66

nanotimes EU-Projects

Testing of Solar Air-Conditioning Units in the Practice

In a cooperative project, sponsored by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Con- servation and Nuclear Safety (BMU), the partners Fraunhofer ISE, the University of Applied Sciences Offenburg, SorTech AG and Solvis GmbH & Co. KG, ten solar cooling systems with a power range bet- ween 5 and 30 kW are to be installed and equipped with measuring instruments.

“The principle of solar-driven adsorption chillers is at the same time both simple and sophisticated,” explains Tomas Núñez, project leader at Fraunhofer ISE.

“Like conventional chillers, the cooling is produced through the evaporation of a refrigerant. In contrast to conventional cooling techniques, however, so- lar thermal energy instead of electricity is used for the driving energy.” This is an optimal match, since sunshine is abundant during seasons with high air- conditioning demand, and the system components like the storage and the collectors can be utilized to capacity. Not only is this an advantage for the system but also is beneficial to the environment. Compa- red to conventional cooling techniques, electricity savings of up to 80% can be realized by using solar- driven adsorption chillers. In addition, no environ- mentally harmful substances are used for the cold production – rather, just pure water is used as refri- gerant.

At the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE itself, a solar-assisted adsorption chiller from the company SorTech AG is used to cool the lunchroom and the kitchen since 2007. The chiller is driven by energy produced from 22m² of high efficiency flat plate collectors from the company Solvis GmbH & Co. KG.

Participants can look forward to the following ad- vantages: an initial price reduction of 20% on the system, free testing and system maintenance on a regular basis as well as free measurement, monitoring and analysis of the operation to be carried out by the University of Applied Sciences Offenburg and the Fraunhofer ISE.

“The customer receives a complete system solution, fitted to his individual needs and serviced through to the end of the project in December 2012,” describes Ralf Kynast from Solvis GmbH & Co. KG.

http://www.solvis-solar.de http://www.sortech.de http://www.ise.fraunhofer.de

10-05/06 :: May/June 2010