TABLE OF CONTENTS

A SWOT Analysis for Natural Refrigerants in Europe
511 participants from organisations located in Europe
responded to questions about the major challenges
(“What are the biggest barriers in adopting Natural Refrigerants?”)
for and the dominant strengths (“What are
the biggest strengths of Natural Refrigerants?”) of HFCfree
working fluids. Respondents could rate seven predefined
categories of barriers and strengths according to
their impact on the market uptake of natural refrigerants.
The four response options per category ranged from “no
barrier” to “very strong barrier”, and from “no strength” to
“very high strength”, respectively. An additional free text
field collected responses to further explain the perceived
challenges and benefits for individual countries and/or
application fields.
Barriers
With 58% of respondents saying Training & Knowhow
constitutes a “high” or “very high” barrier, the lack
of appropriate skills among installers and maintenance
personnel in contact with ammonia, hydrocarbons and
carbon dioxide is the most important single barrier to
a wider acceptance of natural refrigerants. No common
certification scheme and still only a loose network of
training bodies has made the handling of refrigerants
with toxicity, flammability and high pressure characteristics
a challenge to be overcome only by more streamlined
activities between industry, policy and end-users.
This point is also directly related to the second strongest
challenge - Technology & Safety - where different safety
rules across Europe, together with the novelty of NR
technology in some fields, will continue posing a challenge
to HFC-free technology proponents. This category
is, however, less pronounced than the training aspect
(49% rating it as a high / very high barrier), given that
some technologies have already become standard solutions.
As examples may serve the use of HC in domestic
and light-commercial refrigeration, NH 3
in industrial
refrigeration or CO 2
in commercial refrigeration.
Psychology - describing a lack of awareness and acceptance,
as well as misconceptions about NR solutions
- is the 3 rd strongest barrier when weighted across all response
options. Only 20% of respondents feel that “no”
or only “minor” barriers exist in this area, the rest facing
difficulties in overcoming these non-technical barriers.
This, again, confirms that a lack of knowledge, especially
among customers and the traditional HVAC&R industry
overall, exists (see pages 92 to 93). It can be concluded
that whereas technical challenges can and will be gradually
resolved, psychological barriers will need to be addressed
separately in a joint effort by international and
national bodies, the industry and (industrial and private)
end-users.
Strengths
With an overwhelming 81% vote as a “high” or “very high”
strength, Environment remains the single most important
reason to opt for f-gases free heating, air-conditioning
or refrigeration solutions. The environmental aspect
does not only include zero to low global warming impact
from direct natural refrigerant emissions, but also encompasses
indirect emissions reductions through higher
energy efficiency as compared to traditional solutions,
especially when looked at the technology in its whole
lifecycle. While the competitive advantage of NR systems
has been clearly demonstrated in a variety of sectors
already, the constant new development of HFC-free
solutions still promises high future technology potential
– something that has been found to be more restricted
for current systems based on synthetic working fluids.
As the second largest overall strength of HC, NH 3
and
CO 2
systems, Operation Costs are confirmed by half of
all respondents (50%) as being a strong to very strong
benefit. This, however is in stark contrast to System Costs
at the farther end of the scale where only 16% can confirm
that the required initial financial investment for NR
solutions can already today compete with established
f-gases solutions. From the resulting response pattern it
can be concluded that although the price premium to be
paid for a majority of natural refrigerant installations can
be recovered over the system’s lifetime, the higher costs
up front constitute a strong barrier to higher sales of NR
solutions, given consumers’ time preference or “discount
rate” on purchases.
Strengths vs. Barriers
If we compare the response sets for the sections on
barriers and strengths, some interesting results can be
obtained. Whereas respondents rated Supply & Availability
to be the second least important barrier to the
uptake of natural refrigerant systems, the exact same
is true when being asked for their strength. This could
confirm that NR systems have been established as mainstream
solutions in Europe in some areas – domestic and
industrial refrigeration, and increasingly also in cascade
solutions for commercial refrigeration – whereas a significant
number of other applications still faces shortage
of supply and viable technology options. The evaluation
of this aspect hence mainly depends on the market the
respondent is in and whether he/she encounters any difficulties
in obtaining appropriate components and/or
systems.
Another interesting item is the evaluation of the Technology
& Safety aspect. Whereas 50% of all responses
say that this issue constitutes a high or very high barrier
for NR systems, 40% also confirm that “technology” – including
durability & reliability, compactness & weight,
efficiency – is the 3 rd strongest benefit of NR options
(high / very high strength). A possible explanation for
102