Amman - In October 2016, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) successfully commissioned the installation of two new solar Cooling Systems. The two solar systems were installed at the Irbid Chamber of Commerce and the Royal Culture Centre in Amman. Using solar energy, Jordan can cool buildings in a climate friendly manner.
Jordan has a rapidly increasing demand for air-conditioning. Currently, the available technologies in the region are chillers with low efficiencies, refrigerants with ozone or climate-damaging effects, and high leakage rates. Overall, cooling of commercial buildings in Jordan contributes to about 600,000 tons of CO2 equivalent annually, which corresponds to the emission from 120,000 passenger vehicles per year. At the same time, Jordan is one of the global with optimal conditions for the use of solar power in combination with air-conditioning systems.
The project aims at realizing a technology transfer through demonstration projects for solar cooling facilities by GIZ. The operation and maintenance team work hand in hand with the Technische Universität Berlin (TU Berlin) -the provider of the absorption chiller and Millennium Energy Industries, the local engineering firm which sets up the cooling system and integrate it into the solar thermal field.
This demonstration project is part of the “Solar Cooling for Industry and Commerce” IKI-project implemented by the Jordanian Ministry of Environment’s (MoEnv), National Ozone Unit (NOU) and GIZ, which was funded by the BMUB.
The project is considered an important first step within the scheme to promote climate friendly cooling technologies in Jordan through the use of natural, non-ozone-depleting, and climate-friendly cooling agents, as well as benefiting from the high levels of solar irradiation in the region.