Prof. Dr. Fritz Richarts of the Giessen -Friedberg University of Applied Sciences has developed a new solar collector system in collaboration with Aachen-based Solitem GmbH. The company has now been awarded the RIO Innovation Prize for its successful implementation of this technology in practical energy supply.
Prof. Dr. Richarts, who teaches at the Department of Energy and Heat Engineering at the University of Applied Sciences in Giessen , collaborated with Solitem GmbH during a research semester. The company focuses on innovative energy systems. The engineer made significant contributions to the development of a novel type of solar collector and the design of a system for solar-powered cooling. Subsequently, he also participated in the construction and commissioning of the first such system in a 700-bed hotel on the Turkish Mediterranean coast.
The technical solution developed by Richarts and his company enables highly efficient cooling using solar energy. To this end, the team further developed a special type of collector (parabolic trough collector) that was previously only used in large-scale solar power plants. They succeeded in reducing its dimensions, simplifying its design, and achieving a high efficiency for the solar collector. The system installed in Turkey uses an absorption chiller to air-condition the hotel, heats the swimming pool during the cooler months, and provides steam for drying the hotel linens.
The new system offers an attractive alternative energy supply option from a technical, economic, and environmental perspective in regions with high levels of solar radiation. For example, it could eliminate the need to build additional power plants in the Mediterranean region, which primarily serve the purpose of generating electricity for air conditioning.
The development of this project has been significantly influenced by the teaching and research activities of the Department of Energy and Heat Engineering at the Giessen -Friedberg University of Applied Sciences. Prof. Richarts' work there focuses on the design of power plants, energy conversion, and energy economics. In the early stages of the project, a graduate student he supervised addressed the task of optimizing collectors for this technology in his diploma thesis. The university collaborated with the Solar Energy Research division of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Cologne on this project.
The RIO Innovation Prize is awarded jointly by the Kathy Beys Foundation, the RIO Impuls association from Switzerland, and the Institute for Sustainable Development from Austria. It has been awarded annually since 2002 and is endowed with €20,000. Its aim is to promote and recognize exceptional achievements that enable more efficient use of resources, demonstrate alternatives to oil as an energy source, and contribute to climate protection.