Project Title: Saving Energy in Commercial and Industrial Refrigeration Systems Using Radiative Sky Cooling
Location: Mountain View, CA
Award Amount: $3,500,000
Challenge
As part of SCALEUP, SkyCool aims to scale the manufacturing of its radiative cooling panels, train HVAC/R and energy service company partners to install panel arrays, and deploy panel arrays as an efficiency add-on to existing large scale cooling systems. Under SCALEUP, SkyCool will develop a mature performance model of its radiative cooling system with demonstrated energy savings from installations with key supermarket and cold storage facility operators. The success of the proposed project will validate the commercial scalability of SkyCool’s solution and provide for accelerated market adoption of radiative cooling panels as an efficiency add-on.
Technical Approach
SkyCool Systems has developed a passive radiative cooling technology that improves the energy efficiency of air conditioning and refrigeration systems by up to 40%. SkyCool’s breakthrough rooftop panel system delivers a radiative cooling effect day and night by continuously rejecting heat into the depths of outer space. The panels cool without evaporating water and only require electricity to run a small circulation pump. The radiative cooling effect from SkyCool’s panels occurs all day and night, which aligns with the 24/7 operation of cooling systems in supermarkets and cold storage facilities.
Team
The SkyCool team consists of pioneers who have advanced radiative cooling as a technology. The team was the first to demonstrate the use of radiative cooling during the day and the first to demonstrate the application of radiative sky cooling with air conditioning and refrigeration systems. SkyCool’s team of engineers and business operators has successfully deployed initial pilots with early customers and developed a deep understanding of how radiative sky cooling can address customers’ critical needs.
ARPA-E Mission Alignment
Cooling will have major impacts on future electricity loads as well as contributions to atmospheric greenhouse gas (GHG) levels. Radiative cooling is one of a very small number of game-changing technologies to emerge in the area of cooling. ARPA-E SCALEUP will accelerate the path to market of SkyCool’s transformational cooling solution, which will help improve energy efficiency and reduce GHG throughout the U.S.