New Technology by Helioclim, Using the Sun to Cool Down
Published: Tuesday, March 29, 2016
Cooling a building with sunshine? French company Helioclim has developed a solar collector and power absorption technology that can save up to 80% of the energy costs in a building by using the energy coming from the sun for the internal climate management. In their research they use Kipp & Zonen instruments to optimize the system for maximum cost savings.
Helioclim manufactures and sells a unique system of reversible solar air conditioning. This solar cooling and heating technology enables high energy efficiency through a single system that meets all the thermal needs of buildings over a wide temperature range, between -60°C and +200°C. Thus, industrial and commercial buildings or collective dwellings may, through free energy from the sun, reduce by up to 80% their energy costs related to air conditioning and heating, hot water, and energy for heating or cooling processes.
The technology has been validated on a pilot site created at the headquarters of Helioclim, near Cannes in the south of France.
The prototype consists of three solar collectors and a power absorption machine of smaller size than the eventual market goals. Helioclim targets facilities and installations with more than 100 kW of cooling capacity.
This facility was instrumented to measure its performance in operation. Several Kipp & Zonen instruments allow the measurement of global and direct solar radiation, and take part in measuring the performance of the Helioclim solar collectors.
During 2015-2016 a full-scale installation will be carried out consisting of several hundreds of collectors and an absorption chiller with a cooling capacity of several hundred kW. Again, this installation will be instrumented with Kipp & Zonen pyranometers that will play a role in monitoring the performance of solar collectors.
More information can be found at en.helioclim.fr
By Marie Nghiem, Co-founder of Helioclim and project chief