Actual developments in the field of solar

cooling5. Solartagung Rheinland-Pfalz, Umweltcampus Birkenfeld, September 2009

Wolfram Sparber

2Umwelt-Campus Birkenfeld 2009wolfram.sparber@eurac.edu

Agenda

� Global cooling and solar market

� Solar cooling – an introduction

� Developments on system level

� Developments on chiller level

� Conclusions & Outlook

3Umwelt-Campus Birkenfeld 2009wolfram.sparber@eurac.edu

Global Cooling Market 2002

Source: JARIA, Solarnext

4Umwelt-Campus Birkenfeld 2009wolfram.sparber@eurac.edu

Global Cooling Market 2007

Source: JARN, Solarnext

5Umwelt-Campus Birkenfeld 2009wolfram.sparber@eurac.edu

Global Solar Thermal Market development

6Umwelt-Campus Birkenfeld 2009wolfram.sparber@eurac.edu

European Solar Thermal Market

development

Newly installed collector area, Source: ESTIF 2009

1999-2008

+23%

7Umwelt-Campus Birkenfeld 2009wolfram.sparber@eurac.edu

Cooling systems

Electricity

source

Compression

chiller

Ambient

cooling

Heat

source

Thermal

cooling system

Ambient

cooling

8Umwelt-Campus Birkenfeld 2009wolfram.sparber@eurac.edu

Thermal cooling systems

Heat

source

Absorption

chiller

Ambient

cooling

DEC

Adsorption

chiller

Thermal

cooling system

District /

waste heatFossil fuels

Solar

thermal

Ambient

cooling

…

9Umwelt-Campus Birkenfeld 2009wolfram.sparber@eurac.edu

Solar combi+ systems

� Schematic design of a solar domestic hot water system,

combined with heating support plus cooling delivery.

E-2 E-4

M

M

M

M

M M

10Umwelt-Campus Birkenfeld 2009wolfram.sparber@eurac.edu

R&D / Market application

11Umwelt-Campus Birkenfeld 2009wolfram.sparber@eurac.edu

Market - solar cooling systems

Data collected by Solarnext

12Umwelt-Campus Birkenfeld 2009wolfram.sparber@eurac.edu

Recently presented thermally driven

chillers

� Historically mainly Asian companies produced and offered

absorption chillers with a cooling capacity over 30 kW

(Eg. Yazaki, Broad, Thermax, …)

� In the last years several European companies presented

new sorption chillers on the market especially with cooling

capacities from 5 kW – 20 kW (Eg. Sonnenklima, Sortech,

EAW, Rotartica, Climatewell, Pink, …)

13Umwelt-Campus Birkenfeld 2009wolfram.sparber@eurac.edu

Present draw backs of the technology

System level:

1. No standardised systems are available

2. A centralized controlling unit is usually missing

3. The exact performance of the chiller under different

conditions is not known to planners

4. Systems are often complex and remain below their

potential

5. Many systems are the first system which a planner

installs and therefore the learning curve is still very

reduced

⇒ Market growth and specific R&D is needed

14Umwelt-Campus Birkenfeld 2009wolfram.sparber@eurac.edu

1.) Standard systems: Solar Combi+

project

� European project leaded by

Eurac including research and

industry partners

� Development of standardized

system configuration

� Through intensive numerical

simulation

� Identification of most

promising markets

& space cooling

& space heating

Solar thermal

domestic hot water

heating (DHW) DHW

Solar Combi

Solar Combi+& space cooling& space cooling

& space heating& space heating

Solar thermal

domestic hot water

heating (DHW)

Solar thermal

domestic hot water

heating (DHW) DHW

Solar Combi

Solar Combi+

Source: Solarcombi+, Eurac

15Umwelt-Campus Birkenfeld 2009wolfram.sparber@eurac.edu

� Residential buildings, cold distriubtion by

II. fan coils (10°C/15°C)

III. chilled ceiling (15°C/18°C)

� Two-storied building

� 140 m² cooled floor area

� Based on Task 32 reference buildings

� 2 building standards (60kWh/m² and 100kWh/m² in Zurich,

Switzerland)

� 2 locations (Toulouse and Naples)

Choice of exemplary buildings

Source: Solarcombi+, Fraunhofer ISE

16Umwelt-Campus Birkenfeld 2009wolfram.sparber@eurac.edu

0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

7000

Toulouse 60 Toulouse 100 Naples 60 Naples 100

Ba

rs:A

nn

ua

l lo

ad

[k

Wh

/a]

/ Do

ts: p

ea

k lo

ad

[W

]

Heat_sens Heat_lat Cold_sens Cold_lat

Annual loads in the chosen cases

Source: Solarcombi+, Fraunhofer ISE

17Umwelt-Campus Birkenfeld 2009wolfram.sparber@eurac.edu

Heating

DHW

Cooling

Chiller

heat rejection

Boiler

Collector

Loads

Source: Fraunhofer ISE

Choice of system configuration 1

Source: Solarcombi+, Fraunhofer ISE

18Umwelt-Campus Birkenfeld 2009wolfram.sparber@eurac.edu

Heating

DHW

Cooling

Chiller

heat rejection

BoilerCollector

Loads

Source: Fraunhofer ISE

Choice of system configuration 2

Source: Solarcombi+, Fraunhofer ISE

19Umwelt-Campus Birkenfeld 2009wolfram.sparber@eurac.edu

•The increase of SF_cooling without boiler is between 12%÷26% depending on the application

Source: Solarcombi+, Eurac

Exemplary results

20Umwelt-Campus Birkenfeld 2009wolfram.sparber@eurac.edu

Examples of system performance

� Slar Combi+ systems performance related to a residentiao

building in Napels; Chilled ceilings are used in this example

Coll.

type

H.R.

type

Coll. area

[m2/kW]

Storage

Vol.

[l/m2]

TOT. Solar

Fraction

[%]

PE

Saved

[%]

Gross Solar Yield

[(kWh/anno)/m2]

ET WCT 4.27 50 70 38 555

ET WCT 4.27 75 73 45 574

ET WCT 5.00 25 67 34 466

ET WCT 5.00 50 76 49 515

1

ET WCT 5.00 75 80 56 533

Source: Solarcombi+, Eurac

21Umwelt-Campus Birkenfeld 2009wolfram.sparber@eurac.edu

2.) System controller

� At present most solar cooling systems are an assembly of

single components

� These components in many cases have their own controll

unit. This leads in the system to the necessaty to connect

several single control units

� Within this connection there is a high probability not to

find an optimised control logic

� In order to enhance the system performance of future

systems, centralized system controllers are needed …

22Umwelt-Campus Birkenfeld 2009wolfram.sparber@eurac.edu

Recent product presentation

Source: Solarnext

23Umwelt-Campus Birkenfeld 2009wolfram.sparber@eurac.edu

Product development

� European research project within the 7th Research

Program

� Leaded by University of Firenze – CREAR, including several

research and industry partners

� Three demonstration systems in three European countries

are in planning including one central control unit

� A control unit is under development being able to control

(by soft- and hardware) the whole system and to be

flexible for different kind of installations

24Umwelt-Campus Birkenfeld 2009wolfram.sparber@eurac.edu

Product development – EnergyBox

Source: Project Alone, CREAR, Eurac

25Umwelt-Campus Birkenfeld 2009wolfram.sparber@eurac.edu

Case study - Bolzano

2525

� Multifamily social building realised in passive house

standard

� Including a biomass boiler, geothermal horizontal heat

exchanger and active ventilation

� A solar thermal collector field, a sorption chiller and a

prototype of the control unit will be installed in spring

2010

� The new system will be connected to the geothermal heat

exchanger, the boiler and the ventilation system

Source: Project Alone, IPES, Eurac

26Umwelt-Campus Birkenfeld 2009wolfram.sparber@eurac.edu

Loadprofile of the case study

26

T set winter (°°°°C)

21

T set summer (°°°°C)

26

U set (%)

50%

Yearly sensible heating load

23.1 [kwh/m2]

Yearly sensible cooling demand

4.3 [kwh/m2]

Source: Project Alone, Eurac

27Umwelt-Campus Birkenfeld 2009wolfram.sparber@eurac.edu

3.) Chiller performance

� In order to be able to efficiently plan a solar cooling system, data for

system simulations are necessary

� Therefore the performance of the central components (collectros, heat

rejection, chiller) have to be known

� Especially the chiller performance, in off design and transient conditions

are in many cases un known to the planners, installers and customers

� In order to bridge this gap Eurac has established recently a dedicated test

facility

Source: Eurac

28Umwelt-Campus Birkenfeld 2009wolfram.sparber@eurac.edu28

Test facility - Scheme

Source: Eurac

29Umwelt-Campus Birkenfeld 2009wolfram.sparber@eurac.edu

Laboratory Photos

29

Test facility

Test facility for:

� Sorption machines (UNI EN 14511)

• Cooling Power: ≤20 kW• Heat Pump or Chiller Mode

� Heat Rejection Systems

Establishment of optimal

configurations, depending on:

� Climate zone

� Cooling loads

� Back ups

Source: Eurac

30Umwelt-Campus Birkenfeld 2009wolfram.sparber@eurac.edu

Further developments and projects

� Application of Solar cooling to special industry sectors

-> European FP6 Project “Medisco”

� Application of solar cooling in countries with high solar

irradiation (Northern Africa)

-> European FP6 Project “REACT”

� Coupling of thermal cooling with small scale cogeneration

-> European FP7 Project

� Utilisation of facades of high rise buildings for solar active

systems -> European FP7 Projct “Cost Effective”

� Enhancement of the chillers and heat rejection

performance (advanced heat exchangers, research of new

materials, …), national or company projects

31Umwelt-Campus Birkenfeld 2009wolfram.sparber@eurac.edu

Conclusions & Outlook

� Solar cooling and solar combi + systems are only at the

very beginning of the market introduction

� Leading to higher system costs and reduced experience in

the field compared to proven technologies

� A stepwise growth of the market is expected, at the

beginning especially in niche markets (waste heat

utilization, demonstration projects, large heat, DHW and

cooling demand, …)

� Several new products have been presented in the last years

� An overall systems optimisation seems important in order

to realise stable, high performing installations in this initial

market phase

Thank you for your attention

www.eurac.edu