Two more papers presenting SOLAR COOLING APPLICATIONS, and the SOLCO project, have been recently accepted by the international scientific journals Energy and Buildings (Elsevier) and Fresenius Environmental Bulletin.
The publications abstracts are the following:
“Development of the application of solar thermal cooling systems in Greece and Cyprus”, Fresenius Environmental Bulletin, Vol.18-No7b 2009, by Technical University of Crete-Environmental Engineering Department and Cyprus Institute of Energy
Abstract
During the past several years, the demand for air conditioning has continuously increased not only due to the in-creasing trend for comfort in the built environment, but also due to the high ambient temperatures. The large use of electrically driven cooling equipment is mainly accountable for high peak electricity demand in the summer, which often reaches the capacity limit, increasing at the same time the greenhouse gases emissions. The use of solar energy to drive cooling cycles for space conditioning of most buildings is an attractive concept, especially in Southern Europe, since the cooling requirements are roughly in phase with the solar radiation. This paper presents the development of solar thermal cooling systems in Greece and Cyprus. In the beginning, all the existing operating installations are presented for the different locations, use and applied techniques. Furthermore, a new promising project in the municipal building of Nikos Kazantzakis municipality in Crete is designed and presented.
“Design of a solar absorption cooling system in a Greek hospital”, Energy and Buildings, Elsevier B.V., ENB 2685, 2009, by Technical University of Crete-Environmental Engineering Department
Abstract
Air conditioning of buildings is responsible for a large percentage of the greenhouse and ozone depletion effect, as refrigerant harmful gases are released into the atmosphere from conventional cooling systems. The need to implement advanced new concepts in building air conditioning systems ismore crucial than ever today.
Solar cooling systems (SCS) have the advantage of using absolutely harmless working fluids such as water, or solutions of certain salts. They are energy efficient and environmentally safe. They can be used, either as stand-alone systems or with conventional AC, to improve the indoor air quality of all types of buildings. The main goal is to utilize ‘‘zero emissions’’ technologies to reduce energy consumption and reduce CO2 emissions.
Amongst cooling technologies, absorption cooling seems to have a promising market potential. In this paper, the performance and economic evaluation of a solar heating and cooling system of a hospital in Crete, is studied using the transient simulation program (TRNSYS). The meteorological year file exploited the hourly weather data where produced by 30-year statistical process. The required data were obtained by Hellenic National Meteorological Service. The objective of this study is to simulate a complete system comprised of a solar collector, a storage tank, a backup heat source, a water cooling tower and a LiBr-H2O absorption chiller. The exploitation of the results of the simulation provided the optimum sizing of the system.
News
