Sopogy to Show SoCal How to Keep It Cool

A program to feature solar air conditioners in Southern California now includes a system from Sopogy. The company has developed a smaller version of a conventional solar thermal power equipment system, which uses the sun's heat to generate electricity.

The Honolulu-based Sopogy said it began operating its system today on the rooftop of a Southern California Gas Co. building in Downey.

The system is scheduled to run for 18 months. The gas company's program aims to show new technologies that could cool homes more efficiently than conventional air conditioning systems. The program also features a system from U.K.-based HelioDynamics. Both systems could provide a total of 10 tons of cooling for three homes, SoCal Gas said.

Utilities in warm parts of the country have been keen on cutting air conditioning's energy consumption, and some of them offer incentives to use more energy-efficient models. An cooling system typically accounts for more than half of a building's power use, said SoCal Gas. A growing number of companies are developing new cooling technologies  (see a list of companies developing new cooling systems).

Sopogy's system uses a series of curved and coated aluminum reflectors to concentrate the sunlight to heat fluid, which is then run through the air conditioning system's absorption chiller to produce the cool air (see the company's video on how it works).

Sopogy's system is about half the size of those that are being erected in Spain by companies such as Solar Millennium and Abengoa Solar. Sopogy is marketing its equipment as lightweight and easy to ship, and small enough to be installed on rooftops.

Last December, Sopogy said it had lined up a developer to build a 50-megawatt farm in central Spain. It also has installed systems in Hawaii.

HelioDynamics, on the other hand, has developed a system using flat mirrors to turn sunlight into heat.