Sun may cool us by powering air conditioners

William Atkins
Thursday, 05 February 2009 21:46

Science - Energy

The Australian engineer also says that these units will help to prevent power blackouts in the sweltering summer months.

He says that the air-conditioning portion of his device will deliver cool air in the hot summer months and the heating portion will carry warm air to our homes in the cold winter months. Plus, it could also be used to provide hot water all of the time.

The ANU scientist states, “There's strong evidence to suggest that the peak loading on the grid is correlated quite strongly to air-conditioning, so if we can relieve that peak loading, and it doesn't have to be a significant market penetration for that to happen, then we can have a very significant effect on electricity grids and the capacity for them to deliver and keep delivering." [ABC News-Australia: “Researchers develop solar-powered air-conditioning”]

The ABC article continues to say that Dr. Dennis is warning Australians about the potential problems occurring with the country's power grid.

The article states, "Dr Mike Dennis says this should be a warning to Australians, because although we’re not quite at the Californian stage, we are steaming down a very similar path."

He adds, “The problem is multifaceted. The first problem is to do with investment. Companies don’t want to invest large amounts of money beefing up transmission grids – which would be very expensive, given that they’re going to be utilised for only a small part of the year."

Dennis gives the city of Sydney as a prime example of his concern. He says, “In Sydney the peak 10-15 per cent of transmission capacity is only used for 24 hours a year, so that’s a very poor return on investment."

“What’s happening is the peak demand is soaring, the ability of the transmission grid to support that is flat-lining, and we get blackouts because the grids can’t support the demand for extra power. The grid goes into self-protection mode by limiting the amount of power that it can transmit, resulting in entire geographical regions being shut down.”

Additional information about Dr. Dennis’ invention is found in the ANU News article “Cool runnings.”