Green Energy: Solar Powered Air Conditioning

One of the hugest energy consumers in your home is your refrigerator.  It’s on all the time, constantly sucking energy to ensure that your food products stay fresh.  Despite all the new technology being developed, and Energy Star rated appliances, there’s still no doubt that having something on all the time will suck up energy, and hurt our energy supplies in the process.

Over at CNET, they’re reporting that there is a prototype solar cooling device created by Promethian Power.  It will depute at the Technology Review EmTech 2008 conference.  A spinoff of an MIT device, it combines solar power with thermoelectrics, or materials that are able to cool or heat from an electrical current.

Currently, the solar paneling makes this device far more expensive than would make sense commercially.  However, the test product has shown to allow just one milk pick up, instead of two pick ups a day due to the decrease in energy consumption, since the generators don’t need to run as long on inefficient diesel power.  It’s being used in India as a milk distribution refrigerator.

Quercus Trust, which is funding the project, said the following:

“The Quercus Trust is a leading investor in solar and other clean-tech technologies and is proud to provide Promethean with capital to further its goal of providing better living conditions for the communities that can most benefit from this technology,”

Looks like technology is definitely moving in this green direction.  This will definitely help out the world, allowing for refrigeration units to be provided for communities, such as with milk distribution, reducing the amount of of energy that the community would use!  Having these units out will ensure that energy consumption decreases, by harnessing the power of the sun.

Source: CNET Green

What do you think of this idea for green refrigeration?

Related Topics:

1. Solar Power at Home, Without Raising the Roof
2. Solar Power Blasts Electricity Bills Away
3. Green Energy Sources