SOLAR COOLING

The continuously increasing demand of cooling loads and conventional energy cost, combined to the remarkable coincidence of the availability of solar energy and cooling demand, has brought intention into R&D actions in the field of cooling produced by heat. Within recent years, the Laboratory has acted dynamically in the field of solar cooling technologies.
The respective research activities concentrate on:

• The optimum adaptation of absorption cooling and desiccant air-conditioning technologies to the particular requirements imposed by solar energy.
• The investigation of basic mass and heat transport mechanisms, taking place through the operation of desiccant cooling systems, which provide the potential of both temperature and humidity regulation.
• The development of methodologies for the control, simulation and energy optimization of the relevant installations.
• The implementation of relevant pilot-demonstration installations, with the parallel evaluation of the involved technologies in actual operation conditions.