What If Cities Shared Air Conditioning Instead?

Imagine if hospitals, airports, universities, shopping malls, and stadiums no longer needed their own air-conditioning systems. Instead, they all shared one central cooling network, much like how we share electricity or water today. 

It may sound futuristic, but Malaysia has been doing that for decades.

Chances are, many of us have already visited buildings connected to a district cooling system without even realising it.

Here are five shifts that changed how I think about cooling our cities.

District cooling isn’t new

Many people assume district cooling is a relatively new sustainability innovation. In reality, Malaysia has been using it for more than two decades Chances are you’ve already visited places like KLIA, KL Sentral, Cyberjaya, Putrajaya, TRX, or even the Petronas Twin Towers without realising that some of these developments rely on district cooling systems.

One of Malaysia’s earliest examples, Pendinginan Megajana, a joint venture between Cyberview and ENGIE Services Malaysia, has been operating since 1998. Through two central chiller plants and an underground chilled water network, the system supplies cooling to more than 40 buildings across the city.

What surprised me most wasn't the technology itself. It was realising that district cooling has been operating beneath our feet for decades, yet remains unfamiliar to many outside the engineering and property sectors.

Cooling is becoming a major energy challenge

One statistic that surprised me was that in Malaysia, around 65% of a typical commercial building’s energy consumption is used simply to keep people cool. That’s more than lighting, elevators, office equipment and many other building systems combined. 

As temperatures continue to rise and cities become more densely populated, cooling is no longer just a comfort issue. It’s becoming one of the biggest energy and sustainability challenges for businesses, property developers and government alike. 

Yet despite the scale of this challenge, many people have never heard of district cooling, which already supplies developments such as KLIA, Universiti PETRONAS and Cyberjaya. 

The question is no longer whether cities need cooling, but whether every building still needs to produce its own.

Cooling is becoming a shared utility

For decades, the standard approach has been simple: every building installs, owns and operates its own air-conditioning system. As demand for cooling continues to rise, that model is gradually changing. 

Instead of every building producing its own cooling, some cities are beginning to treat cooling as shared infrastructure, much like electricity, water or gas. A central plant produces chilled water and distributes it through underground pipelines to multiple buildings, allowing them to share cooling more efficiently.

Singapore has been one of the pioneers of this approach. Today, the city-state operates district cooling networks in Marina Bay, Woodlands and Tampines. More recently, it has begun extending the model to existing urban districts through the planned HarbourFront precinct, demonstrating that district cooling is no longer limited to new developments.

More recently, Singapore has begun extending this model to existing urban districts. A distributed district cooling network is planned for the HarbourFront precinct, demonstrating that district cooling is no longer limited to new developments but can also be integrated into established commercial areas as cities modernise their infrastructure.

Investors are backing district cooling

One of the clearest signs that district cooling is entering the mainstream isn't technological, but financial.

Malaysia's public sector pension fund, KWAP, has committed up to RM190 million through its Dana Iklim+ climate investment initiative to Lestari Cooling Energy, a joint venture between KJTS Group and US infrastructure investor Stonepeak. The investment reflects a broader shift in how district cooling is viewed, from an engineering solution to long-term infrastructure capable of delivering stable returns while supporting urban decarbonisation.

The momentum is becoming increasingly visible across Malaysia. Sunway Property's district cooling project is expected to meet 60% of Sunway Education Group's peak cooling demand while reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 45% by 2030. Universiti Malaya has adopted a 20-year cooling energy partnership with TNB Engineering Corporation that is expected to reduce cooling-related costs by around 30%, while creating opportunities to expand district cooling across the university's main campus and Universiti Malaya Medical Centre. Similarly, TRX has implemented a 15-year Cooling-as-a-Service model, enabling the development to access district cooling without upfront capital investment.

District cooling is evolving beyond office towers

District cooling is expanding beyond office towers into universities, hospitals, airports, railway stations, sports stadiums and mixed-use developments.

But evolution isn't only about building new cooling networks. Existing infrastructure is becoming smarter as well. In Malaysia, Solar District Cooling Group has secured a contract to upgrade the Building Management System (BMS) across railway stations and ancillary buildings throughout the Klang Valley. Rather than constructing new cooling plants, the project focuses on improving how existing buildings monitor, manage and optimise their energy consumption.

Some developments are taking an even more integrated approach. Hong Kong's Kai Tak Sports Park, for example, incorporated district cooling into its masterplan alongside smart building management, renewable energy, rainwater harvesting, green landscaping and waste reduction initiatives. Instead of adding sustainability features later, they were designed into the project from the outset.

For decades, cooling has largely been treated as something each building must solve on its own. Across Asia, however, governments, developers and investors are increasingly viewing cooling as shared infrastructure that is planned, financed and managed at the district level.

Most people may never see the underground pipes or central chiller plants that make district cooling possible. Yet they could become just as essential to the cities of tomorrow as the electricity grids, water networks and transport systems we already take for granted.