An inside look at Cold Hard Facts 4

The highly anticipated report has been released, highlighting key developments and emerging trends in the refrigeration and air conditioning industry in Australia

Now in its 19th year, the Cold Hard Facts series delves into the country’s HVAC&R sector, providing a broad overview of where the industry currently stands, alongside invaluable data including the stock of equipment and the total available in the refrigerant bank.

Cold Hard Facts 4 presents data from 2022, with previous major updates seen in 2018, 2013 and 2007. Partial updates were published in 2022, 2021, 2020 and 2019.

Each report intends to assist policymakers and the industry with the management of synthetic greenhouse gases, including hydrofluorocarbons, and the management of ozone-depleting substances as they are phased out.

A growing industry

This latest report highlights Australia’s growth across all classes of equipment and services in the sector.

In particular, the stock of vapour compression-driven equipment that provides refrigeration, cooling, heating, comfort and utility services grew by around 15 per cent in the six years from 2016 to 2022 (the latest data this report is based on), reaching a total of more than 62 million pieces of equipment. According to the report, 2022 saw an increase of about 1.6 per cent on the previous year of the total bank of refrigerant gas employed across the stock of equipment – reaching an estimated 55,000 metric tonnes.

Environmental impact

However, this growth has an impact on the environment. According to the report, “This stock of equipment is estimated to have consumed 24 per cent of all the electricity produced in the country in 2022. This makes vapour compression systems one of the largest users of electricity in Australia.”

This translated to contributing to approximately 12 per cent of Australia’s total greenhouse gas emissions. Of this, about 87 per cent was attributed to indirect emissions, and 13 per cent to direct refrigerant emissions. The report notes that the direct emissions of refrigerants will rise as the grid goes through the process of decarbonising. “The decarbonisation of the Australian grid electricity generation is well underway with the average emissions intensity of grid electricity in Australia dropped by approximately 20 per cent from 2016 to 2022 (0.91 kg CO2e/kWh in 2016 versus 0.73 kg CO2e/kWh in 2022, (DCCEEW 2023b), a trend that is expected to accelerate.”

Refrigerant lost

Cold Hard Facts 4 states that the sum of direct HFC refrigerant emissions and EOL HFC emissions in 2022 was calculated to be equivalent to just over 10.6 Mt CO2e. Total recoveries of refrigerants for destruction, from EOL equipment or during servicing of working equipment, was 463 tonnes.

“Recoveries that were reclaimed for reuse was about 100 tonnes in the year, with changes to the stock of equipment effectively seeing off the period when it was economic to recover and recondition hydrochlorofluorocarbon (HCFC), the older generation of refrigerants phased out under the Montreal Protocol. This generational change came about as the stock of HCFC-charged equipment declined rapidly as equipment was retired from use. Better management of this retiring stock of equipment represents a significant opportunity to avoid those emissions.”

The use of natural refrigerants

There has been a constant uptake of natural refrigerants. With the industry’s growth, and as the Kigali Amendment’s HFC phase-down progresses, the HVAC&R industry is expected to adopt more environmentally friendly refrigerants to meet regulatory requirements.

The complete Cold Hard Facts 4 report is available on the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water’s website