Estimation of European Union service sector space cooling potential

Data on European service sector space cooling demands are scarce and often of poor quality. This article estimates the potential space cooling demands in the service sector of the EU using the United States as a proxy. Since the space cooling demand in the US is mature and nearly saturated, this provides useful insights of potential future European space cooling demand. A georeferenced approach based on comparing Cooling Degree Days and space cooling consumption in the USA was used to establish the potential service space cooling demand in NUTS-3 regions of EU. The total potential space cooling demand of the EU was estimated to be 174 TWh for the service sector in an average year. The estimated potential of space cooling demand, identified in this paper for all EU Members States, could be used while preparing the next iteration of EU Member States' Comprehensive Assessments related to the Article 14 of the Energy Efficiency Directive or other energy related studies.