Economic and environmental evaluation of solar cooling systems

The global energy demand for residential and non-residential cooling has risen significantly in the last years and will continue to do so. Presently, electric-driven compression chillers are the main application used for space cooling. This not only results in an increased demand for electricity and a considerable amount of
carbon dioxide emissions but also poses a major challenge for the electrical power grid. Consequently, there is a growing interest in solar-powered cooling technology, as it offers an ecological and sustainable option for cooling applications. However, further investigations are necessary to address economic viability and ecological assessment compared to other cooling systems. The present work, therefore, deals with an economic and ecological analysis of solar-powered cooling technologies. The analysis involves simulations
and comparisons of different solar cooling systems for a small non-residential building, including solarthermal-powered adsorption chillers, photovoltaic-powered compression chillers and different back-up systems. The comparison between the various cooling technologies is based on several key performance
indicators, including the levelized cost of energy or the savings of non-renewable primary energy. With the results, obtained from the analysis, a number of statements regarding the economic and ecological effects of the individual systems can be made. The impact of different components, the primary energy sources utilized, as well as the impacts of the respective cost shares have been investigated.