Solar Thermal Energy for Heating, Cooling and Power

Abstract

This chapter shows that solar thermal energy is growing moderately around the world in part because solar photovoltaics is acting as a very competitive alternative in terms of costs and O&M. There is a significant penetration of solar thermal systems for heating water in some African and Latin American countries but challenges remain to produce the technologies involved locally with local qualified manpower, particularly in the vacuum technology and hot water plumbing sectors. No solar cooling systems for direct building air conditioning have been reported in Africa and limited opportunities are reported in Latin America with no detailed information on capacity and/or location. Some solar sorption refrigeration have been reported in Africa and Latin America since the late 1970s, but mostly devoted to research and development activities and not to wide-scale application. Finally, solar cookers hold significant promise in both regions but to date have limited wide scale adoption in either region because of dependence on weather conditions, cultural habits and maximum temperature limitiations  by with many of these devices, which are not compatible with basic food recipes in many areas. Concentrating solar power (CSP) has tremendous promise globally but continues to grow at a measured pace, as Africa and Latin America have very limited CSP, with 2 GWh and 8.6 GWh, respectively. CSP plants require water for cooling and for the condensation processes which can be problematic in many desert areas of Africa and Latin America where the sun direct radiation is high enough to produce high power outputs.