Download the new IIR Informatory Note on Solar Cooling

Solar cooling may have a very positive environmental impact reducing the usage of fossil fuel, and the technology is almost mature enough to compete with conventional cooling equipment.

Solar Cooling: A technology with a bright future




Renewable energies need to be more widely used around the world to reduce the consumption of fossil fuels and thus, the impact of human activities on global warming. Solar energy is present everywhere and it is particularly abundant in most developing countries. The lack of electrical infrastructures in these countries makes the local use of solar energy all the more interesting.


There are two ways of producing cold from solar energy: with photovoltaic solar devices transforming solar energy into electricity to supply “traditional” refrigeration systems, and with thermal solar devices using directly the heat of the sun thanks to absorption or adsorption processes.


Download the new IIR Informatory Note on Solar Cooling


The aim of the 34th IIR Informatory Note on Solar Cooling is to describe these state-of-the-art technologies in order to help public and private decision makers to implement them adequately.

Solar cooling may have a very positive environmental impact reducing the usage of fossil fuel, and the technology is almost mature enough to compete with conventional cooling equipment.

Although they are still expensive, these technologies have a bright future ahead of them.


The 34th IIR Informatory Note on Solar Cooling was prepared by Renato Lazzarin, President of IIR Section E, with the assistance of the IIR head office, and was reviewed by several experts from the IIR network.

View the 34th IIR Informatory Note on Solar Cooling



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View previous IIR Informatory Notes including:


  • The 29th IIR Informatory Note on “The Role of Refrigeration in the Global Economy” which highlights the importance of the refrigeration sector, expected to grow further in the coming years due to increasing cooling needs in various areas and global warming.
  • The 27th IIR Informatory Note on “Evaporative Cooling”, which gives a state-of-art of the practical technology and, using simplified representations, also explains the engineering principle as well as different operating system modes.




About IIR Informatory Notes

The IIR publishes Informatory Notes designed to meet the needs of decision-makers worldwide, on a regular basis. These notes summarise knowledge in key refrigeration-technology and refrigeration-application domains. Each note puts forward future priority developmental axes and provides IIR recommendations in this context.