CSP World

Shoppers at Stockland Wendouree, a mall located in the city of Ballarat in the Victoria state of Australia will be cooled by the sun in coming summers as part of an Australian Government supported pilot project for solar air-conditioning technology.

Federal Member for Ballarat, Catherine King, has announced AUD500,000 for the AUD1 million project through the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA).

Under the project, the Commonwealth Science CSIRO will demonstrate its novel solar powered air-conditioning technology at the Stockland Wendouree shopping centre in Victoria.

Shopping centres typically have a high demand for energy due to air-conditioning, hot water and electricity use. The system is supplied by high temperature heat from concentrating solar collectors.

King said the project aims to advance the concentrating solar thermal technology towards commercialisation by piloting the technology on a major shopping centre.

“CSIRO, together with partners Stockland Group and NEP Solar, will develop and install the system to collect solar energy from the shopping centre roof and use it to supply the building with heating and cooling,” King said.

The project is expected to be completed mid-2015 and will use NEP developed parabolic trough technology. The company with offieces in Australia and Switzerland currently offers two products, the Polytrough 1200 and the Polytrough 1800.

“The technology has the potential to displace conventional air-conditioning in Australian commercial buildings, a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, peak electricity demand and electricity bills. On hot sunny afternoons, peak electricity demand almost doubles due to the increased use of air-conditioners at shopping centres", King added. “Successful completion of the project means solar air conditioning technology will become closer to the mainstream, helping Australia build its clean energy future”.

King said the solar air-conditioning device has been specially designed to operate at higher solar temperatures than current technology. These temperatures are provided by concentrating solar troughs and allow higher efficiency to be reached. “This is a great example of innovative local technology developed to work in Australia’s sunny conditions”. In the future, the system could go further and also generate electricity, making the most of every ray of sunshine that hits the shopping centre roof and reducing demand on the grid at peak times, King finally added.

NEP has already built three solar cooling projects, all of them in Australia. A solar cooling system for a cinema complex in Newcastle, a demonstration plant, also in Newcastle and another demonstration plant in Padstow, New South Wales.

Commercial Solar Cooling for Cinema Complex in Newcastle

NEP Solar have installed a 354m2 PolyTrough 1200 solar field which will drive a 230kW double stage absorption chiller for air conditioning of a commercial real estate complex. Commissioning is underway.

REDI Solar Cooling Demonstration Project in Newcastle

A 50m2 aperture PolyTrough 1200 solar field has been installed at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) Energy Center in Newcastle. The solar field underwent performance testing in 2007. Heat collected in the parabolic trough collector field was used to drive various medium temperature applications for demonstration purposes such as an ORC system and a 18kW chillii® WFC18 single stage absorption chiller from SolarNext. This project was supported by grant funding from the Commonwealth Governement Renewable Energy Development Initiative (REDI).

SERDF Solar Cooling Demonstration Project in Padstow, New South Wales

New Energy Partners have developed a solar cooling demonstration project under the New South Wales Government’s Sustainable Energy Research Development Fund (SERDF). The project combines a parabolic trough collector field with a 175 kW Broad double stage absorption chiller. The installation was commissioned in July 2008.