Cooling Tower Technology: An Historical Perspective
Modern water cooling towers were invented during the industrial age to dissipate waste heat from industrial processes when natural cooling water sources were unavailable. By the early 20th century, advances in cooling towers were fueled by the rapidly growing electric power industry.
The cooling loads created by the generation of electric power led to the development of large, custom-built structures typically constructed of wood. Cooling tower development continued to be based on the needs of these power-and-process users until the emergence of the commercial air conditioning market, which led the development of the modular, independently certified cooling towers of today.