First results of the Morocco AC Buyers Club pilot project: up to 70% energy savings achieved

Bank of Africa and the Moroccan Energy Efficiency Agency (AMEE), together with The Institute for Governance & Sustainable Development are founding partners of the MoroccoAir Conditioner (AC) Buyers Club, having ahigh ambition initiative to replace older room ACs in Morocco that were inefficient when purchased, and useobsolete refrigerants that are being phased out or phased down under the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer.The strategy is to aggregate demand to make next generation cooling technology affordable to Moroccan customers and safer for the climate, while creating new jobs and community prosperity.

Great Progress Already Achieved:

With the help of the international non-governmental organization (NGO)CLASP, the Morocco Buyers Club team discovered environmental dumping in Morocco and all of Africa, of incredibly low nameplate energy efficiency. Most of these poor-performing units useobsolete ozone-depleting greenhouse gas R22- or obsolete but ozone-safe R410-A greenhouse gas refrigerant and are a real concern to the public health .

With partners at the University of Maryland,the partnership determined that most ACs are improperly installed, with clustering and stacking of condensers, poor air circulation, and infrequent or nomaintenance for energy efficiency.

In addition, it was determined that the heat island temperatures in Moroccan cities are much higher than at the weather stations often located in suburban areas away from city centers leading to higher-than-assumed energy consumption. The team’s research found that transmission and distribution losses are far higher than previously appreciated.

Under the leadership of the Moroccan Agency for Energy Efficiency (AMEE) the team developed and published a new method called “Enhanced and Localized Life Cycle Climate Performance (EL-LCCP)”to select ACs that have the lowest carbon footprint. EL-LCCP takes into account electricity generation, transmission, and distribution at high ambient temperature; urban heat islands and stacking and clustering of AC condensers; and the carbon intensity of incremental power at peak and off-peak loads efficiency.

With experts from Bank of Africa and the AMEE,the team elaborated the economic advantage to Morocco of savings in electricity cost with high-efficiency ACs.

The strategy adopted by Bank of Africa, AMEE and IGSD is to replace older ACs with next-generation high-efficiency ACs, recover the ozone-depleting and greenhouse gas refrigerants for destruction in local cement kilns, and recycle the materials from the old ACs as part of resource conservation andto avoid re-deployment of obsolete equipment in Morocco or dumping in other countries.

Newest Proof of Buyers Club Advantage in Replacing Older ACs Bank of Africa and its stakeholders and partners tested the actual baseline operating efficiency in the Bank’s branches located in downtown Marrakesh.Once the baseline was established, these older ACs were replaced with a next-generation inverter AC using lowerglobal warming potential (GWP) refrigerant R32-.

The properly installed AC using ozone- depleting greenhouse gas refrigerant R22- with ordinary energy efficiency (COP=2.8) is estimated to consume annually about 1,200 kWh of electricity at a cost of 1,650 Dirhams (US$ 170).

The replacement inverter AC using ozone-safe climate friendly next-generation refrigerant R32- with very high efficiency (COP up to 5.3) is estimated to consume about 650 kWh of electricity at a cost of about 790 Dirhams (US$ 80).

The findings are unequivocal and overwhelmingly convincing that replacement of olderACs, ensuring proper installation and maintenance, yields extraordinary savings in electricity consumption, which helps to clean the air, protect health and environment, while reducing consumers› electricity bills, and impacting quality of life (nutrition, education, arts…) from these significant savings.Newjobs come from:1) sales, distribution, installation, and service of the new ACs, 2)recovery and destruction of ozone-depleting and greenhouse gas refrigerants, 3) recycling of useful parts and materials from the removed ACs, and 4) increased local commerce as savings in energy realized by the new super- efficient ACs purchased in bulk are spent locally.

Blended finance solutions encompass financial incentives and technical assistance to manufacturing and installation businesses as well ascustomers. Negotiated prices based on aggregated demand and bulk procurement would certainly create a new market of low-GWP appliances,particularly during the ‘build-back-better’ recovery from the COVID pandemic when bulk procurement for guaranteed sales will contribute during the full period of recovery.