From July 2012, there will be a cool room at Kramer with a volume of 100m3, which will be exclusively cooled using solar energy. The energy will be gathered by the Industrial Solar Fresnel collectors installed on the roof, which in turn will heat water to around 200°C. This hot water then drives a custom-built absorption chiller that cools the cool room to a temperature of around 0°C. This energy is also simultaneously stored in an accumulator in order to guarantee refrigeration overnight.
After the test and measurement phase over two summer periods in Umkirch, the next step is to build a similar system on a larger scale in North Africa that should meet the requirements for future use. Thereby effective solutions are developed to address energy challenges in sunny regions.
This project is sponsored by the 'Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung' (Ministry for Education and Research) within the framework of the government's support initiative "Forschung für nachhaltige Entwicklungen, KMU-innovativ - Verbundvorhaben Klimaschutz" (Research for Sustainable Development, innovative joint climatic protection venture) with the grant number '01LY1016', and supported by the 'Deutschen Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V.' (German Centre for Aerospace).