Cooling for Desert Mountain High School

Solar cooling systems are durable solutions with a perfect match for the requirements of education institutions. Each day, pupils do really understand the benefits of the solar cooling system. Not only from theory, but from daily practice.

The district school administration urgently needed to reinvest in their cooling system. The requirements were defined to move away from an electrical compression chiller to a more durable solution – and to become a “greener” school. The collectors have been located on the roof of the school and as shading elements for the parking area. To establish the world’s largest solar cooling system, the state of Arizona gave subsidies with a required performance guarantee, administered by Arizona Power Service.

SOLID’s local representative established contacts with the school and developed the project together with the team in Graz. SOLID’s absorption chillers are considered as “pre-cooling” for base load and only peaks are supported by the existing compression chillers. The effect of solar cooling applied for base load, the overall energy costs decreased and the lifetime of compression chillers increased.

As an intended effect, the Desert Mountain High School administration, has two benefits from solar cooling: First, to spend less for cooling enery and, second, to reduce the connection fee as the peak electricity load significantly decreased. The shadings by the collectors have a benefit to the users of parked cars, as these do not overheat anymore.