United States. The Valley of the Sun is one of the hottest areas in the United States with summer temperatures rising to 40°C or higher. An Austrian-born company has installed a solar cooling system for Desert Mountain High School in Scottsdale, Arizona, a city in the Phoenix metropolitan area that enjoys 312 days of sunshine a year.
The project, carried out by the company Solid, was initially launched in the summer of 2011, now keeps 2,600 students cold thanks to a catchment area of 4,865 m² and a cooling system with a capacity of 1,750 kW, making it the most powerful solar cooling plant of its kind.
A lithium-bromide adsorption chiller operates at full load during the hottest hours of the day. In the summer, it covers 100% of the cooling demand and a backup of electric chillers can intervene when necessary.
The total cost of the facility amounts to about US$10 million ($8.5 million) and was funded in part by Solid Invest, a new fundraising model whereby private investors can lend money and receive a fixed interest of 4% and mostly also by raiffeisen US Finance Bank.
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