Euro stats reflect rise of data centre cooling
10th January 2025
FRANCE: The latest report on the European HVACR market charts a rise in sales of dry coolers, chillers and data centre cooling equipment.
The report from Eurovent Market Intelligence (EMI) analyses the market in 2023 and presents a forward-looking forecast through 2030.
Covering 16 products under five chapters – cooling, refrigeration, thermodynamics, terminal units and ventilation – the report focuses on the EU27 members, as well as the Balkan countries, Norway, Switzerland, Türkiye, UK and Ukraine.
Sales of chillers with a capacity above 50kW experienced double-digit growth to €1,997.7m. The refrigerant analysis concludes that the phase-down of HFCs in 2023 was slow, despite a decline in the use of R410A. HFCs still accounted for 74% of the market, with lower GWP HFO refrigerants accounting for 7% of the market and “naturals” even less at 1%.
The CRAC/CRAH data centre market also enjoyed double-digit growth in 2023, with unit sales increasing by 15% and market value rising by 33% to €375.8m. This growth was primarily driven by the rising demand for high-capacity CRAH units over 100kW, which are essential for hyperscale and large enterprise data centres. These units have shown consistent growth since 2015, although there was a brief slowdown in 2021 due to uncertainties following the pandemic. However, the market rebounded in 2022, and in 2023, there was a 28% increase in sales of large units.
In other sectors, the sales value of dry coolers rose 15% to €372.7m in 2023, while the market for cooling towers stagnated at €210m. The market for coolers totalled 271,000 units, while condenser sales reached 48,900 units. Significantly, the proportion of CO2 units increased from 12% in 2019 to 20% in 2023.
The fan coil market was valued at €570m in 2023, primarily driven by units without casing, which makes up about one-third of the market.
This contrasts strongly with the chilled-beam market, which, with its sales of €64m, remained stable in both value and structure. Sweden alone accounted for more than a third of the sales value.
AHU market value grew by 7.5% to around 2.9bn but stagnated in volume, with only Southern Europe and the UK showing a positive increase in unit numbers.
The HVACR 2030 report spans 154 pages and is based on contributions from over 500 participants.
Copies are available for purchase here.
