An overview of a refrigerator replacement programme in Brazil, which is now eligible for CDM credits and which has seen the number of hydrocarbon refrigerators growing in the country, was provided last week at the EEDAL’09 conference in Germany. hydrocarbons21.com was present to summarise the project context and its results so far.

Last week marked the 5th International Conference on Energy Efficiency in Domestic Appliances and Lighting (EEDAL’09) organised by the German Energy Agency (DENA) between 16-18 June in Berlin, Germany. On the third conference day, Samuel Shiroff of Bosch und Siemens Hausgeräte GmbH (BSH) and Dr. Thomas Grammig of GTZ Proklima jointly presented the “Cool Carbon - BSH Refrigerator Exchange Program with Carbon Certificates”, a project that has been replacing household refrigerators in Brazil with new energy efficient R600a ones. The project has been successful, with more than 80,000 obsolete refrigerators having been replaced, which translates in around 20,000 metric tons of CO₂ emissions savings.

What is more, the BSH scheme was formally recognized by the UN as a Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) at the beginning of 2009. Depending on the CO₂ price, the recognition allows a return of up to 50 euros per refrigerator, covering the cost of disposing of the old appliance and a discount on the price of the new R600a refrigerator. Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ), Germany’s technical cooperation agency, assisted BHS with the CDM application process. As part of this Public Private Partnership, BSH has become the first home appliance manufacturer to apply to the UN to have the fridge replacement campaign recognised under CDM.

Part 1: the refrigerator replacement programme, BSH

In the first part of the presentation, Shiroff initially drew a picture of the market in Brazil, where refrigerators working with a curtain instead of a door is not an uncommon phenomenon. The household refrigerator market is segregated in the new refrigerators market, second hand, third hand and so on. Moreover, there is a government programme subsidising electricity for the poor, while also electricity supply is often siphoned off illegally. All these conditions may partly explain why energy efficiency is not considered a high priority by Brazilian households.

The presenter then made reference to the Brazilian law, whereby utilities are required to spend 0.5% of their turnover on energy-saving measures while also half of the total investment made must benefit the favelas, the poorest quarters of Brazil’s cities. Nonetheless, most utilities prefer to pay a fine rather than complying with the law.

Motivated by this law, a refrigerator replacement scheme was initiated by BSH in 2007 under the support of the Brazilian government, which works as follows: In conjunction with local electricity supply companies, BSH is exchanging the “energy guzzlers” for new energy-efficient products using natural refrigerant R600a. The utility companies buy the refrigerators from BSH thus meeting their statutory duty to invest part of their sales revenue in improving energy efficiency in Brazil. The favela-dwellers receive appliances with significantly improved cooling performance and considerably reduced operating costs, free of charge. The old fridges are collected and disposed of in an environmentally sound manner. The project has also resulted in lower energy bills and has also benefited the power utilities, as the free new appliances are only available to people who now pay their electricity bill.

Part 2: the CDM methodology, GTZ

In his presentation, Grammig discussed the CDM methodology, i.e. the accounting framework for calculating CDM credits that GTZ developed. This accounted both for the energy efficiency gains and the elimination of f-gases while it incorporated a methodology for creating recycling standards. The presenter further explained how CDM accounting methodologies can be flexible by integrating typical maintenance and household income, applying a life cycle approach in order to also account for emission reductions through the reduction of ozone depleting substances, connecting energy performance to material usage (e.g. insulation foam), as well as accounting for suppressed demand. The resulting methodology allowed for 0.1 - 0.8 CERs (Certified Emission Reductions) to be gained per refrigerator.

Next steps

As discussed during the presentation, BSH is currently considering developing similar schemes in several countries and has already held concrete discussions with at least one government.