How EnerCool Technology can help prevent the Global Energy Crisis

6 min readOct 28, 2021

The 2021 Energy Crisis

Recent shortage of coal and gas in China for power generation causes many factories to shut down in several northern provinces, affecting residential life and severely disrupting industrial production. Traffic lights have been turned off during rush hour. Cities suffer from blackouts over the weekend. Traffic chaos occurs in many parts of China. This crisis is expected to last till the end of the winter. There are two causes to this power crisis. Some provinces have imposed power restriction policies to cut industrial electricity supply in order to meet carbon emission targets. Natural resources prices have been climbing up for more than a year. Other provinces, particularly the northern part, are running out of coal and natural gas for power generation.

In an ideal world all the power plants in the world should turn green by now. No more power plants running on coal and gas which lead to global warming and irreversible environmental damage. But coal-fired power plants have been operating all over the world for hundreds of years. The transition to clean energy takes time. In the meantime the majority of power plants in the world still run on coal and gas.

The global economic recovery in 2021 creates strong demand for energy which leads to a shortage of coal and gas. Their prices jump to multi-year high. While the world is still transitioning to clean energy, we have to cut the demand for energy. EnerCool, a Hong Kong based company, has identified a major source of energy consumption and presented a solution to reduce it. It aims to help companies save money and save the world in the process.

Air Conditioning is a Major Source of Energy Use

To tackle the energy crisis, reducing power consumption from air-conditioning in industrial, commercial and residential use is an important solution. In fact, air conditioning has emerged as a major source of energy use in many countries. Based on the report from the International Energy Agency (IEA), the issue is particularly sensitive in the fastest-growing nations, with the biggest increase happening in hot countries like India — where the share of AC in peak electricity load could reach 45% in 2050, up from 10% today without action (1).

In Hong Kong, according to China Light and Power, Heating, Ventilating and Air-Conditioning Systems (HVAC) account for 24% of energy consumption in the commercial sector (2). It becomes a vicious cycle, air conditioning causes global warming and global warming causes the use of more air conditioning.

According to the IEA, around 1.9 billion air conditioning units are installed globally, mainly in China, Japan, South Korea and the U.S. (3). Sale of air conditioning has been increasing significantly since the past decades. An estimated 10 new air-conditioning units will be sold worldwide every second from now to 2050. The number of units will reach 5.5 billion and the energy demand is expected to almost triple to 6,205 Terawatts (TWh) globally. Overall, more than 400 Exajoules (equivalent to 111,111 TWh) of energy were consumed worldwide and 26.1% was attributed to China, according to statista.com. Reducing energy consumption from air conditioning will benefit China and many other countries.

Primary energy consumption worldwide in 2020

(in exajoules)

The Business Opportunity

The global Industrial Energy Efficiency Service market is expected to grow to US$ 2.09 billion from 2020 to 2024 with a CAGR of 4.02% (5). The major energy consuming equipment include air-conditioning systems, refrigeration, lighting, electric motor-driven systems, etc.

Energy saving through improving air-conditioning energy use may become a quick solution for energy saving. The Greater Bay Area (GBA), which has over 72 million residents in southern China, is chosen as a pilot ecological civilization area to accelerate its industrial green development. Low carbon technology, green buildings, green transportation, clean energy, reducing industrial pollution and sustainable waste management are all highlighted in its urban planning. Adopting energy saving solutions for improving air-conditioning efficiency is important for the sustainable growth of the GBA economy.

Energy Saving solution of EnerCool Ideal for GBA deployment

EnerCool is a subsidiary of Urban Gateway Energy, a Hong Kong based Private Equity group that is ESG driven and are reimagining the urban environment to meaningfully contribute to our planet’s sustainable future. EnerCool offers energy saving technology for air-cooled commercial and industrial air conditioning and refrigeration systems in the GBA.

Weather, environmental conditions, dirt and debris are constantly damaging outdoor cooling equipment, which cannot be managed. Numerous studies have shown that within the first thirty (30) days, an outdoor uncoated coil can begin to lose operational efficiency due to corrosion (typically 3%-5% per year). Corrosion drives higher electricity use (and costs), supporting systems run ‘harder’ (e.g. pumps) to provide the same cooling so maintenance costs are increased and the useful equipment life is greatly reduced — resulting in the very expensive investment of replacing units.

EnerCool offers a unique proprietary graphene coating product that not only improves the energy efficiency of these air conditioning systems, but can also extend the equipment useful life! By reducing the need to replace the hardware, machine waste is reduced. Both energy and money are saved.

The EnerCool platform provides local governments and building owners a proven cost-effective method to not only improve energy efficiency but also reduce waste by extending the useful equipment life. For example, in Hong Kong, non-residential buildings air conditioning accounts for 20% of total energy use in Hong Kong and 30% of all electricity use — the impact of our platform at 10% typical energy savings can be very meaningful Ener!

EnerCoat increases cooling efficiency and extents life of air-conditioning system

Meeting ESG requirements for listed companies

Up to now, 60 stock exchanges globally have published ESG reporting guidance to regulate their listed companies (6). Hong Kong, as the financial centre of GBA, imposes increasingly stringent ESG disclosure requirements for listed companies. Starting in 2020, Hong Kong listed companies must publish ESG reports starting from fiscal year 1st JUL 2020 according to the updated HKEX ESG guideline.

EnerCool addresses Goal 7 (Affordable Clean Energy) by improving energy efficiency by at least 10%, and in some cases as much at 30%, making energy much more affordable! The EnerCloud platform is offering Cooling as a Service (CaaS), which is a pay-per-service model which eliminates upfront investment in cooling technology for customers who instead pay per unit of cooling they consume, strengthening incentives for efficient consumption, a very innovative approach to delivering on Goal 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure). Finally, the EnerCloud platform is uniquely positioned to help building owners conserve energy, save money and reduce waste, on both on Goal 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production). Adopting EnerCool technology may help companies to achieve their sustainable ESG goals. EnerCool’s technology complies with SDG 9 “Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure”, SDG 11 “Sustainable Cities and Communities” and SDG 12 “Responsible Consumption and Production”. EnerCool provides an innovative product designed for energy saving and energy efficiency (SGD 9). It protects the air-cool air conditioning machine from rapid deterioration by corrosion. As the machinery is maintained in good condition, the engine will run smoothly without using extra energy. Longer lasting machinery reduces industrial waste and reduces the landfills problem (GSD 11). EnerCool aims to provide energy saving products and services in order to preserve our planet to sustain our ecosystem for the future generation (SDG 12).