ABSTRACT
Solar energy is an attractive candidate for satisfying the electricity and heating and cooling demands of the industrial and buildings sectors since it is essentially inexhaustible and its utilization is ecologically benign. Solar energy can be captured by a variety of solar thermal collector systems; each system is classified according to the temperature at which generated heat is supplied. Heating is the most common use of low-temperature solar thermal collectors, solar thermal energy can also be used to provide cooling and air conditioning for a building or a district cooling network through the utilization of solar thermal cooling technologies. Apart from standardized solar cooling systems, there is a more mature market for the separate components of a solar cooling system, including the solar thermal collector and the chiller for the production of cooling power. The market for thermally driven chillers, the main component of a solar cooling unit, has also considerably grown.
