Brief
Desert Mountain High School is located in the Arizona desert and is attended by 4000 students every day. The high level of solar radiation in the desert is the perfect source for a sustainable and durable technological solution: solar cooling. In addition to the roof, the parking lot was also used as a collector surface so that the collectors provide shade for the parked cars. In order to finally realize the largest solar cooling system in the world, a grant was awarded by the state of Arizona. SOLID’s local partner established contact with the school and developed the project together with the team in Graz.
Technology
In 2012, SOLID installed a solar system with a collector area of 4,935 m² and a heat storage tank of 35 m³. An absorption chiller with a cooling capacity of 1750 kW was also integrated. The absorption chiller from SOLID is regarded as “pre-cooling” for the base load; only the peaks are supported by the existing electric compression chillers. Solar cooling reduced the overall energy costs and increased the service life of the existing electric compression chillers.
Solar cooling brings two major benefits to Desert Mountain High School: Firstly, lower costs for cooling energy and secondly, significantly reducing the peak electricity load. The shading provided by the collectors also benefits the users of the parked cars as they no longer overheat.
