As part of a demonstration project within the framework of the German “Solarthermie 2000 plus” Programme, a pilot installation of the innovative solar heating and cooling system was installed in the R&D building of the ZAE Bayern, division “Technology for Energy Systems and Renewable Energy”, located in Garching (close to Munich / Germany). The building houses offices and
laboratories for about 75 researchers. The pilot installation will simultaneously serve as field test project for a recently developed compact water/LiBr absorption chiller with 10 kW nominal capacity. The chiller has been designed for chilled water supply/return temperature 15 / 18 °C and allows for utilization of a rather moderate driving hot water temperature 85 / 75°C when operated with an open wet cooling tower. In the pilot installation however, the new latent heat storage (LHS) is used in combination with a dry cooling tower, thereby avoiding the typical disadvantages of a wet cooling tower. The driving heat source for the chiller and for the solar heating system is a solar collector field with an area of about 40 m2, located on the roof of the building. The heating and cooling system is designed to supply about 50 % of the building space with heating and cooling.