Copyright © 2010 by ASME 1 Proceedings of ASME 2010 4th International Conference on Energy Sustainability ES2010 May 17-22, 2010 Phoenix, Arizona, USA ES2010-90136 SOLAR THERMAL DRIVEN COOLING SYSTEM FOR A DATA CENTER IN ALBUQUERQUE NEW MEXICO N. Fumo, ASME Member Department of Mechanical Engineering Mississippi State University Mississippi State, MS 39762-5925 V . Bortone, ASME Member Johnson Controls Inc. 9850 Legler Road Lenexa, KS 66219-1263 J. C. Zambrano Departamento de Matemática y Física Universidad Nacional Experimental del Táchira Venezuela ABSTRACT Data centers are facilities that primarily contain electronic equipment used for data processing, data storage, and communications networking. Regardless of their use and configuration, most data centers are more energy intensive than other buildings. The continuous operation of Information Technology equipment and power delivery systems generates a significant amount of heat that must be removed from the data center for the electronic equipment to operate properly. Since data centers spend up to half their energy on cooling, cooling systems becomes a key factor for energy consumption reduction strategies and alternatives in data centers. This paper presents a theoretical analysis of an absorption chiller driven by solar thermal energy as cooling plant alternative for data centers. Source primary energy consumption is used to compare the performance of different solar cooling plants with a standard cooling plant. The solar cooling plants correspond to different combinations of solar collector arrays and thermal storage tank, with a boiler as source of energy to ensure continuous operation of the absorption chiller. The standard cooling plant uses an electric chiller. Results suggest that the solar cooling plant with flat-plate solar collectors is a better option over the solar cooling plant with evacuated-tube solar collectors. However, although solar cooling plants can decrease the primary energy consumption when compared with the standard cooling plant, the net present value of the cost to install and operate the solar cooling plants are higher than the one for the standard cooling plant. Key words: solar cooling, absorption chiller, data centers cooling. NOMENCLATURE ܣarea ܥparameters (in solar collector efficiency)  specific heat ܪܥchiller ܥ coefficient of performance  ratio (cooling load and the chiller nominal capacity) ܩsolar irradiance ܭincidence angle modifier ሶ mass flow rate  number of  ሶ thermal energy T temperature t time  volume Greek letters ߙangle altitude (solar) ߚsolar collector tilt ߛazimuth angle ߝcoil effectiveness ߟefficiency ߠangle of incidence ߩdensity Subscripts  ambient  boiler  cooling ݌ nominal capacity  chiller  heat medium . ݌ heat medium derived by the three ways valve ݏsolar ݏ Solar collector ݐthermal storage medium, timestep for simulations 1. INTRODUCTION Data centers support business processes, information management, and communications functions in nearly every Proceedings of the ASME 2010 4th International Conference on Energy Sustainability ES2010 May 17-22, 2010, Phoenix, Arizona, USA ES2010- 0