Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Evaluation of a solar-powered absorption cooling system to a data center

  • Technical Paper
  • Published:
Journal of the Brazilian Society of Mechanical Sciences and Engineering Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Nowadays, data processing is a fundamental operation for modern businesses such as banks, technology companies, and factories, among others. However, computers dissipate significant amounts of heat yielding to an operational temperature rise. Considering that these machines cannot operate properly in inappropriate temperatures or at extreme conditions, they can come to a stop due to overheating. Consequently, cooling and air-conditioning systems are necessary to keep the proper operating temperature as well as the room temperature itself. On the other hand, a data center air-conditioning system drains a large amount of electrical power. Based on this, this paper evaluates a solar-powered absorption cooling system to assist the traditional electric chiller system resulting in energy saving, an advantage over conventional cooling, and day availability for this system. A case study is analyzed in a conventional data center located in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. First, the electric power density consumed by computers is 2.0 kW/m2, which represents a typical power load of an IT room. In addition, some other power density cases are also analyzed, namely: 0.5, 1.0, 4.0, and 8.0 kW/m2; these would occur at partial or at high operational loads. Local solar irradiation indexes are based on ASHRAE temperature and solar data for that city. The results are valid for a typical year and are compared to (1) a conventional data center and (2) the event combined with the solar-powered cooling system.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6

Similar content being viewed by others

Abbreviations

\(A_{U}\) :

Solar collectors’ area

C 0 :

Constants for evacuated tube collectors (–)

C1, C2 :

Constants for evacuated tube collectors (kW °C−1)

COP:

Coefficient of performance

\({\text{COP}}_{\text{AB}}\) :

Absorption chiller coefficient of performance (–)

\({\text{COP}}_{\text{E}}\) :

Electrical chiller coefficient of performance (–)

\(\dot{C}_{\text{T}}\) :

Thermal load (kW)

\(I_{n}\) :

Global irradiance (kW)

Losses:

Percentual losses of installation

PV:

Photovoltaic panel

\(\dot{Q}_{G}\) :

Absorption chiller vapor generator heat input rate (kW)

\(\dot{Q}_{E}\) :

Absorption system cooling load (kW)

\(\dot{R}_{E}\) :

Residual thermal load (kW)

t:

Measurement time (h)

\(\dot{W}_{c}\) :

Electrical power of chiller (kW)

\(W_{{c_{R} }}\) :

Electrical energy of chiller to cooling the residual thermal load (kWh)

\(\dot{W}_{{C_{R} }}\) :

Electrical power of chiller to cooling the residual thermal load (kW)

\(\eta_{\text{cins}}\) :

Yield of evacuated tube installation (–)

\(\eta_{{{\text{sol}}\_{\text{heat}}}}\) :

Evacuated tube collector’s efficiency (–)

References

  1. Papadopoulos AM, Oxidis S, Kyriakis N (2003) Perspective of solar cooling in view of the development in the air conditionig sector. Renew Sustain Energy Rev 7:419–438

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Strutt S, Kelley C, Harkeeret Singh C, Reuters Vic Smith T (2012) Data center efficiency and IT equipment reliability at wider operating temperature and humidity ranges. Green Grid

  3. World Energy Council (2016) World Energy Resources 2016, London

  4. ANEEL (2015) Understand the electrical taxes (In Portuguese: Entendendo a Tarifa)—ANEEL,” Agência Nacional de Energia Elétrica. http://www.aneel.gov.br/entendendo-a-tarifa. Accessed 21 Nov 2017

  5. Belizário AC (2018) Financial and energetic evaluation to use air conditioning systems powered by solar energy in critical buildings for different regions (Avaliação energética e financeira para utilização de sistemas de ar condicionado acionados por energia solar em ambient. Universidade de São Paulo

  6. Kohlenbach P, Jakob U (2014) Solar cooling, 1st edn. Earthscan from Routledge, Glasgow

    Book  Google Scholar 

  7. Anand S, Gupta A, Tyagi SK (2015) Solar cooling systems for climate change mitigation: a review. Renew Sustain Energy Rev 41:143–161. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2014.08.042

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Hassan HZ, Mohamad AA (2012) A review on solar cold production through absorption technology. Renew Sustain Energy Rev 16:5331–5348

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Kim D-S, Ferreira CI (2014) Techno-economic review of solar cooling technologies based on location-specific data. Int J Refrig 39:23–37

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Lazarin RM (2014) Solar cooling: PV or thermal? A thermodynamic and economical analysis. Int J Refrig 39:38–47

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Sarbu I, Serbachievi C (2013) Review of a solar refrigeration and cooling system. Energy Build 67:286–297

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Otanicar T, Taylorb RA, Phelanc P (2012) Prospec of a solar cooling—an economic and environmental assessment. Sol Energy 86:1287–1299

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Ahmed Y, Taha A-Z (2011) Solar air conditioning and refrigeration with absorption chillers technology in Australia—an overview on researches and applications. J Adv Sci Eng Res 1:23–41

    Google Scholar 

  14. Kim D-S, Ferreira CI (2013) Solar cooling: overview and recomendations. Europe, 2013

  15. Kreith F, Kreider JF (1978) Principles of solar engineering. McGraw-Hill, New York

    Google Scholar 

  16. Porumb R, Porumb B, Balan M (2016) Baseline evalution of potential to use solar radiation in air conditioning applications. Energy Procedia 85:442–451

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Kim D-S, Ferreira CI (2013) Techno-economic review of solar cooling technologies based on location-specific data. Int J Refrig XXX:1–15

    Google Scholar 

  18. Zeyghami M, Goswami DY, Stefanakos E (2015) A review of solar thermo-mechanical refrigeration and cooling methods. Renew Sustain Energy Rev 51:5. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2015.07.011

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Henning H-M, Jakob U (2015) What are the chances for solar cooling?. In: Energy research for application, Karlsruhe, Germany, p 2

  20. Kalogirou SA (2004) Solar thermal collectors and applications. Prog Energy Combust 30:231–295

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Schiavon Ara PJ (2010) Performance of air conditioning systems using solar energy in office buildings (Desempenho se distemas de condicionamento de ar com utilização de energia solar em edifícios de escritórios, in Portuguese). Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo

  22. Montagnino FM (2017) Solar cooling technologies. Design, application and performance of existing projects. Sol Energy 154:144–157. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2017.01.033

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Lazzarin RM, Noro M (2018) Past, present, future of solar cooling: technical and economical considerations. Sol Energy 172:2–13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2017.12.055

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Belizário AC, Simões-Moreira JR (2017) Evaluation of absorption solar cooling application to a data center. In: ECOS 2017, pp 1–11

  25. Gerbreslassie BH, Guillen-Gosalbez G, Jimenez L, Boer D (2010) A systematic tool for the minimization life cicle impact of solar assisted absorption cooling system. Energy 35:3849–3862

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. ASHRAE (2016) Thermal guidelines for a data processing environments. Atlanta

  27. Uptime-Institute (2013) Acredited Tier Specialist. New York

  28. ASHRAE (2017) Ashrae fundamentals handbook. American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineering, Atlanta

    Google Scholar 

  29. ASHRAE (2018) IT equipment power trends. ASHRAE Datacom Series, 3rd edn. Comstock, W. Stephen, Atlanta

    Google Scholar 

  30. Carrier Corporation (2016) Hour Analyse Program E-20. Farmington, USA, p 100

  31. Kim D-S, Ferreira CI (2008) Solar refrigeration options—a state of art review. Int J Refrig 21:89–99

    Google Scholar 

  32. Universidade Federal de Pernambuco and Centro de Pesquisas em Energia Elétrica (2013) Solarimetric Atlas of Brazil, vol 53, no 9

  33. Simões-Moreira JR (2017) Energias Renováveis, Geração Distribuída e Eficiência Energética, 1a Edição. LTC, São Paulo

    Google Scholar 

  34. ANEEL (2019) Brasil ultrapassa marca de 1GW em geração distribuída—Sala de Imprensa—ANEEL. http://www.aneel.gov.br/sala-de-imprensa-exibicao/-/asset_publisher/XGPXSqdMFHrE/content/brasil-ultrapassa-marca-de-1gw-em-geracao-distribuida/656877. Accessed 24 Sept 2019

  35. ANEEL-Agência Nacional de Energia Elétrica (2012) RESOLUÇÃO NORMATIVA No 482, DE 17 DE ABRIL DE 2012. D.O. Brazil, p 12

  36. Izquierdo M, Lizarte R, Marcos JD, Gutiérrez G (2008) Air conditioning using an air-cooled single effect lithium bromide absorption chiller: results of a trial conducted in Madrid in August 2005. Appl Therm Eng 28(8–9):1074–1081. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2007.06.009

    Article  Google Scholar 

  37. Sun H, Xu Z, Wang H, Wang R (2015) A solar/gas fired absorption system for cooling and heating in a commercial building. Energy Procedia 70:518–528. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egypro.2015.02.156

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work has been developed and supported by SISEA–Renewable and Alternative Energy Systems Lab. Of Escola Politécnicaat Universidade de São Paulo.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. SISEA – Renewable and Alternative and Energy Systems Laboratory, Mechanical Engineering Department, Escola Politécnica, University of São Paulo, Av. Professor Mello Moraes, 2231, São Paulo, 05508-900, Brazil

    Adenilson Belizário & José Roberto Simões-Moreira

Authors
  1. Adenilson Belizário
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. José Roberto Simões-Moreira
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Adenilson Belizário.

Additional information

Technical Editor: Jose A. R. Parise.

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Belizário, A., Simões-Moreira, J. Evaluation of a solar-powered absorption cooling system to a data center. J Braz. Soc. Mech. Sci. Eng. 42, 259 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40430-020-02343-0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40430-020-02343-0

Keywords

Search

Navigation