Introduction into IEA SHC Task 48

Solar thermal cooling technology is currently facing a very exciting challenge. Air conditioning is a large and growing energy consumer, especially in sunny and developing countries. Worldwide efforts to develop renewable energy solutions must address this critical cooling application. Solar thermal energy presents a natural and strong opportunity to do just this. However, even if reliable technologically advanced products are presently available, the solar cooling sector must leap from a pre-industrial and demonstration status into a competitive mass market. Despite this, some applications, particularly for large buildings with combined cooling and domestic hot water production, are already very close to cost competitiveness without any incentives.This paper will concentrate on introducing an international collaborative R&D activity called IEA SHC Task 48 in the field of solar cooling and the methodology, participating entities and initial outcomes.