SBIR Phase I: Radiative Sky Cooling-Enhanced Refrigeration System

SBIR一期项目旨在显著减少冷却和制冷系统消耗的电力。在美国，冷却系统消耗了近10%的电力。在夏季，冷却和制冷系统是最需要的，但也是效率最低的时候。这给我们国家的电网造成了巨大的压力。通过提高冷却系统的效率，公用事业规模将需要更少的电力，特别是在高峰时段和夏季。此外，商业冷却系统的运营商可以减少他们的总电力开支，增加他们的收入和利润。这个项目吗?S的研究结果还将为提高冷却系统的效率创造一条途径，而不涉及使用日益稀缺的淡水资源，并最终可能导致在最大规模上使用更节水的冷却系统。最后，这个项目的方法利用了可再生资源，天空，这是目前尚未开发的冷却来源。提出的技术创新利用了一种可再生资源——天空，通过一种被称为天空辐射冷却的机制，大大提高了冷却系统的效率。通过使用专门的光学表面，将热量作为热辐射排斥到天空中，同时反射几乎所有入射的阳光，它可以一天24小时被动地冷却到低于空气温度。在这个项目中，将开发一种包含这种表面的制冷系统，目的是证明比传统系统效率更高。在这个过程中，水不蒸发，唯一需要的电力是抽水。此外，将执行建模，以了解如何将这样的系统扩展到更大的部署中。在&amp；#8232；第一期项目将展示大规模部署变革性清洁能源技术的途径，该技术用于提高冷却系统的效率。

This SBIR Phase I project seeks to significantly reduce the electricity consumed by cooling and refrigeration systems. Cooling systems consume nearly 10% of the electricity generated in the United States. During summer months, cooling and refrigeration systems are needed the most, but are also when they are the least efficient. This results in a significant strain on our nation's electricity grid. By improving the efficiency of cooling systems, less electricity will be needed at the utility scale, particularly during peak hours and in the summer. Furthermore, operators of commercial cooling systems could reduce their overall electricity expenses and increase their revenues and profits. The project?s outcomes will also create a pathway to improve the efficiency of cooling systems that does not involve the use of increasingly scarce freshwater resources, and could eventually lead to more water-efficient cooling systems at the largest scales. Finally, this project's approach harnesses renewable resource, the sky, which is source of cooling that is currently untapped.The technical innovation being proposed harnesses a renewable resource, the sky, through a mechanism known as radiative sky cooling, to dramatically improve the efficiency of cooling systems. By using specialized optical surfaces that reject heat as thermal radiation to the sky, while simultaneously reflecting nearly all incident sunlight, it is possible to passively cool below the air temperature 24 hours a day. In this project, a refrigeration system incorporating such surfaces will be developed with the aim of demonstrating improved efficiency over conventional systems. In this process no water is evaporated and the only electricity needed is for pumping. Furthermore, modeling will be performed to understand how such a system could be scaled up for use in larger deployments. At the end of the
Phase I project, a pathway towards large-scale deployment of a transformative clean energy technology, used to improve the efficiency of cooling systems, will be demonstrated.