US scientists are committed to solar energy technology research, and new results are expected to be used in car air conditioning systems

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US scientists are committed to solar energy technology research, and new results are expected to be used in car air conditioning systems [Copy link]

The National Science Foundation will fund research into solar heating and cooling prototypes that could replace traditional heating and cooling air conditioning systems .

At the 2006 Denver Solar Symposium, scientists detailed a prototype technology called the Active Building Envelope (ABE). Professor Steven Van Dessel of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) described his team's work on the ABE system. He said the ABE could allow solar panels to be connected to act as thermoelectric heat pumps, thereby reducing the cost of cooling and heating.

“This technology allows us to seamlessly attach our system to a variety of building surfaces,” Van Dessel said. “Traditional air conditioning and heating equipment are obsolete.”

NSF will also fund Van Dessel's next project to make ABE technology economically viable by switching to lower-cost thin-film materials, which could be used in other applications, such as automotive glass for heating or cooling car interiors.

When electricity runs through a thermoelectric heat pump, one end of it gets colder and the other end gets hotter. When one end of the heat pump is placed inside a container and the other end is placed outside, it can pull heat out of or into the container. The ABE system combines thermoelectric elements with solar panels covering the entire building, plus an energy storage device, to heat or cool a building during the day or night.

Van Dessel's team hopes to use low-cost thin-film materials to integrate solar cells and thermoelectric heat pumps into building windows and other surfaces to control indoor climate.

A working prototype consisting of a single glass room was installed on the roof of the RPI Student Union Building. Using it as a scale, the researchers simulated ABE systems made of thin film materials. "We verified the accuracy of the model by comparing the simulation results of this model with actual temperature data in the test room, and found that there was a good correlation between the model's prediction of the room temperature and the actual temperature measurement," said Van Dessel.