TOKYO - Hitachi Plant Technologies Ltd. has developed a solar-activated air conditioning system employing a Hitachi-designed solar energy collector. The company is targeting the system for buildings and for district cooling facilities for regions of North America, the Mediterranean, western Asia, and Australia that are sufficiently exposed to a large amount of sunlight.

This system is designed to drive a refrigerator directly with thermal energy generated from the solar energy collector to obtain chilled water for air conditioning.

Hitachi said the key to this system is its high-efficiency parabola trough-type solar energy collector. The device is designed to track the sun automatically with a parabolic reflector while maintaining the position of the fluid-filled heat collector tubing at the focal point of the parabola. The collector is said to provide a simple and easily-handled structure.

For more information, visit www.hitachi-pt.com.

Publication date: 01/10/2011