In what’s being spurred by Asia-Pacific markets, a new report from global market research firm Markets and Markets estimates that the cooling tower industry will continue steady growth over at least the next four years. According to ACHRnews.com, the report indicates that the market, which stood at $2.34 billion in 2015, will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.2% and ultimately reach approximately $2.88 billion by the year 2020.
There are a variety of reasons as to why the industry is expected to see such success, including HVACR deployments, increasing power generation capacity, and technological advances in cooling towers, in general. These areas are growing at a particularly rapid rate in the Asia-Pacific region of the world, where things like the rising population, infrastructure development concerns, and overall industrialization of the region have sparked the need for more cooling towers.
Cooling tower technology is of vital importance to a number of industrial and commercial facilities, ranging from schools and hospitals to factories and power plants, and having the right cooling tower is crucial for these buildings. For example, in a typical 700 MW coal-fired power plant with a cooling tower, the cooling water circulation rate amounts to approximately 71,600 cubic meters an hour (or 315,000 U.S. gallons per minute); the circulating water requires a supply water make-up rate of about 5% (i.e., 3,600 cubic meters an hour).
When it comes to the specific segments, power generation held the largest market share in 2015. HVACR, food and beverage, and chemical application segments came in after that.
“Different types of cooling towers are manufactured for various applications,” the report reads. “They serve various end-use industries including chemical, petrochemical and oil and gas, HVACR, food and beverage, power generation, and others for an array of applications. The value chain for the cooling tower manufacturers begins with research and product development and ends at the end-use industries.”
Considering all the other industries and developments that stem directly, or indirectly, from the benefit of cooling towers, there’s no question this continued growth looks to be good news for economies on a global scale.