CoolerSun: creating a clean and reliable cooling, heating, water treatment and electricity in Sub-Saharan Africa

The residential cooling sector is expected to grow by more than 10-fold during the 21st century, with most of the growth in tropical and emerging nations, further impacted by global warming. Powering the cooling sector with PV alone would require 20 times the global PV capacity installed at end 2018 [Peters 19].

CoolerSun is a smart solution able to generate cooling power with up to three times the efficiency possible with PV, and better cooling service coverage up to 80%. This is made possible by using thermal high-efficiency solar concentrators, coupled with energy storage and chillers. The proposed solution can provide water purification, food storage, flexible heating, hot water, electric power and is focused on developing countries of Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

CoolerSun makes smart use of standard 20' or 40' containers, used to ship plant parts, but also to permanently host technical equipment (water purifier, chiller, energy storage) and supporting the solar collectors. The containerised solution, with pre-installed cabling and piping, allows fast and reliable installation. The standardised layout and cabling make easy the plant maintenance and remote control. The system can be removed from a site and relocated elsewhere.

CoolerSun plants have the FocalSun's solar concentrators and storage come as standard and can be customised to also have chillers and water purification machinery, depending on the local need, providing a variety of services to local communities: low-temperature food conservation, ambient heating/cooling, hot water, water treatment, and electric power for social and industrial needs. CoolerSun can be mass-produced; with multiple interconnected modular units can generate the required needs for cooling and water purification for customers in urban and rural areas. CoolerSun is lightweight and is the first concentrated solar turnkey solution that can be installed on a rooftop.

The Phase 1 Feasibility project will explore the market potential and design requirements to install the CoolerSun solution on industrial flat roofs in the towns and cities in Sub-Saharian. Phase 1 of the project will allow the Consortium to develop CoolerSun system design for the specific applications, modelling its output and assess its market potential. Phase 1 will also ascertain what the most important requirements and priorities for CoolerSun solution that will add the most economic and social value to local Zambian customers.