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Solar-Powered Cooling for the Remote Tropics

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Sustainable Energy Solutions for Remote Areas in the Tropics

Part of the book series: Green Energy and Technology ((GREEN))

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Abstract

Cooling is a necessity in the remote tropics to ensure access to safe vaccines, a functioning food supply chain, and thermal comfort in crucial medical facilities, as well as during extreme heat events. However, the operation of standard electrically powered cooling equipment remains a challenge in those areas due to unreliable electricity grids, if they are even present. Therefore, solar-powered cooling is a promising option, as it can operate independently from the grid. The solutions include solar-powered refrigerators for domestic and commercial use as well as vaccine storage, solar-powered cold storages and ice makers to serve the first mile of the food supply chain, and solar-powered air conditioners to cope with heat waves. Despite the variety and complexity of the system configurations and products, the technology is ready to be implemented. Nevertheless, a wide implementation has not yet been achieved due to a lack of viable business models. However, locally adapted business models, in combination with suitable system configurations/products, have the potential to create large impact in various parts of the remote tropics.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Cool paints are coatings that reflect a major portion of the solar radiation and hence reduce the absorption of solar radiation. The result of applying cool paint to the roof (and walls) is lower indoor temperatures. Typically, the coating colour is white and/or contains special reflective pigments.

  2. 2.

    More details on solar home systems and microgrids are covered in Chaps. “Swarm Electrification: From Solar Home Systems to the National Grid and Back Again?” and “The Sustainability Dilemma of Solar Photovoltaic Mini-grids for Rural Electrification”, while the development towards on-grid solar home systems and on-grid microgrids is explored in Chaps. “Swarm Electrification: From Solar Home Systems to the National Grid and Back Again?” and “The Grid of the Future” of the book.

  3. 3.

    Days of autonomy refer to the time that the load can be served without recharging the energy storage by solar energy.

  4. 4.

    Sensible heat refers to an energy difference that is achieved by a temperature change of the storage medium, e.g. cooling down water. Latent heat refers to an energy difference that is achieved by a phase change, mostly from liquid to solid for cold thermal energy storages, e.g. from water to ice.

  5. 5.

    The relation of COP and evaporation temperature follows the Carnot theory behind the vapour-compression cycle: \( {\text{COP}} = \frac{{T_{L} }}{{T_{H} - T_{L} }} \), where TL is the evaporation temperature and TH is the condensation temperature in Kelvin.

  6. 6.

    GWP is the contribution of a gas to global warming compared to CO2 as a reference. The GWP of CO2 is defined as 1.

  7. 7.

    ODP is the contribution of a gas to degradation of the ozone layer compared to the refrigerant R-11. R-11 is a CFC that is used as refrigerant. The ODP of R-11 is defined as 1.

  8. 8.

    The refrigeration sector accounts for 17% of the global electricity consumption in 2015 [45].

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore (SERIS), National University of Singapore (NUS), Singapore, Singapore

    Christoph Luerssen & Thomas Reindl

  2. Department of Building, School of Design and Environment (SDE), National University of Singapore (NUS), Singapore, Singapore

    Christoph Luerssen, Chandra Sekhar & David Cheong

  3. PT Alva Energi Lestari, Palembang, Indonesia

    Christoph Luerssen

Authors
  1. Christoph Luerssen
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  2. Chandra Sekhar
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  3. David Cheong
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  4. Thomas Reindl
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Christoph Luerssen .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    Oktoviano Gandhi

  2. Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    Dipti Srinivasan

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Luerssen, C., Sekhar, C., Cheong, D., Reindl, T. (2020). Solar-Powered Cooling for the Remote Tropics. In: Gandhi, O., Srinivasan, D. (eds) Sustainable Energy Solutions for Remote Areas in the Tropics. Green Energy and Technology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41952-3_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41952-3_3

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-41951-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-41952-3

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