Cooling potential of ventilated PV façade and solar air heaters combined with a desiccant cooling machine

Li Mei, David Infield, Ursula Eicker, Dennis Loveday and Volker Fux

Renewable Energy, 2006, vol. 31, issue 8, 1265-1278

Abstract: Thermal energy collected from a PV-solar air heating system is being used to provide cooling for the Mataro Library, near Barcelona. The system is designed to utilise surplus heat available from the ventilated PV facade and PV shed elements during the summer season to provide building cooling. A desiccant cooling machine was installed on the library roof with an additional solar air collector and connected to the existing ventilated PV façade and PV sheds. The desiccant cooling cycle is a novel open heat driven system that can be used to condition the air supplied to the building interior. Cooling power is supplied to the room space within the building by evaporative cooling of the fresh air supply, and the solar heat from the PV-solar air heating system provides the necessary regeneration air temperature for the desiccant machine. This paper describes the system and gives the main technical details. The cooling performance of the solar powered desiccant cooling system is evaluated by the detailed modelling of the complete cooling process. It is shown that air temperature level of the PV-solar air heating system of 70°C or more can be efficiently used to regenerate the sorption wheel in the desiccant cooling machine. A solar fraction of 75% can be achieved by such an innovative system and the average COP of the cooling machine over the summer season is approximate 0.518.

Keywords: Solar energy; Ventilated PV façade/shed; Desiccant cooling; Energy balance calculation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2006
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:renene:v:31:y:2006:i:8:p:1265-1278

DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2005.06.013

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