Solar cooling plants: how to arrange solar collectors, absorption chillers and the load

The most suitable technology for solar cooling by solar thermal collectors is absorption. The final result does not only depend on the choice of a good machine and efficient thermal collectors. Similar collectors and machines can give rise to completely different seasonal performances of the plant. To begin with the load is seldom in phase with solar energy availability. A hot storage system must be provided. It cannot, however, be sized with solar heating criteria as useful thermal differences are completely different. Moreover it is usually unwise to size the absorption chiller on the solar power input for reason of cost: a cold storage system is often suggested as the cooling capacity control at the chiller level can be very inefficient.