Cooling Towers Market - Global Industry Size, Share, Trends, Opportunity, and Forecast, 2021-2031

The Global Cooling Towers Market is projected to expand from USD 5.34 Billion in 2025 to USD 7.16 Billion by 2031, registering a CAGR of 5.01%. A cooling tower functions as a heat rejection mechanism that transfers waste heat to the atmosphere by lowering the temperature of a water stream through conduction or evaporation. Growth in the global market is chiefly underpinned by the rising energy requirements of the power generation industry and the vigorous growth of industrial manufacturing, both of which demand effective thermal management solutions. Furthermore, the ongoing construction of large-scale commercial infrastructure has heightened the need for centralized heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems, cementing the demand for these essential units across various economies.

However, the sector encounters a major obstacle related to environmental sustainability and rigorous water conservation regulations. The substantial water usage associated with conventional evaporative cooling frequently clashes with regulatory policies in areas facing water scarcity, hindering the installation of new units. As reported by Eurovent Market Intelligence, the European cooling tower market was valued at €210 million in 2024, a figure that indicates stagnation relative to the rise of water-saving alternatives. This statistic underscores the difficulty manufacturers face in reconciling high thermal performance with mounting pressure to reduce resource consumption.

Market Drivers

The escalating demand for HVAC systems within commercial and residential infrastructure, especially in the burgeoning data center industry, acts as a primary engine for market expansion. As digital transformation gains speed, facilities need powerful thermal management solutions to eliminate the immense heat produced by high-density servers, leading to a heavy reliance on evaporative cooling towers for energy-efficient heat rejection. This pattern is visibly impacting the financial results of major manufacturers; according to SPX Technologies’ "First Quarter 2024 Results" from May 2024, their HVAC segment achieved revenue of $302.4 million, marking a 20.2% increase from the prior year due to robust demand in cooling applications and increased operational volume.

Concurrently, the rising global capacity in thermal and nuclear power generation demands a corresponding growth in the cooling tower industry to handle waste heat and maintain regulatory compliance. To satisfy base-load electricity needs, power plants are boosting their output, generating continuous demand for mechanical and natural draft towers capable of managing high water flow rates. According to the "Preliminary Monthly Electric Generator Inventory" released by the U.S. Energy Information Administration in February 2024, developers intended to add 62.8 gigawatts of new utility-scale electric-generating capacity in the United States during 2024, a trend that directly aligns with the procurement of auxiliary cooling equipment. This momentum is further confirmed by suppliers like Babcock & Wilcox, who reported in their August 2024 "Second Quarter 2024 Results" an implied backlog of $757.8 million, representing a 51% year-over-year rise driven by ongoing project activity.

Market Challenges

Rigorous water conservation mandates and the growing emphasis on environmental sustainability present a significant constraint on the Global Cooling Towers Market. With fresh water increasingly viewed as a critical resource, regulators in major industrial areas are implementing strict limits on water withdrawal, specifically targeting the high operational consumption characteristic of standard evaporative cooling towers. This regulatory pressure creates a major obstacle for new facility construction, as developers encounter extended permitting delays or complete rejections for water-intensive heat rejection systems, effectively reducing the prospective customer base for traditional cooling units.

According to the Uptime Institute in 2024, merely 43% of data center operators monitored their water usage metrics, a notable gap in transparency that has led authorities to enforce stricter precautionary limits on evaporative cooling installations. This absence of clear efficiency reporting undermines the industry's capacity to argue against water-use caps, compelling a reduction in orders for conventional towers as end-users shift toward dry-cooling technologies to guarantee operational compliance. Consequently, the difficulty in meeting these high sustainability standards without facing prohibitive operational costs is actively impeding market growth.

Market Trends

The adoption of hybrid cooling technologies for water conservation is swiftly altering the market landscape as industries attempt to reconcile thermal performance with dwindling freshwater supplies. In contrast to standard evaporative units that utilize large amounts of water, hybrid systems intelligently alternate between dry and wet operation modes depending on ambient conditions, significantly reducing utility consumption. This technological advancement is especially vital for heavy industry and data centers in drought-prone areas, where water efficiency is becoming a key operational benchmark alongside energy performance; for instance, ACHR News noted in a July 2024 article titled "Sustainable Data Center Cooling" that hybrid solutions like the HXV Hybrid Cooler have shown the capacity to achieve up to 70% water savings relative to open cooling towers.

At the same time, the integration of AI and IoT for real-time monitoring and predictive maintenance is evolving cooling towers from passive equipment into intelligent, data-driven assets. Manufacturers are increasingly incorporating cloud-based analytics and sensors to facilitate condition-based maintenance, which predicts component failures before they result in unplanned outages. This digital transformation improves operational reliability and refines energy use by dynamically modifying water flow and fan speeds in response to thermal load changes; according to the "2024 Sustainability Report" by Johnson Controls in May 2024, deploying their AI-powered OpenBlue solutions in complex settings reduced carbon emissions by 30% while delivering assured energy savings, highlighting the market's shift toward digitally optimized thermal management.

Key Players Profiled in the Cooling Towers Market

• Cooling Tower Systems, Inc.
• Babcock & Wilcox Enterprises, Inc.
• Baltimore Aircoil Company
• Delta Cooling Towers Inc.
• Engie Refrigeration GmbH
• EVAPCO, Inc.
• Johnson Controls International plc
• Kelvion Holdings GmbH
• Liang Chi Industry Co. Ltd.

Report Scope

In this report, the Global Cooling Towers Market has been segmented into the following categories:

Cooling Towers Market, by Product:

• Open-circuit
• Closed-circuit
• Hybrid

Cooling Towers Market, by Material:

• FRP
• Steel
• Concrete
• Wood

Cooling Towers Market, by Application:

• HVAC
• Power Generation
• Oil & Gas

Cooling Towers Market, by Region:

• North America
• Europe
• Asia-Pacific
• South America
• Middle East & Africa

Competitive Landscape

Company Profiles: Detailed analysis of the major companies present in the Global Cooling Towers Market.

Available Customization

The analyst offers customization according to your specific needs. The following customization options are available for the report:

• Detailed analysis and profiling of additional market players (up to five).

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