Solar Air Conditioning

Solar air conditioning refers to any cooling system that runs on solar power, whether through passive building design, solar thermal heat, or electricity from photovoltaic panels. A photovoltaic system simply uses solar generated electricity to run an ordinary or specially built direct current air conditioner, while a solar thermal system uses heat collected from the sun to drive an absorption chiller or a desiccant based cooling process, and passive design slows heat from entering a building in the first place through measures such as cool roofs and radiant barriers. Absorption based solar cooling has its own history, moving from ammonia and water refrigerant pairs common in the late nineteenth century to the lithium bromide and water pairing standard today, and the United States Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 funded solar air conditioning research and development from 2008 through 2012.