Solar powered cooling offers a sustainable and low energy solution for refrigeration applications. For most applications, there is a coincidence between peak solar gain and peak cooling demand. By using solar energy to drive a cooling cycle, it is possible to produce cooling virtually coincident with the refrigeration demand and is thus a viable technology for sustainable building design. This paper presents an overview of the state-of-the-art of solar cooling. It describes the technologies, applications, efficiencies, economics, thermodynamics, optimisation and finally experimentation with solar cooling systems. Several competing technologies for solar energy collection for sorption and vapour compression refrigeration are compared on efficiency, life cycle cost and primary energy basis. The paper then describes a thermodynamic model for analysing the combination of solar collectors with absorption chillers for cold generation using the concept of available energy (exergy) as the performance indicator. Finally, the paper presents experimental results from a solar cooling plant consisting of commercially available components for analysing its transient operating characteristics, validating the model and proposing 'best practice' design guidance and benchmarks for improved viability of the technology.
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