In November 2019, the Global Cooling Prize coalition announced eight finalist teams and awarded each team $200,000 to support the next stage of the Award: Prototype development and delivery.

Despite the global pandemic in 2020, six of the eight finalist teams have successfully delivered two working prototypes to designated test locations in India, starting in August 2020. These have undergone protocolized and standardized testing, consisting of three different trials, such as field tests, year-round laboratory simulated performance tests, and laboratory tests on the Indian Seasonal Energy Efficiency Index (ISEER).

Following these tests, the Technical Review Committee of the Award has examined the performance of the prototypes of each product and based on these results will nominate the winning team whose breakthrough technology has the potential to provide residential cooling with a climate impact at least 5 times lower than today’s market average in India. 

Once produced on an industrial scale and sold en masse, such a technology would have the potential to mitigate global warming by 0.5°C by the end of the century.

So which finalist team will be named the winner of the Global Cooling Prize? We will find out at the Grand Award Ceremony, to be held online on April 29th at 3pm.

To attend the ceremony, click here.