The Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry will launch testing of air-cooling technology that makes use of solar thermal power in the United Arab Emirates as early as this spring.
The trials will be conducted over a three-year period by Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization in partnership with an Abu Dhabi government organization.
Test equipment will be set up in a zero-emission community under development in Abu Dhabi since 2006. The cooling system uses heat gathered through sunlight-collecting mirrors to generate steam, then takes advantage of a heat transfer mechanism to cool the air.
METI will study the effectiveness of the technology in office buildings and the profitability of investment, earmarking as much as 3 billion yen (US$36.6 million).
Japan seeks to promote its solar thermal power technologies in the Middle East and Africa, regions with strong direct sunlight
