Solar Thermal Cooling

Ignore for a moment how much energy we get from the sun. Think, instead, of how much energy we spend avoiding the sun. In New York City, for example, people open up fire hydrants every summer, and let them rip (which, honestly, is really damn fun).

Thousands of miles to the west, most of the American Southwest would have never existed if it weren’t for precious, precious air conditioning. And in wide swaths of Africa and the Middle East, half of the day is spent either trying to find shade, or languishing in a sun-soaked stupor.

Enter “solar thermal cooling.” Instead of just running air conditioners on solar power, solar thermal cooling uses the thermo-chemical process of ’sorption’ - both adsorption, and absorption - to cool a home. This process can actually be twice as efficient as photovoltaics.

The Middle East is starting to warm up to the idea. Two firms - MAN Ferrostaal and SOLITEM - have started to take on the challenge of equipping public buildings with solar cooling. They seem particularly interested in airports - places which, as any jetsetter can tell you, seem a little heavy-handed sometimes with the thermostat. One international airport can generate 150,000 tons of CO2 a year, just to keep the place cool.

Let’s be honest: it’s not easy to get most people excited about our hot, blistering, infernal sun. But if you give them an cool respite from the dog days of summer? They’ll love you forever.

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