ERH Solar Chiller Plant

On 19 April 2011, Victorian Health Minister David Davis MP launched Echuca Regional Health’s solar chiller cooling system.

The solar chiller cooling system project involved the design and construction of a solar collection field, to provide Echuca Regional Hospital with a low cost and sustainable way to cool the hospital.

The collector field covers 300m2. This makes it the largest solar cooling collection field in Australia and the first in Victoria. The solar chiller system could potentially save 1400 tonnes of greenhouse emissions a year.

This project benefits the hospital in many ways;

It reduces the hospital’s energy consumption.
It reduces the hospital’s carbon emissions and reliance on fossil fuels.
By removing reliance on the grid, this project reduces the hospital’s operational costs, and, protects the hospital from potential electricity cost increases.
It heightens the hospital’s sustainability credentials.

This solar chiller cooling system is climate appropriate. It is perfectly aligned to its conditions. Solar panels are most effective when it is hot, and when it is hot is when the chillers are most needed.

This project is a prototype that is applicable across a number of other buildings types, such as industrial buildings and campus-like builds. This project proves solar absorption chillers as a viable and working alternative to electricity, and a cheaper, more effective way to cool a building.

Additional information:

FAQ: Solar Chiller System (79 KB)