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Solar Cooling

As contradictory as it may seem, solar energy can also be used to create cold water, process cooling and air conditioning.

Adsorption chillers

Adsorption refers to a process in which a gas or liquid accumulates on the surface of a different liquid or solid, transferring heat in the process. As with absorption chillers, solar-generated heat can be used to drive this cooling cycle.

Desiccant cooling systems

Desiccant systems use heat in order to dry and regenerate a material similar to the silica gel shipped with some electronics or some foods. When the dried material is exposed to moist, warm air it draws the water out of it, cooling it in the process.

Users who require cooling but also have some need for process heat, hot water or even wintertime space heating can benefit from solar cogen or even tri-gen systems, in which the solar thermal output is used for several varying applications.

Solar Cooling

As contradictory as it may seem, solar energy can also be used to create cold water, process cooling and air conditioning. In hot, sunny places with significant cooling demand solar cooling can be an excellent solution.

Solar cooling uses higher-temperature heat, normally produced using a concentrator system, to drive one of several types of cooling devices. These include:

Absorption chillers

Just as water evaporating from your hands makes them feel cooler by carrying heat away into the air, absorption chillers use evaporation and condensation in a closed cycle to reduce the temperature of specific solutions Several different combinations of solutions exist, including ammonia with hydrogen and lithium bromide with water and salt, but the principle is the same – namely using solar heat to drive the evaporative part of the cooling cycle.