A kind of antithesis of central heating – “central cooling”.
Press” alt=”Giant air conditioner cools air in Louvre and more than 700 homes in Paris – Associated Press” />
Mona Lisa can keep her famous mysterious smile without fear of harmful temperature fluctuations. According to the Associated Press, Louvre, where it is stored,and more than 700 houses of the capital of France are helped to cope with the heat by one of the most hidden secrets of Paris. This secret is an underground cooling system.
The network of the “city refrigerator” of Paris, which few people know about, is located right under the feet of unsuspecting Parisians, at a depth of up to 30 meters. It pumps cold water through a labyrinth of pipes 89 km long. The giant air conditioner uses electricity generated from renewable sources. It is the largest in Europe.
Paris City Hall has now signed an ambitious contract to triple the size of the network by 2042 to 252 kilometers. This will make it the largest urban cooling system in the world. The new contract is designed to help the city adapt to a warming climate, and this is very important – in July the air temperature in Europe reached 40 degrees Celsius.
Over the next two decades, the unique cooling network will reach hospitals, schools and metro stations. It is not yet clear how the system will grow for timehosting the Olympic Games in Paris in 2024, but it is quite possible that it will be used in several Olympic facilities.
“If all the buildings in Paris were equipped with autonomous air conditioners, this would create “heat islands “, says the specialist of Fraicheur de Paris (Parisian freshness), which operates the giant air conditioner, Maggie Shelfhout. And a network of pipes with ice water, on the contrary, will be able to cool all of Paris by one degree Celsius.
Three of the 10 high-tech cooling units are located on the Seine River. It is the river water that is used in the giant refrigerator. The heat generated as a by-product is directed back to the Seine.
The chilled water is piped into the system to 730 Parisian customers. The most visited museum in the world, the Louvre, has been using this network since the 1990s. “This allows us to use energy with a lower carbon footprint all year round,” said Laurent Le Guedard, director of heritage at the Louvre.
Unknown to millions of tourists, the underground labyrinth of pipes now cools Paris' most iconic sights. It also cools the ardor of French legislators as it is used to cool down the temperature in the National Assembly.
The system is operated by the joint venture Fraicheur de Paris (Freshness of Paris). 85% of the JV's shares belong to the state-owned French energy company EDF, and the rest to the public transport operator RATP.
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