Solar cooling system technology
After learning about solar heating technology in our previous article, we would like to introduce the solar cooling system technology in this one. There are two types of solar cooling system technologies, comprising the Thermal-Driven System and the Electricity-Driven System.
The Thermal-Driven system consists of three kinds of solar panels including 1) Flat Plate Collector, delivering output temperature of around 70 OC, 2) Evacuated Tube Collector, delivering output temperature in the range of 100 OC –150 OC, and 3) Concentrating Solar Collector, delivering output temperature of over 150OC. The heat generated by the panels will be transmitted into the Heat Transformation Cycle and produce two ranges of cool temperatures. The first temperature range are those above 8 OC, fits for applying with the air-conditioning system, while the second are those between 0 OC to 8 OC, good for food preservation as shown in figure 1.
There are four types of Heat Transformation Cycle; Desiccant Cycle, pulling latent heat out of airflow and thus reducing temperature and humidity; Ejector Cycle, a system that uses pump, solar panel, and ejector instead of compressor in the cooling system; Rankine Cycle, using solar panel instead of steam pot in the absorption cycle and apply Lithium Bromide or Ammonia as active substance; Adsorption cycle, using solid sorption and chemical reaction cycle.
Figure 1 Thremal-driven solar cooling system technology
Under the Electricity-driven system, solar panel will produce electricity for heat transformation devices. This system includes Thremo-Electric Cycle, using semiconductor for heat transformation; Vapour Compression Cycl
Figure 2 Electricity-driven solar cooling system technology
Coefficient Of Performance (COP) and the application of each cycle are shown in Table 1
Table 1 Coefficient Of Performance and the application of solar cooling system technology
This yet is another technology invented to make use and maximize the benefit of the unlimited solar resource. Keep up with our articles to learn more of solar technologies.