Cooling towers may be a very specific industry, but it wouldn’t be quite right to call an industry worth over $2 billion “niche.” According to the market research firm MarketsandMarkets, the global outlook for cooling tower systems around the world will continue to steadily increase for at least the next four years.
The research firm released some of their findings in their report entitled, “Cooling Tower Market by Type (Dry, Evaporative, Hybrid), by Design (Natural, Mechanical), by Construction Material (Concrete, Steel, FRP, Others), by Application (Power, HVACR, Food and Beverages, Others), by Region – Trends and Forecasts to 2020,” in a press release to Prnewswire.com.
The overall market for cooling tower systems in 2015 amounted to $2.34 billion and is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.2%, reaching a market value of $2.88 billion by the year 2020.
“The market is driven by the rising HVACR deployments, increasing power generation capacities, and rise in technological advances in cooling towers,” the report’s press release reads. “The high growth can be attributed to the growing construction industry, especially commercial buildings. Growth in the construction industry has triggered the demand for HVACR systems, which has positively influenced the growth of the cooling tower market in the region.”
Cooling tower manufacturers can make systems that range wildly in size. They can make large towers — the tallest being the 663-foot Kalisindh Thermal Power Station in Jhalawar, Rajasthan, India — to very small systems that are designed to handle water streams of only a few gallons per minute. In comparison, big towers can handle thousands of gallons of water per minute. Their pipes can be as big as 15-feet in diameter.
The report went on to indicate that the Asia-Pacific region market is one of the areas that’s expected to experience some of the most growth. Naturally, China is the country leading the cooling tower market in the region.
Across the globe, the power generation application segment of the market is estimated to be the biggest area of growth, at least in terms of overall value.
