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It was the first in France in the private food sector and one of the first in Europe – the solar cooling system in the cellar of the GICB winery (Groupement Interproducteurs du Cru de Banyuls) in the south of France. In 1991, successful experiences with solar cooling could rarely be found and investors, as well as donors, were hesitant to endorse the new technology. “It took a lot of work to convince Michel Jomain, former Managing Director of GICB, to get together the funds needed for this ambitious project,” French engineering company Tecsol recalls in an article published in the latest issue of its magazine, Plein Soleil. The installation was designed by Tecsol engineer Louis Casals who paid a lot of attention to minimising the risk of failure. With success! Performance data over 20 years show clearly that the system kept its promises.
The roof of the Geneva International Airport has now 282 evacuated flat plate collector panels with a back-side metal reflector. These Ultra-High Vacuum (UHV) collectors will start working in winter this year and supply the airport with hot water and space heating. Next summer, the solar heat will run a York absorption chiller to cool the buildings as well. The manufacturer of the special collectors is Suiss-Spanish company SRB Energy. The costs for the installation, which was subsidised by the Swiss government, amounted to almost Swiss Franc (CHF) 3 million. The new system fits perfectly into the renewable strategy of the airport, which wants to cover more and more of its energy consumption by alternative energies. The photo shows Cédric Petitjean (right), General Director of SRB Energy, and Dr Cristoforo Benvenuti, Vice President and CTO of SRB Energy and former researcher at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN).
Large Japanese and Chinese companies have recently taken a greater interest in solar cooling. The photo shows an installation by Chinese company Jiangsu Huineng New Energy Technology (Huin), which started supplying solar cooling systems this year. New system kits help drive down costs, although investments in sorption chillers are still higher than for compression chillers. After the Intersolar Europe conference in Munich, Germany, and its dedicated solar cooling session, Uli Jakob, Vice President of the German sorption chiller association Green Chiller, noted: “Solar cooling was one of the highlights of the conference.”
