Centrifugal chillers using CFC’s were made in India in the capacity range from 150 TR to approximately 700 TR. Currently, there are around 500 units operating in India ranging in age from 10 to 30 years. All of these units will have to be replaced eventually since CFC’s are to be phased out by 2010 in Article 5 countries as per Montreal Protocol. The World Bank has made a detailed study of the issue and proposed a Global Chiller Replacement Project whereby the old units will be replaced by the current generation of energy-efficient chillers using non-CFC refrigerants. This paper deals with a novel, alternate proposal in which solar thermal power is used to power an electric-driven compression chiller and a heat-driven absorption chiller; as a pair of units, which would replace 2 Centrifugal chillers. The concept is found to be economically viable as a CDM project. The simple payback period works out to be 2 1/2 years. The investments required are large which can be brought down if the cost of solar concentrator is reduced.

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