ozone depleting potential (ODP) and low global warming potential (GWP)”.
This consumption level means that Grenada is well ahead of its 65% reduction in relation to the Montreal Protocol’s January 01, 2020 phase out target for Article 5 countries.
January 15, 2020, St. George’s, Grenada. The National Ozone Unit (NOU) of Grenada continues to deliver impressive results with regards to the country’s ozone depleting substances (ODS) phase-out obligations under the Montreal Protocol on substances that deplete the ozone layer.
Grenada, considered a very low volume consuming country of ozone depleting substances, established a baseline of 15.1 metric tonnes and a freeze in consumption in the year 2013. Under the Montreal Protocol’s phase out schedule, Article 5 (developing countries ) are required to achieve a 35% reduction in consumption of their baseline, by January 01, 2020.
Data on consumption of ODS as of January 1, 2020, from the National Ozone Unit (NOU),
indicates that the country’s consumption level is well with the Montreal Protocol phase out obligations. According to National Ozone Officer, Mr. Leslie Smith, “Grenada has not only surpassed its 2020 obligations in phasing out ODSs, but is already ahead of it’s 2025 consumption target” (set by the Montreal protocol). Mr Smith further indicated, that to date, Grenada has phased out approximately 80% of ODSs consumed in the country. Grenada and other Article 5 countries are required to phase out consumption of ODS by 2030. It is projected that the complete phase out of HCFCs in Grenada can occur well in advance of this target.
The NOU recognizes the efforts and contributions of all the National Stakeholders that are responsible for these results. Among them are: importers of RAC equipment and refrigerants, the Customs and Excise Division, the Department of Trade, the Grenada Refrigeration, Air-Conditioning and Ventilating Association (GRAVA), the Grenada Bureau of Standards (GDBS) and the TA Marryshow Community College (TAMCC).
