Did you know that, against everything imaginable, the heat of the sun can be an incredible way to get cool during the summer? The cause of this phenomenon is solar thermal energy technology, a way of converting the energy from sunlight into another kind of energy, as explained by the portal solar-energia.net, giving rise, for example, to new refrigeration systems very different from those of traditional air conditioners, although in a much more ecological way than until now.
But how does it work and what exactly does solar thermal technology consist of? The secret lies in the Law of Conservation of Energy, enunciated by Julius von Mayer in the mid-nineteenth century: “Energy is neither created nor destroyed; it is only transformed.” Starting from a chain of transformation of the same, we are going to explain it through the example of air conditioners, since it is one of the most interesting applications of solar thermal energy.
The internal energy possessed by the atoms that make up our star generates nuclear energy from the physical reactions that take place in the star naturally; this, in turn, reaches the Earth in the form of what we perceive as light and heat. Once there, the rays are collected by collectors, a type of solar panel, in the form of heat energy. There are multiple types of collectors depending on the temperatures they can withstand: low temperature (less than 65ºC), medium temperature (up to 300ºC) and high temperature, heating up to 500ºC .
Then, when a high temperature has been reached, the heat energy is converted into mechanical energy by steam turbines .
Thus, one of the main differences with traditional air conditioning systems is that they absorb the heat from their environment and with it they manage to evaporate the refrigerant liquid so that the gas activates an electric compressor that consumes a lot of energy. Thanks to solar thermal energy, however, by using the sun’s heat, electricity consumption is reduced.
The problem, for now, is that these types of systems are much more expensive than traditional systems , although the subsequent energy savings are notable – between 30% and 90%, depending on the type of installation – and much more green , by not using any kind of polluting fuel. Therefore, trying to lower costs and make them much more affordable, companies and research teams have been working for a few years to improve solar thermal technology, whose installation in hotels, shopping centers and other types of buildings around the world has been increased around 1 000% compared to the previous decade.
