Status and Prospects for Solar Cooling in Australia

There has been a strong interest developing for solar cooling in Australia and this is leading to an increasing number of commercial solar cooling installations. It is timely to review the environment in which an emerging solar cooling industry must operate. This review begins with a look at world leading commercial and research activities in Europe and the benchmarking thus provided. A local context is then presented and this provides guidance for the growth of an Australian solar cooling industry. The unique range of climates in Australia, the lack of design experience and the high cost currently provide market barriers to solar cooling. However, the worldwide deployed volume of systems is very low. Nevertheless, new performance metrics and targets are being proposed in the form of an Australian Standard. An update on local activity is provided including industry coordination work through The Australian Solar Cooling Interest Group (AusSCIG), research activities and direction, local program funding and a review of local installations.