Paris is Harnessing The Seine to Replace Air-Con
- 38 minutes ago
- 2 min read
Described as a "kind of miracle", the French capital is tripling its system of underground pipes that distribute chilled river water, reducing need for individual cooling units.
As temperatures rise, most cities are reaching for a familiar fix of more air conditioning. But in 1990s Paris, with remarkable foresight, planning began for a different kind of solution: one of the world’s largest district cooling networks, known as Fraîcheur de Paris.
“It’s a kind of miracle solution in the era of global warming,” says Thibauld Voïta, an energy and climate expert and adviser at the Jacques Delors Institute. The system has 120kms (75-miles) of underground pipes distributing chilled water to museums, offices, hospitals, schools and other public buildings including the Louvre, the Grand Palais, and some luxury hotels and office districts. Instead of thousands of individual air-conditioning units, cooling is produced centrally and shared across the city like a utility.
The system circulates cold water through a network of pipes: cold river water from the Seine is pumped through one pipe, which runs right next to a secondary pipe carrying warm water from the city’s buildings. A thin metal wall separates them and a heat exchanger allows the heat from the warm city water to enter the cold Seine water without the fluids ever touching.
It is similar to holding a cup of hot tea in a bowl of cold water - the liquids don’t touch, but the tea cools down. That cooler water is then circulated through the buildings connected to the system and the Seine water is returned to the river slightly warmer than before.
The hope is that Fraîcheur de Paris will stop at least some of the 2.1 million people who live in Paris from buying an air conditioner.
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