Performance analysis of a small scale solar cooling plant based on experimental measurements

The main scope of the paper is analyzing the experimental data and evaluating the techno-economic feasibility of a solar cooling plant with solar thermal concentrators for residential application in Central Italy. An extensive monitoring of a solar cooling system was carried out in Forlì (Italy) in the summer of 2014 and 2015. The solar cooling plant was remotely monitored and data on environmental conditions, fluids flowrate and temperatures and both heating and cooling power production were continuously acquired and stored. The results showed that the combination of solar thermal concentrator and absorption chiller can simultaneously satisfy the demand for domestic hot water production and space cooling. Nevertheless, the solar thermal concentrator proved limited efficacy due to suboptimal environmental framework conditions and to low reliability. A preliminary economic analysis has been carried out for a residential application through the Net Present Value method. The Net Present Value has been computed for different effectiveness of the solar cooling plant in meeting the demand for domestic hot water production and space cooling. The results show that i) an investment reduction in comparison to the costs of the experimental plant and ii) incentives are fundamental to make the solar cooling plant profitable.