IEA SHC Task 65 — Solar Cooling for the Sunbelt Regions (final results + techno-economic analysis)

Source: IEA SHC Task 65 “Solar Cooling for the Sunbelt Regions”, final results (Kohlenbach et al., EuroSun 2024, DOI 10.18086/eurosun.2024.08.06) + Activity C4 Technical & Economic Analysis report (DOI 10.18777/ieashc-task65-2024-0010, Sept 2024). Credibility: High (IEA SHC program synthesis, peer-reviewed proceedings + program deliverable). Confidence: high.

Key points

• PV won the market: “solar PV cooling can result in lower levelized cost of cooling compared to solar thermal” (load/weather dependent). PV-supported cooling “has become the dominant type of solar cooling system globally due to its simplicity in installation and low cost,” driven by the past decade’s PV module price collapse.
• Scale gap: only ~2,000 solar-thermal cooling systems exist worldwide (mostly customized, early-stage); “several millions” of PV-driven cooling units in Australia alone.
• Field program: 32 demonstration projects, 18 countries, ~17 MW cooling; among deployed thermal projects: evacuated-tube ~30%, flat-plate ~17%, Fresnel ~17%, parabolic trough ~10%; PV-driven ~10% of the demos.
• SunBeltChiller (modified double-effect absorption, Fresnel-driven): COP 0.35 at high daytime ambient, ~0.75 at night with dry recooling, overall COP up to 1.35 with storage — addresses single-effect chillers struggling in hot climates.
• Economics: life-cycle cost-benefit with heat at 150 EUR/MWh, gas at 45 EUR/MWh; hybrid configs payback <~7 yr; carbon pricing materially improves solar-thermal competitiveness.
• Where thermal still has the strongest case: industrial process cooling at high solar fraction; two-stage/medium-temp absorption gives the best efficiency-cost balance for the Sunbelt.

Relevance

The most authoritative recent field+techno-economic benchmark of PV vs solar-thermal cooling. Anchors the verdict in solar-cooling-pv-vs-thermal.