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This is the final report on activity C1, “Design tools and models” of the IEA SHC Task 65 “Solar Cooling for the Sunbelt regions”. The work involved reviewing and adapting tools and models for technical and financial assessment and design for solar cooling and the project phases from pre-feasibility to simulation to monitoring. The main focus is the documentation of the tools and their specific application to provide measured data for validating the tools and the adaptation of selected ones for Sunbelt countries. Three approaches are used to evaluate tools used worldwide and this IEA SHC Task. First, a (i) generic literature research in Web of Science (WoS), (ii) interviews and questionnaires among the IEA SHC Task Expert, and (iii) interactive questionnaires during Task expert meetings. A total of 1,216 documents were identified as a result of the search in WoS. The query search string used is ALL=(“solar cooling” OR “solar refrigeration”), and the index dates covered are 1990/01/01-2021/06/30. A network visualization diagram was generated in VOSviewer. A query search string (“solar cooling”) (“design”) AND (“software”) in the topic field produced 38 documents. The initial data gathered provide a general idea of which components are being used and which software is being implemented. Based on the information provided by the task participants, the following software are currently being implemented in their applications/research: MATLAB, Meteonorm + Excel tool, TRNSYS, EES, and Phyton. This is also reflected in the third evaluation of tools. Conclusion: Modelling and assessing the technical and economic behavior of solar cooling plants is essential in all design phases up to implementation and optimization. Different tools are used, from sophisticated dynamic simulation models to simple spreadsheet calculations. Companies and their experts often develop their own for their specific components and systems. Generic publicly available models can be found for almost all more...

The agricultural and food processing industries are considered key sectors aligned with sustainable development goals, as they play an important role in sustainable rural development. About 30% of global energy is used in these sectors, particularly thermal energy in both heating and cooling applications. Research considers solar energy technologies to be promising ways to increase system flexibility and lead to climate mitigation impacts. Different types of solar heating and cooling systems can supply a wide range of desired operating temperatures for various applications in agricultural and food processing systems. The main applications of solar thermal energy systems in the agricultural and food processing industries are solar air heaters for drying and dehydration processes, solar water heaters for both heat and food processing systems, solar cooking systems, solar heating and cooling systems for maintaining greenhouse climate, and solar-powered cooling systems for both food processing and space cooling. Furthermore, some innovative active and passive integrated solar systems such as the solar-blind concept remain underdeveloped. Further advances in solar energy integration systems in the agricultural and food processing industries will lead to considerable climate mitigation impacts as well as more resilient energy management in this sector. more...

© 2020 The Authors. Energy Science & Engineering published by the Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. The yearly thermo-economic performance is dynamically investigated for three solar heating and cooling systems: solar heating and absorption cooling (SHAC), solar heating and ejector cooling (SHEC), and heating and solar vapor compression cooling (HSVC). First, the effects of important design parameters on the thermo-economic performance of the systems to supply the heating and cooling loads of the building are evaluated. The systems are parametrically analyzed with the weather conditions of Tehran, Iran. The results show that the life cycle costs (LCC) of the SHAC and HSVC systems are alike and much lower than those of the SHEC system. The HSVC system exhibits the best performance from exergetic and solar fraction viewpoints. The comparative analysis shows that the energy efficiencies of the SHAC and SHEC systems are higher in colder climatic conditions. However, the collector efficiency of the HSVC system declines in colder climates, mainly due to the lower solar intensities relative to in hotter climates. Further, the solar fraction of the SHAC system is higher than the SHEC technology under all climatic conditions. Moreover, higher values of solar fractions are obtained under colder weather conditions for the SHEC and HSVC systems. The best economic performance is observed for the SHAC and HSVC technologies, having significantly lower LCCs than the SHEC system. These lower LCCs under colder climatic conditions are due to the lower cost of supplying the heating load compared to the cooling load. Furthermore, all systems exhibit enhanced exergetic performance in colder weather conditions. The yearly thermo-economic performance is dynamically investigated for three solar heating and cooling systems: SHAC, SHEC, and HSVC. In addition, the effects of important design parameters on the thermo-economic performance of the systems to supply the heatin more...

Phase change materials (PCMs) have already been used in buildings and building services for several decades, mostly integrated into walls or ceilings to passively increase the building’s thermal inertia, or integrated into the HVAC system for (pre-)heating or (pre-)cooling fresh air. More recently, the use of PCMs in facades is being explored for solar heating. This paper presents the results of a several years of research into the use of PCMs in rotatable Trombe walls and sun-shading for passive heating and cooling purposes. Simulations used a custom-made model of a room in Matlab/Simulink, in which all relevant heat transfer paths and mass components are accounted for. Once the behaviour of PCM was modelled, the model was connected with the optimisation platform modeFRONTIER to study the (best) performances under different scenarios. The results show that a significant reduction in the energy demand for heating and cooling can be achieved in different climates. The results also show that the shading and insulating effect of the solar wall have the highest impact on the reduction of the cooling respectively heating demand, followed by the thermal mass effect. The paper ends with the development of a prototype of a Trombe wall which was installed in an office at the Green Village (a living lab in Delft)., Building Physics, Design Informatics more...

© 2020 The Authors. Energy Science & Engineering published by the Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. The yearly thermo-economic performance is dynamically investigated for three solar heating and cooling systems: solar heating and absorption cooling (SHAC), solar heating and ejector cooling (SHEC), and heating and solar vapor compression cooling (HSVC). First, the effects of important design parameters on the thermo-economic performance of the systems to supply the heating and cooling loads of the building are evaluated. The systems are parametrically analyzed with the weather conditions of Tehran, Iran. The results show that the life cycle costs (LCC) of the SHAC and HSVC systems are alike and much lower than those of the SHEC system. The HSVC system exhibits the best performance from exergetic and solar fraction viewpoints. The comparative analysis shows that the energy efficiencies of the SHAC and SHEC systems are higher in colder climatic conditions. However, the collector efficiency of the HSVC system declines in colder climates, mainly due to the lower solar intensities relative to in hotter climates. Further, the solar fraction of the SHAC system is higher than the SHEC technology under all climatic conditions. Moreover, higher values of solar fractions are obtained under colder weather conditions for the SHEC and HSVC systems. The best economic performance is observed for the SHAC and HSVC technologies, having significantly lower LCCs than the SHEC system. These lower LCCs under colder climatic conditions are due to the lower cost of supplying the heating load compared to the cooling load. Furthermore, all systems exhibit enhanced exergetic performance in colder weather conditions. The yearly thermo-economic performance is dynamically investigated for three solar heating and cooling systems: SHAC, SHEC, and HSVC. In addition, the effects of important design parameters on the thermo-economic performance of the systems to supply the heatin more...