Solar-cell based in-vehicle cooling system

Energy consumption and Environmental impact are two major global concerns for sustainable development for the next century. Half of the total power usage in South East Asia has been consumed by the cooling system. Where the electricity is currently generated from natural resources such as coal and oil, it is non-renewable and polluting. In this study, we aim toward solar energy to help reduce the excess heat load when the vehicle is parked in idle under the sunlight. The proposed system is based on the solar panel with the size comparable to the size of compact pickup truck. The water cooling system has been adopted under the total power budget generated by solar panel. We illustrate the average temperature reduction up to 5.9 degree Celsius. We also experiment with different configurations of the platform including different fan speed, and different heat exchange material. Even though, there are more issues to be addressed, this study could be the preliminary work to drive more research in terms of the application of renewable energy under the limited power budget.