Solar Cooling

December 26, 2019
Dr Uli Jakob: Solar cooling reduces electricity consumption by a factor 2 to 3

Global energy consumption for cooling and air conditioning is increasing rapidly and, if the projections by the Green Cooling Initiative come true, the number of AC units installed around the world will have more than tripled by 2050. Solar cooling is an electricity-saving alternative to the...
December 4, 2019
Solar heat cost-competitive with fossil fuels if used in large projects

The organisers of the joint SHC/SWC 2019 conferences, which took place in November in Santiago, Chile, introduced a new session format, when they held three Research meets Business Forums. The third one on Wednesday, Deployment of Solar Thermal Solutions for Industrial Process...
December 4, 2019
From S.O.L.I.D. to Solid: differing views on a complicated story

Solid Energy Systems is a newly founded company based in Graz, Austria. It employs 21 of the 30 staff members who used to work at S.O.L.I.D. Gesellschaft für Solarinstallation und Design, which first became insolvent and then went into administration at the end of June 2019. Solid Energy...
November 18, 2019
First district cooling regulation in the MENA region

Abu Dhabi now has its first comprehensive regulatory standard on district cooling. It is based on Act No. 11, which was passed in 2018 and put the responsibility for regulating the district cooling sector on the newly founded emirate’s Department of Energy. Following extensive consultations...
October 3, 2019
Technology review of small-capacity absorption chillers

A new scientific paper published in July gives readers an overview of state-of-the-art absorption chillers below 50 kW of cooling capacity. The document, titled Review of small-capacity single-stage continuous absorption systems operating on binary working fluids for cooling:...
September 30, 2019
Global support for solar cooling in sunbelt regions

Transferring knowledge and solar cooling technology to sunbelt countries in Africa, on the Mediterranean coast and in Asia will be the main aim of a new research platform planned by the IEA Solar Heating and Cooling programme (IEA SHC). This topic also fits under the roof of the Innovation...
July 15, 2019
A new solar cooling standard for Australia

On 28 June, Standards Australia’s Committee CS-028 on Solar Water Heaters published its first standard on solar air conditioning, named AS 5389. It contains a methodology to calculate the cooling or heating loads of buildings under a variety of climatic conditions. Work on the document...
June 26, 2019
Attractive solar cooling market in Italy

In 2018, Italy was an attractive market for solar cooling solutions thanks to high investment subsidies by national support programme Conto Termico 2.0. Three sorption chiller manufacturers launched projects in the country last year: Maya, an Italian joint-venture with the Japanese company...
May 31, 2019
Solar Cooling at Intersolar 2019

This year’s Intersolar Europe, which took place in Munich, featured a conference session titled Solar, the new cool? Among the speakers at this solar cooling event, held on 15 May, were Daniel Mugnier and Uli Jakob, former members of the IEA SHC research platform New Generation...
March 1, 2019
#SolarHeat: the main Twitter hashtag

#SolarThermal or #SolarHeat: Which of these two Twitter hashtags or keywords better represents the production of thermal energy from sunlight? Because of some recent, large concentrating solar power (CSP) projects, the term solar thermal seems to be in frequent use on social...
January 24, 2019
Solar air conditioning at Swiss embassy in India

The Swiss embassy in New Delhi has expressed satisfaction with the performance of the solar thermal cooling system started up at the complex in early 2017. It was designed and installed by the German-Indian joint venture VSM Solar following an international invitation to tender. It includes...
January 6, 2019
Triple-absorption chiller by Chinese Broad Group

China-based Broad Group has developed a triple-effect absorption chiller that can produce chilled water down to 5 °C, while requiring a lower inlet temperature of about 75 °C leading to a return flow temperature of 55 °C. The new chiller generation has been on the market since 2016 and was...