News from our Solar Energy Laboratory
Here you can read about some of the current activities in our Solar Energy Laboratory.
On this demosite for building-integrated solar cell systems, you can find a range of promoted building-integrated solar cell systems for roofs and fronts, which has been built in connection with the project Active House - BIVP. You can find a broad selection of succesfull solutions with building integrated solar cell systems, and you can find out how to apply of solar cells as a building component. If you are a producer, you can get your products verified by the use of tests and measurements.
Read more about the demosite here (in Danish): 
Demosite - Bygningsintegrerede solcelleanlæg (2.2 MB)
Video from the demosite:
Field measurements of solar powered refrigerators
Recently, the Solar Energy Laboratory has focused on completing measuring equipments to carry out measurements of solar powered refrigerators. This is a part of an international project, in which up to 200 refrigerators are tested at health clinics in Kenya, Swaziland and Colombia. Danish Technological Institute assembles the equipments and tests that the data transfer via mobile networks works properly before dispatch. Danish Technological Institute analyzes the incoming data to check if the systems are stable and within the specified temperatures.
Ice/water as energy storage reservoir for air conditioning
Another solar powered refrigeration project focuses on air conditioning in the West African country, Burkina Faso. Together with a local company and Danish Unicool, we will design a concept which should use ice/water as an energy storage reservoir instead of expensive batteries. With a waterborne refrigeration system, it is possible to avoid noisy split units, which are otherwise widely used.
Use of electric power generated by solar cells for heat pumps
In our EnergyFlexHouse, we are currently working on an Elforsk project, which focuses on flexible electricity consumption and the use of solar cells in heat pumps (Nilan). There is also a Li-Ion battery in the system, which, together with a couple of accumulation tanks, makes it possible to store a few hours of solar cell production. The heat pump is controlled so that it mainly runs when there is an excess of solar power. The project has especially become relevant now that several electricity suppliers have introduced time-varying tariffs.