Europe's climate scientists and startups are developing air-conditioning systems that replace chemical refrigerants with solid-state materials—metals that absorb heat when deformed, semiconductors that move heat under electrical current, or plastic crystals that release heat when pressurized. This matters because conventional AC drives roughly 3 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, while its refrigerants are either thousands of times more potent than CO₂ or dangerous (flammable or toxic). As Europe warms faster than any other continent and cooling demand is expected to soar, these new technologies could let the continent scale AC without locking into the high-emission cooling spiral of the US and Asia.
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Multiple European startups and research teams are developing air-conditioning systems that do not rely on chemical refrigerants. Saarland University's nickel-titanium technology absorbs heat when stretched and released; Barocal (University of Cambridge spinoff) uses pressurized plastic crystals; Mimic Systems employs semiconductive materials; and Magnotherm uses magnetic fields. Barocal recently raised $10 million（約16億円） in seed funding.
Why it matters
Europe's current AC adoption is low (roughly 20 percent of households, 4 percent in the UK), but demand will rise sharply as warming accelerates—the UK's Climate Change Committee warns that over 90 percent of existing homes could overheat during severe heat waves by mid-century. Conventional AC worsens the problem: it accounts for roughly 3 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, and current refrigerants (fluorinated gases) have global warming potential thousands of times greater than CO₂ if leaked. The EU phased them out in 2024, but alternatives like propane are flammable and ammonia is toxic. Solid-state cooling could avoid these trade-offs.
What to watch
The prototypes are in early-stage testing—Motzki's team expects deployment in new buildings within the next few years, and Magnotherm plans to test in a German supermarket chain later this year before tackling air-conditioning. Motzki notes that Europe is at the forefront of the field and has 'a major opportunity to achieve technological leadership all the way through to market maturity,' but success will depend heavily on private capital and public funding.
Europe faces a cooling paradox. As temperatures climb well above 40° Celsius and heat waves become more frequent and intense—with research suggesting that the UK, Switzerland, Norway, and Finland could experience some of the largest relative increases in cooling demand—the continent needs more air-conditioning to protect people and maintain productivity. Yet conventional AC is part of the climate problem itself: electricity for space cooling already accounts for roughly 3 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, and that electricity demand could more than triple by 2050 as new units are installed worldwide. The refrigerants that have powered AC for a century are equally problematic. Fluorinated gases leak into the atmosphere and trap heat thousands of times more effectively than CO₂; the EU's 2024 phase-out is necessary, but the alternatives (propane and ammonia) bring their own dangers—flammability and toxicity.
This impasse has redirected European research toward a fundamentally different approach: solid-state cooling technologies that rely on materials (nickel-titanium, semiconductors, plastic crystals, magnetic fields) rather than chemical cycles. The appeal is not just environmental but technical—if proven at scale, these systems could deliver the same cooling efficiency without the greenhouse gas burden or toxicity trade-offs. Multiple startups and university spinoffs are at prototype stage; success will depend on whether the right capital and partnerships materialize quickly. The timing is critical: Europe is warming faster than any other continent, and the window to deploy new cooling infrastructure before the worst of mid-century heat stress arrives is narrowing. If these technologies work and scale, Europe could establish technological leadership in a field that will reshape global energy demand for decades—though the article's historical note about solar photovoltaics serves as a caution that leadership in research does not always translate to leadership in manufacturing and deployment.
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