Since when did the sun actually work as a coolant? “The hotter it got, the better it worked!,” according to the CEO of the solar-powered air conditioning manufacturer.



Coolerado Corporation showcased their revolutionary design for a solar-powered air conditioning system at the last week’s RETECH 2009 renewable energy trade show in Las Vegas.

The Coolerado air conditioner is capable of cooling off a 3,000 square foot building and uses only 600 watts of power – less than what is needed to light six, 100 watt light bulbs. The system will provide 72,000 BTU’s of cooling.

Only a few solar photovoltaic (PV) panels are needed to power Coolerado air conditioners, so most systems have plenty of excess power available for other electric devices.

The solar-powered air conditioning system also has “a cool waste air stream that normally exhausts to the atmosphere, but can be ducted behind PV panels to improve their performance by more than 15 percent,” says Tony McDonald, VP of sales at Coolerado.

“Industry experts who have seen the system are also amazed at the tiny amount of power being drawn by the air conditioner,” said Rick Gillan, executive vice president of Coolerado.

The air conditioner uses only 15 percent of the energy that traditional cooling systems use.

Colorado Governor Bill Ritter recently presented the company with the Governor’s Excellence in Renewable Energy Award for 2008.

The system has been showcased at trade shows, street fairs, music concerts and even the Democratic National Convention. “What surprised people the most was not only the solar powered cool air they enjoyed right on the street, but that the hotter it got, the better it worked!,” said the company’s CEO, Mike Luby.

Coolerado isn’t the only one involved in the solar air conditioning business. A company in Wisconsin, PDM Solar, said that it is trying to capitalize on the Obama stimulus plan to assist the company in mass-producing solar powered air conditioning systems.

“We’re taking a technology that was, you know, 100 years, 120 years old, and packaging it differently and using it in an application that has never been used before,” said David Baker of PDM Solar.

PDM has been granted $200,000 by the Wisconsin’s Energy Independence Fund, which distributes money to companies working on renewable energy projects.