UTILIZATION OF SOLAR ENERGY FOR COOLING

Sudan is one of the largest countries m the African continent situated between
latitudes of 3° N and 23° N and longitudes 21° 45 E and 39° E. The total daily
sunshine hour is between 8 to II hours, and the average solar radiation received on
the horizontal surface is between 20 to 24 MJm-2 day·1 as a result Sudan has very hot
and dry weather. Air cooling is clearly needed in such weather, and the utilization of
solar energy for this purpose is very appealing especially that grid supply is not
available to several parts of the country, and where it is available it is usually very
unstable in hot season. This report presents Hybrid Evaporative cooler powered by
Stand-Alone Photovoltaic system. Steps taken to develop this cooler and a
comprehensive review of several conventional and solar cooling techniques and the
advantages of the new cooler are also presented. The hybrid evaporative cooler was
found to have performance criteria suitable for Sudan and low power consumption
what makes it economical when powered by Stand-Alone Photovoltaic system. This
report also introduces sizing method for stand-alone photovoltaic system to power the
cooler and a software tool to perform the sizing procedure. A full system was
developed for the city of Khartoum to show the feasibility of the proposed system.