The aim of this study is to investigate, review, and assess the recent advances of alternative cooling technologies using traditional vapor compression (VC) systems as a baseline. Around 99% of the final energy consumption used for cooling in the current European market (European Union plus the United Kingdom (EU27 + UK) is supplied by VC technologies. In comparison, the remaining 1% is produced by thermally driven heat pumps (TDHPs). This study focuses on providing a complete taxonomy of cooling technologies. While the EU heating sector is broadly explored in scientific literature, a significant lack of data and information is present in the cooling sector. This study highlights technologies that can potentially compete and eventually replace VC systems within the decade (2030). Among others, the most promising of these are membrane heat pump, transcritical cycle, Reverse Brayton (Bell Coleman cycle), and absorption cooling. However, the latter mentioned technologies still need further research and development (R&D) to become fully competitive with VC technologies. Notably, there are no alternative cooling technologies characterized by higher efficiency and less cost than VC technologies in the EU market.

The scope of this investigation is to analyze recent advances in district cooling (DC) in Europe (European Union plus the United Kingdom (EU27+UK)). The study focuses on data and information from the past decade and draws a picture for the year 2016. To date, in contrast to the European district heating market, the European DC branch has barely been explored in scientific literature. In the current paper, the data that describe the actual DC market in the EU27+UK—which includes the quantity of DC plants, equivalent full-load hours, and installed capacities as well as the values for seasonal energy efficiency—are collected and then explored using a bottom-up approach. The results indicate that DC is responsible for a minor part of the useful energy demand of Europe for cooling with around 3 TWh/y. Overall, the share of the useful energy demand for DC corresponds with 1 to 2% of the EU27+UK useful energy demand. Moreover, it is worth mentioning that the penetration of DC varies considerably from country to country, and eight European Member States appear to not have district cooling systems at all. Lastly, it is observed that DC has been slowly but constantly growing in Europe for decades and is characterized by a high growth potential, particularly in the service sector.

This study investigates Europe’s space cooling energy field. The work aims to assess the European Union (plus the United Kingdom) final energy consumption for space cooling in both the residential and service sectors with 2016 as a baseline. An extensive literature review of datasets and journal papers has been conducted to fill the knowledge gaps of the investigated energy branch. The European space cooling market is mainly dominated by vapour compression (VC) technologies which, in this study, have been grouped as room air conditioners (RACs) and centralized air conditioners (CACs). These technology groups have been investigated, and their installed capacities, energy efficiency levels (seasonal energy efficiency ratio—SEER), equivalent full load hours (EFLHs), and amount of space cooling units installed have been identified as essential parameters to calculate the final energy consumption for space cooling. Overall, the total value of the European final energy consumption for the space cooling sector, including both the residential and service sectors, results in 106 TWh/year.

The current study aims to investigate one of the most underexplored energy fields in scientific research, i.e., final energy consumption (FEC) of space cooling (SC) in the European (EU27+UK) transportation sector with 2019 as a baseline. The fundamentals of this study include a comprehensive literature review as well as the creation of a dataset characterized by completeness and reliability. Different essential input parameters have been investigated and the encountered data and information gaps have been filled. The transportation sector has been broken down into three main categories, namely, light, medium, and heavy vehicles. Throughout the EU27+UK, the number of vehicles, equivalent full load hours (EFLHs), system power capacities, and their related energy efficiency levels have been collected. The collected data and information have been computed and the EU27+UK FEC for space cooling in the transportation sector resulted in more than 125 TWh/year. It is worth underlining that the light vehicles category accounted for the majority of the total FEC, followed by the medium and heavy vehicle categories, respectively.

This study investigates insights concerning the future of the cooling market of the European Union (plus the United Kingdom) and its possible development for the upcoming decade (until 2030). In this manuscript, a qualitative model—Porter’s five forces analysis (PFFA)—and a quantitative tool—multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA)—have been applied to produce a forecast and a corresponding validation technique. It has been observed that the MCDA tool came to a similar conclusion as the PFFA methodology, highlighting that, presumably, the cooling market will continue to grow moderately, mainly thanks to research and development (R&D) as the central driving force. Moreover, the latter is strictly connected with R&D developments, economic crises, and the welfare of the European population. Additionally, in this study, an extensive survey conducted on interviews of experts throughout each European country confirmed the slightly positive future developments forecast up to 2030 from the quantitative and qualitative methods mentioned above. The results of the study describe a steady growth of the cooling market in Europe until 2030 of about 1–2% annual increase, for a total gain of 24%.

This study analysed one of Europe’s most unexplored energy fields: process cooling (PC). The work assessed the final energy consumption (FEC) for PC of the European Union (and United Kingdom) with a 2016 baseline. An extensive literature review of datasets and journal papers was performed to address knowledge gaps by creating a high-quality dataset with factual accuracy, reliability, and completeness. Installed cooling units, equivalent full load hours, energy efficiency levels (seasonal energy performance ratio), and capacities installed were the essential investigated parameters to perform the FEC calculations. The latter were referred to as vapour compression (VC) chillers (air-to-water or water-to-water). Overall, the results of the EU (plus UK) FEC for the PC sector resulted in more than 110 TWh/year, accounting for around 10% of the total energy consumption for electricity in Europe. It is worth mentioning that several non-VC technologies are utilized for PC purposes in various sectors and subsectors primarily in the industry and the tertiary sectors, which are rapidly growing and, therefore, their cooling consumption is increasing. The current research paper aimed to raise awareness of the PC sector by supporting the European Union policies toward a more sustainable and decarbonized industry in the upcoming decades.