Solar coolfacades: Framework for the integration of solar cooling technologies in the building envelope

Solar cooling systems have gained increased attention these last years, for its potential to lower indoor temperatures using renewable energy. However, architectural integration of these systems in buildings has not been fully explored. Current developments such as small scale solar driven heat pumps and solar cooling kits commercially available for application raise questions about how to successfully integrate these systems into buildings, while present interesting opportunities for the development of new performance based fa ade components or even self-sustaining cooling fa ade modules for high-performing commercial buildings. The present paper seeks to discuss current possibilities for fa ade integration of solar cooling systems, generating a framework for the understanding and further development of solar cooling fa ade systems. The proposed framework was made by means of a review of solar cooling technologies and solar cooling fa ade concepts found in the literature. The outcomes of this study are a matrix outlining the possibilities for the integration of several components and subsystems from the entire cooling process (cooling generation, distribution and delivery), and an assessment of the development level of state-of-the-art experiences within the field considering examples from current research projects and working prototypes, for the development of solar cooling integrated fa ade concepts. (C) 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).