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Comparative Analysis of Solar Thermal Cooling and Solar Photovoltaic

Cooling Systems

Article  in  Journal of Solar Energy Engineering · January 2011

DOI: 10.1115/ES2011-54162

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Nelson Fumo Vicente Bortone

University of Texas at Tyler Johnson Controls
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Universidad Nacional Experimental del Táchira, UNET
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 Comparative Analysis of Solar
Thermal Cooling and Solar
Photovoltaic Cooling Systems
The Energy Information Administration of the United States Department of Energy proj-
ects that more than 80% of the energy consumption of the U.S. by 2035 will come from
N. Fumo fossil fuels. This projection should be the fuel to promote projects related to renewable
Department of Mechanical Engineering, energy in order to reduce energy consumption from fossil fuels to avoid their undesirable
University of Texas at Tyler, consequences such as carbon dioxide emissions. Since solar radiation match pretty well
Tyler, TX 73799 building cooling demands, solar cooling systems will be an important factor in the next
e-mail: nfumo@[Link] decades to meet or exceed the green gases reduction that will be demanded by the society
and regulations in order to mitigate environmental consequences such as global warm-
V. Bortone ing. Solar energy can be used as source of energy to produce cooling through different
Johnson Controls, Inc., technologies. Solar thermal energy applies to technology such as absorption chillers and
9850 Legler Road, desiccant cooling, while electricity from solar photovoltaic can be used to drive vapor
Lenexa, KS 66219-1263 compression electric chillers. This study focuses on the comparison of a solar thermal
e-mail: [Link]@[Link] cooling system that uses an absorption chiller driven by solar thermal energy, and a solar
photovoltaic cooling system that uses a vapor compression system (electric chiller)
J. C. Zambrano driven by solar electricity (solar photovoltaic system). Both solar cooling systems are
Decanato de Investigación, compared against a standard air cooled cooling system that uses electricity from the
Universidad Nacional Experimental del Táchira, grid. The models used in the simulations to obtain the results are described in the paper
Av. Universidad, along with the parameters (inputs) used. Results are presented in two figures. Each figure
Táchira 5001, Venezuela has one curve for the solar thermal cooling system and one for the solar photovoltaic
e-mail: jzambra@[Link] cooling system. One figure allows estimation of savings calculated based the present
value of discounted energy consumption cost. The other figure allows estimating primary
energy consumption reduction and emissions reduction. Both figures presents the result
per ton of refrigeration and as a function of area of solar collectors or/and area of photo-
voltaic modules. This approach to present the result of the simulations of the systems
makes these figures quite general. This means that the results can be used to compare
both solar cooling systems independently of the cooling demand (capacity of the system),
as well as allow the analysis for different sizes of the solar system used to harvest the so-
lar energy (collectors or photovoltaic modules). [DOI: 10.1115/1.4007935]

Keywords: solar cooling, solar thermal cooling, solar photovoltaic cooling

1 Introduction Since the building demand for space cooling increases and
matches very well the solar radiation availability, it seems that the
The Energy Information Administration of the United States
use of solar energy for space cooling has the potential to displace
Department of Energy, in the Annual Energy Outlook 2010 docu-
electric power and energy from the grid.
ment, projects that the use of renewable energy in the United
Solar energy can be used as source of energy to produce cool-
States will duplicate by 2035. This increase is really meaningful
ing through different technologies. Solar thermal energy applies
when compared with the increase of the other sources of primary
to technology such as absorption chillers and desiccant cooling,
energy. For example, the second largest increase of energy use
while electricity from solar photovoltaic can be used to drive
corresponds to coal with only 20%. However, despite of this
vapor compression electric chillers.
upturn in the use of renewable energy, more than 80% of the
Henning [1] pointed out that, in the past, the application of solar
energy consumption of the U.S. by 2035 will come from fossil
cooling technology was hindered mainly due to its economic
fuels. Therefore, there is a need to reduce energy consumption
infeasibility. However, as technology improves, the economic
from fossil fuels and their undesirable consequences such as car-
constraints can be minimized making more notorious the social
bon dioxide emissions.
benefits. Although Sparber et al. [2], as result of a project for the
Although energy consumption for space heating and space
International Energy Agency, Task 38 "Solar Air-Conditioning
cooling in buildings varies in magnitude depending on the climate
and Refrigeration," listed 56 installations with absorption chillers
zone, energy use for space cooling has an important contribution
out of 81 installed large scale solar cooling systems around the
on the buildings energy use profile. Energy to drive space cooling
world, Fredslund et al. [3] suggest that the main obstacles are
systems consumes electricity that (1) it is more expensive at peak
related the lack of practical knowledge of the design, control, and
times when the demand for cooling is greater and (2) contributes
operation of solar cooling systems.
with the emission of greenhouse gases according with the fuel
Solar cooling systems will be an important factor in the next
mix of the electric region providing electricity to the building.
decades to meet or exceed the green gases reduction that will be
required to mitigate global warming. The engineering community
Contributed by the Solar Energy Division of ASME for publication in the
JOURNAL OF SOLAR ENERGY ENGINEERING. Manuscript received October 24, 2011; final
has very important role to determine when, where, and how these
manuscript received August 24, 2012; published online November 21, 2012. Assoc. systems could be implemented to maximize all benefits including
Editor: Werner Platzer. economic and environmental factors. This process will require

Journal of Solar Energy Engineering Copyright V

C 2013 by ASME MAY 2013, Vol. 135 / 021003-1

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 extensive analysis and study of different configurations when
using solar energy to produce cooling. During the presentation of
Fumo et al. paper [4] at ASME Energy Sustainability 2010 confer-
ence, the question of comparing solar thermal cooling system with
solar photovoltaic was raised. It was evident that there was not
clear information on this subject and it became the reason for the
analysis presented in this paper.
In this study, a constant cooling load assumption was used to
simplify the simulations. The constant load is justified since it can
be considered as a base load for buildings such as data centers.
However, for variable load, since the results are presented as com-
parison against a reference standard system with an air cooled elec-
tric chiller, operation at partial load should have the same
conclusion but with a different magnitude. Tampa was chosen as a Fig. 1 Schematic of reference system
site for simulation since it can be considered as an average solar
radiation for analysis in other locations. That is, if the location has (Fig. 1). This reference system corresponds to a standard air
more or less solar radiation intensity, the results from the study can cooled vapor compression system (electric chiller), which con-
be extrapolated. To account for the variation in ambient tempera- sumes electricity from the electric

grid.
ture and solar radiation availability, the simulations performed in The electric power W_ e;ch required by the electric chiller is
an hour timestep with weather conditions obtained from weather computed as
files from EnergyPlus [5]. In order to compare the economic feasi-
bility of both solar cooling systems, the economic analysis is pre- Q_ c
sented based on present value of the cumulative discounted fuel W_ e;ch ¼ (6)
COPe;ch
savings to operate each system. The information presented in this
paper could be used to determine the preliminary savings at other
locations with different conditions or parameters. This information where COPe;ch is the coefficient of performance of the electric
is bound to systems that currently use air cooled electrical chillers. chiller and Q_ c is the cooling load.
This in turn means that the size of the system is small to medium
size range. For larger water cooled chiller plans, other opportunities 4 Solar Thermal Cooling Model
should be evaluated including the use of double stage absorption
chiller that has better coefficient of performance (COP), and the use Figure 2 illustrates the schematic of the system simulated
of the thermal solar system to produce heat for other uses when according to the model presented in this section. It can be noticed
cooling load are not constant during the year. from this figure that the solar thermal system does not have a
backup heating source. This implies that the electric chiller placed
in series will handle the cooling load when there is not enough
2 Environmental Variables thermal energy to drive the absorption chiller.
The solar radiation and ambient temperature required for the The thermal energy rate required by the absorption chiller
simulations of the solar systems considered in this study were ðQ_ ch Þ to handle the cooling load ðQ_ c Þ is estimated as
obtained in 1 h time step from Typical Meteorological Year data
(TMY3) through resources of EnergyPlus [5]. The direct ðGb Þ, Q_ c
diffuse ðGd Þ, and ground reflected ðGr Þ solar radiation obtained Q_ ch ¼ (7)
COPa;ch
from the TMY3 are used in Eqs. (1)–(4), respectively, to compute
the total solar radiation over the surface ðGs Þ of the solar collec-
where COPa;ch is the coefficient of performance of the absorption
tors or photovoltaic modules
chiller. Since in this study it is considered a constant cooling load,
Gs ¼ Gb;s þ Gd;s þ Gr;s (1) the COPa;ch corresponds to the nominal value given by the
manufacturer.
Gb;s ¼ Gb cosðhÞ (2) The absorption chiller obtains the heat to operate from the
working fluid. The mass flow rate of working fluid ðm_ Þ is propor-
1 þ cosðbÞ
Gd;s ¼ Gd (3) tional to the chiller capacity and given by the manufacturer. Thus,
2 the following energy balance applies at the chiller:
1  cosðbÞ
Gr;s ¼ Gr (4)
2 Q_ ch ¼ mcðT
_ 1  T2 Þ (8)
where h and b are the solar angle of incidence and the surface tilt where c is the specific heat of the working fluid; and the tempera-
(collectors/modules), respectively. The cosine of the angle of inci- ture of the working fluid at the chiller’s inlet ðT1 Þ is set to be
dence is defined as

cosðhÞ ¼ cosðas Þ cosðcs  cÞ sinðbÞ þ sinðas Þ cosðbÞ (5)

where as is the solar altitude angle, cs is the solar azimuth angle,

and c is the surface azimuth angle.
For all computations, environmental data correspond to Tampa,
FL International Airport with latitude 28  N and longitude
82.5  W. In this paper, the collectors and photovoltaic (PV) mod-
ules are tilted 28 deg ðb ¼ latitudeÞ and facing south ðc ¼ 0Þ.

3 Reference System
In this study, the solar cooling systems (solar thermal and solar
photovoltaic) are compared against a reference or standard system Fig. 2 Schematic of the solar thermal cooling system

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 constant at the nominal value specified by the manufacturer. Since
T1 is known, the temperature of the working fluid leaving the
chiller is found from Eq. (8) by solving it for T2 .
The thermal energy given to the working fluid from a solar col-
lector is computed as

Q_ s ¼ Gs Asc gsc (9)

where Asc is the area of the solar collector and gsc is the efficiency
of the solar collector. The efficiency of the solar collectors is
defined by Eq. (10)

T2  Ta Fig. 3 Schematic of solar photovoltaic cooling system

gsc ¼ C1 Ksa  C2 (10a)
Gs
 
1 The parameter gother considers other factors [7] such as: deviation
Ksa ¼ 1  b 1 (10b)
cosðhÞ of the standard test conditions ðgSTC Þ, temperature reduction fac-
tor ðgtemp Þ, reduction factor for electrical losses ðgloss Þ and dirt and
where Ta is the ambient temperature and Ksa is the incidence dust reduction factor ðgdirt Þ.
angle modifier. The parameters C1 , C2 , and b are specific for each
type of solar collector and given by the manufacturer. gother ¼ gSTC gtemp gloss gdirt (13)
Since the flow rate per ton of refrigeration in the chiller loop is
set constant, a maximum number of solar collectors is allowed
The temperature radiation factor considers the temperature fluc-
based on the design specifications of the solar collectors. There-
tuation from the standard temperature of operation ðTref Þ through
fore, when the solar collector arrangement have less solar collec-
Eq. (14) [8] as
tors in parallel than the maximum allowed, a fraction of the total
flow rate required by the chiller will flow through the tank. This

flow is set through the balance of the system. gtemp ¼ 1  s Top  Tref (14)
If T3 is greater than T1 a fraction of the flow rate is diverted to
the tank in order to mix this flow (at T3 ) with flow from the tank where Top is the module operation temperature and s is the tem-
at a lower temperature, Tt . The resulting temperature can be found perature coefficient typical for PV.

from The electric power required by the electric chiller W_ e;ch to
_
handle the cooling load ðQc Þ is estimated as
_ 1 ¼ m_ t Tt þ ðm_  m_ t ÞT3
mT (11)
Q_ c
where m_ t is the fraction of the total flow rate that is diverted to the W_ e;ch ¼ (15)
tank by valve V2. COPe;ch
In implementing the simulation, the temperature of the water
tank for the next time period is computed from an energy balance
accounting for the mass flowing to the tank at T3 and the remain- 6 Simulations
ing water in the tank at temperature Tt .
In any condition of operation, when T1 is lower than the design This section presents the magnitude of the parameters used in
operation temperature for the absorption chiller, the cooling load the simulations, as well as explanation on how the models were
is handled by the electric chiller that is connected in series in the implemented for the computer simulations. For the economic
chilled water line. For the periods of time that this occurs, the analysis, the following assumption were made:
energy consumption (electricity to drive the electric chiller) is • Project life: 25 yr
identical to the reference case. • Discount rate: 6.0%
From the previous description, it can be noticed that at any time • Inflation: 2.0%
that T3 < T1 there is not flow through the solar collectors. How- • Electricity escalation rate: 1.0%
ever, if the temperature of the working fluid inside the tank is • Electric rate: $0.1/kWh, constant
lower than the available temperature from the solar collectors
Tt < T3 < T1 some solar thermal energy could be stored in the The aforementioned economic factors have as reference data
tank. Therefore, although obviously not considered in this paper, used in Life Cycle Cost Analysis Model of Green California Proj-
it could be an operational improvement that can be achieved by ects. However, since the electricity escalation rate has an impor-
using additional piping and valves. tant impact on the economic analysis presented in this study, in
the results an equation to account for higher escalation rates is
given. It is important to point out that results are based only on
the analysis of energy use. Other cash flows associated to the sys-
5 Solar Photovoltaic Cooling Model tem operation, such as maintenance, should be considered sepa-
The schematic for this solar cooling system is illustrated in rately if necessary for more accurate results. This is done since the
Fig. 3. The solar PV energy generation model as shown on the fig- cost related to the operation depends on the size of the equipment
ure considers the simple model from Ref. [6]. For this array the and geographic location of the system, they cannot be incorpo-
total power ðPPV Þ of the photovoltaic system including the dc to rated into the general approach of per ton of refrigeration that is
ac conversion is calculated as used to present the results.

PPV ¼ AGs gmodule ginv gother (12) 6.1 Reference System. Since the cooling load for this analy-
sis was set to be constant, the electricity consumed by the electric
where A is the net surface area of PV modules, Gs is the total solar chiller is the same for all hours and computed based on Eq. (6).
radiation incident on PV array, gmodule is the PV module conver- The COP for electric chillers in this study is considered to be 3.5
sion efficiency, and ginv is the DC to AC conversion efficiency. or seasonal energy efficiency ratio (SEER) of about 12.

Journal of Solar Energy Engineering MAY 2013, Vol. 135 / 021003-3

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 Table 1 Parameters for the solar cooling system

Fluids properties c 4115 J/kg/  C

q 1000 kg/m3

Chiller inlet temperature T1 88 C
Chiller mass flow rate m_ 0.244 kg/s/ton
Absorption chiller COP COPa;ch 0.7
Collectors azimuth angle c 0 deg
Solar collectors tilt b 28 deg
Collectors SEIDO1-16
(evacuated-tubes) C1 0.537
Coefficients Eq. (10) C2 1.70 W/  C m2
b 0.08
Collector gross area Asc 4 m2 Fig. 4 Savings based on PV and energy reduction
Collector mass flow rate m_ sc 0.036 kg/s
modules required to produce 1 ton of refrigeration for the systems
in consideration. For the parameters used in the simulations, the
6.2 Solar Thermal Cooling System. The absorption chiller
analysis indicates that the minimum area required to be able to
is set to work only when the solar energy is enough to drive the
start to produce 1 ton of refrigeration is about 12 m2 of solar col-
chiller without the requirement of operation of the electric chiller.
lectors for the solar thermal cooling system and 7 m2 of PV mod-
In other words, only one chiller (electric or absorption) operates at
ules for the solar photovoltaic cooling system. For Figs. 4 and 5,
a specific time. Therefore, when the absorption chiller does not
the dual Y-axis data is valid for both plots the Solar Thermal and
operate, this system is equivalent to the reference system. The in-
Solar Photovoltaic systems. That is, for a given area the crossing
formation about the evacuated-tubes solar collector used in the
point with one of the plots will give Savings on the left Y-axis and
simulations is related to collectors SEIDO1-16 of Beijing Sunda
Energy Reduction on the right Y-axis.
Solar Energy Technology. The parameters used in the simulation
Figure 4 illustrates the savings in thousands of dollars per ton
are given in Table 1.
of refrigeration as a function of area of collector/PV. Savings
were computed as the difference between the present value (PV)
6.3 Solar Photovoltaic Cooling System. For the simula- of the discounted fuel costs of the reference system and the solar
tions, the Sanyo HIT-H250E01 parameters have been selected, system. It is important to explain that the savings were computed
considering the maximum power point operation, the efficiency with a constant electricity rate of $0.1/kWh. Therefore, to com-
parameters are included and presented on Table 2 and the module pute the actual savings for a different cost of electricity, the infor-
operation temperature and temperature correction factor have mation given by Fig. 4 must be multiplied by the new cost in
been calculated for every hour to calculate the instantaneous $/kWh. This will allow the reader to estimate the actual savings
energy generation over the year. for any cost of electricity. In this sense, to account for the cost of
The PV system is connected to the electric grid. If the PV is not the demand a blended rate can be used.
able to satisfy the power demand from the electric chiller, power As an example on how Fig. 4 can be used, if the cost of the PV
is consumed from the grid. Contrarily, if excess of power is pro- system is assumed to be $480/m2 ($5/W), the total cost of a PV
duced by the PV system, the surplus energy is accounted in favor system of 15 m2 is estimated at $7200/ton. This system, based on
of the solar photovoltaic system since this energy displaces energy Fig. 4, offers savings in the order of $8000/ton during the 25 yr
from the electric grid. As for the solar thermal system, when there project life. Assuming a linear value of money in time, it can
is no availability of solar energy, this system is equivalent to the be said that the payback of the project at an electricity rate of
reference system. $0.1/kWh is 22.5 yr for a cooling system at constant load. It
should be noticed that the actual payback is longer if variable
7 Results and Discussion cooling load is considered. If the cost of the electricity if different
than the $0.1/kWh used to develop Fig. 4, the savings of $8000/ton
To make the results from this study as general as possible, the must be multiplied by the new cost. For example, if the cost is
results are presented per ton of refrigeration (3.517 kW) and per $0.08/kWh, the savings will be $6400 during the 25 yr project life.
area of solar collector or photovoltaic module (PV). With this in
mind, the reader must understand that the use of Figs. 4 and 5
implies to know the area of solar collectors and area of solar PV

Table 2 PV module parameters

Parameter Value

PV panel denomination Sanyo HIT-H250E01

gcell 18%
ginv 90%
gSTC 95%
gloss 95%
gdirt 93%
s 0:004 K1
PV modules orientation
c 0
b 28
Fig. 5 Savings based on PV and energy reduction with no
export of electricity from the solar PV system

021003-4 / Vol. 135, MAY 2013 Transactions of the ASME

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 This will imply that the savings will be not enough to pay for the COPe gPV ¼ COPa gSC (22)
system. However, benefits, such as emission reduction should be
taken into consideration to evaluate the attractiveness of the project. The PV system has a lower efficiency than the solar collectors sys-
Figure 4 also illustrates the energy consumption reduction. tem, but the efficiency of the absorption chiller is much lower than
Energy is giving in millions of watts hour per ton of refrigeration the efficiency of the electric chiller. For this study, the chillers work at
and emissions in kilograms per ton of refrigeration, both as a func- full load (COPe ¼ 3.5 and COPa ¼ 0.7) which implies COPe ¼ 5
tion of area of collector/PV. Energy consumption reductions were COPa. For the solar systems, the maximum ratio between efficiencies
computed as the difference between the energy consumption of was 3.5 which means gSC ¼ 3.5 gPV. Therefore, the higher efficiency
the reference system and the solar system. If primary energy con- of the electric chiller dominates over the higher solar collector system
sumption reduction wants to be computed, values from Fig. 4 efficiency making the solar photovoltaic cooling system to perform
must be multiplied by the electricity site-to-source energy conver- on a higher overall efficiency compared with the solar thermal cooling
sion factor (ECF) corresponding to the electric region of the site. system. For this study, on an hourly basis, the overall efficiency of the
For example, if ECF is 3 for the electric region of the site for solar photovoltaic cooling system was at least 1.43 higher than the
which the project is being evaluated, a 15 m2 PV system will overall efficiency of the solar thermal cooling system.
reduce primary energy consumption in the amount of 13.5 MWh As mentioned in Sec. 6, the electricity escalation rate has an im-
per year per ton of refrigeration. This amount is obtained by mul- portant impact on the results. To account for different escalation
tiplying the ECF of 3 by the 4.5 MWh/yr ton obtained from Fig. 4. rates, results were obtained for different escalations rates and the
Since emissions are proportional to the energy consumption, normalized savings were plotted versus the escalation rate. A
Fig. 4 can also be used to estimate the emissions reduction. To curve fit of the plotting data resulted in a scaling factor equation
compute the emissions reduction, the information from Fig. 4 for the savings as
must be multiplied by the corresponding electricity emission fac-
tor (EEF). For example, if EEF is 500 kg/MWh for the electric EF ¼ 0:8826e0:118 rate (23)
region of the site for which the project is being evaluated, a 15 m2
By using any other escalation rate greater than 1.0%, the escala-
PV system will reduce CO2 emissions in the amount of 2250 kg
tion factor (EF) is used to multiply the savings from Figs. 4 and 5
per year per ton of refrigeration. This amount is obtained by mul-
to obtain the adjusted savings according to the new rate.
tiplying the EEF of 500 kg/MWh by the 4.5 kg/MWh yr ton
obtained from Fig. 4.
As an additional analysis, Fig. 5 illustrates the case when excess 8 Conclusions
of electricity from the PV system cannot be used for other pur- This paper presents results from the comparison of solar thermal
poses rather than to drive the electric chiller (PV cooling only). cooling systems and solar photovoltaic cooling systems. To obtain
This case allows seeing how an increase in PV module area has the results, both solar systems are evaluated against a reference
the same effect than the increase of solar collector area for the so- standard air cooled vapor compression system (electric chiller)
lar thermal cooling system. which consumes electricity from the electric grid. Models for each
From Fig. 5, it can be noticed that the curves of the solar photo- system were implemented to perform simulations to obtain results
voltaic system is over the curve of the solar thermal system. This that allowed the development of general curves that can be used for
can be explained by comparing the overall efficiencies of the sys- different projects. Since the results are given as a function or collec-
tems as follows: tor or PV module areas offer versatility with respect to the size of
Electric system the system. Results for the economic evaluation are based on the
present value of discounted fuel savings for the 25 yr life of the pro-
outputcooling
Electric chiller efficiency : COPe ¼ (16) ject computed for an electricity cost of $0.1/kWh. Therefore, the
inputelectricity results can be extrapolated to any other energy cost by just multi-
outputelectricity plying the results by any other cost. Results for primary energy con-
PV system efficiency : gPV ¼ (17) sumption reduction and emissions reduction can be found by just
inputsolarradiation multiplying the results by the respective electricity site-to-source
energy conversion factor and electricity emission factor. Since
Since the input electricity to the chiller is equal to the output elec- many variables influence the design/performance of solar thermal
tricity of the PV system, Eqs. (16) and (17) can be combined to cooling systems and solar photovoltaic cooling systems, from the
obtain the ratio output/input as results it seems to be unwise to make a general conclusion about
what system is better than the other. However, the approach pre-
outputcooling sented in this paper will simplify the side-by-side comparison in
Overall efficiency : ¼ COPe gPV (18)
inputsolarradiation order to make a better decision when solar cooling will be installed.

Thermal system Nomenclature

A¼ area
outputcooling
Absorption chiller : COPa ¼ (19) C¼ parameters (in solar collector efficiency)
inputheat c¼ specific heat
outputheat COP ¼ coefficient of performance
Solar collector efficiency : gSC ¼ (20) G¼ solar irradiance
inputsolarradiation K¼ incidence angle modifier
m_ ¼ mass flow rate
Since the input heat to the chiller is equal to the output heat from P¼ power
the collectors, Eqs. (19) and (20) can be combined to obtain the PV ¼ photovoltaic; present value
ratio output/input as Q_ ¼ thermal energy
T¼ temperature
outputcooling W_ ¼ electric power
Overall efficiency : ¼ COPa gSC (21)
inputsolarradiation
Greek Letters
Comparing both system for the same performance (output/input), a ¼ angle of altitude
Eqs. (18) and (21) can be equaled b ¼ surface tilt (collector/module)

Journal of Solar Energy Engineering MAY 2013, Vol. 135 / 021003-5

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 c¼ azimuth angle References
g¼ efficiency [1] Henning, H.-M., 2007, “Solar Assisted Air Conditioning of Buildings—An
Overview,” Appl. Therm. Eng., 27, pp. 1734–1749.
h¼ angle of incidence [2] Sparber, W., Napolitano, A., and Melograno, P., 2007, “Overwiew on World
s¼ temperature coefficient Wide Installed Solar Cooling Systems,” 2nd International Conference Solar Air
Conditioning, Tarragona, Spain, October 18–19.
[3] Fredslund, K., Isleifsson, F. R., Andersen, J. J., Zamboni, M., and Pantchenko,
Subscripts M., 2009, “Green Data Center Cooling,” Local Renewable Energy
Summer, [Link]
a¼ ambient, absorption reports/56-green-data-center-cooling-report
c¼ cooling [4] Fumo, N., Bortone, V., and Zambrano, J. C., 2010, “Solar Thermal Driven Cool-
ch ¼ chiller ing System for a Data Center in Albuquerque New Mexico,” Proceedings of
ASME 4th International Conference on Energy Sustainability ES2010, Phoenix,
e¼ electric Arizona, May 17–22, ASME Paper No. ES2010-90136.
t¼ tank (thermal storage medium) [5] U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE),
PV ¼ photovoltaic Building Technology Program, EnergyPlus Energy Simulation Software, http://
inv ¼ inverter [Link]/buildings/energyplus/
[6] U.S. Department of Energy, 2010, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
STC ¼ standard test conditions (EERE), Building Technology Program, EnergyPlus Energy Simulation Soft-
dirt ¼ dirt and dust correction ware, Engineering Reference, pp. 1030–1040.
op ¼ operation [7] California Energy Comission, 2001, A Guide to Photovoltaic System Design and
ref ¼ reference Installation, Sacramento, CA.
[8] Skoplaki, E., and Palyvos, J. A., 2009, “On the Temperature Dependence of Pho-
s¼ surface tovoltaic Module Electrical Performance: A Review of Efficiency/Power
sc ¼ solar collector Correlations,” Sol. Energy, 83, pp. 614–624.

021003-6 / Vol. 135, MAY 2013 Transactions of the ASME

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