Extreme heat bakes the US and boosts AC, highlighting the need for sustainable chill
Some don’t like it hot… but it’s scorching anyway. This year already looks like it’ll be one of the hottest ever (FYI: this month has seen the hottest week on record). In the US, extreme temps appear to be the new norm, with 73M people living in areas that’ll likely see dangerous heat this week. In several dozen cities, the “heat-wave season” is 49 days longer than it was six decades ago. The Southwestern US is really cooking:
Sweat shower: The National Weather Service said parts of California, Nevada, and Arizona were under a severe-weather warning that’s affecting 90M people.
Scorcher: Phoenix is approaching its previous record of 18 days of 110+ degrees. One study said that half of Phoenix residents would need emergency medical attention if a heat wave coincided with a blackout.
Too hot (not) to handle… As the planet bakes, demand for air-conditioners has spiked. Three-quarters of US homes have AC (which uses about 6% of the country’s electricity). That’s been a boon for AC/HVAC giants like Carrier, Lennox, and Trane. By 2050, the International Energy Agency predicts there’ll be 5.6B AC units globally, up from 2B now. The cooled air will save lives, but there’s a catch: AC is responsible for about 4% of the world’s greenhouse-gas emissions, which fuel the climate crisis.
New crises demand new solutions… As AC use increases with the swelter, efficient units are critical to sustaining the electric grid (and the Earth). Carrier teamed up with the startup Transaera to bring its hyper-efficient units to market, and Blue Frontier (backed by Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy) is developing an AC that uses salt to suck water out of the air.