Solar heating, cooling and hot water supply: Soviet Union technology development

Despite the fact that the whole of the Soviet Union lies in northern latitudes, its southern regions (latitudes 35 to 50 deg. north) have a population of over 130 million and climatic conditions suitable for solar applications (maximum average sunshine availability is 3,000 hr/yr). Solar energy can be converted to low temperature heat (up to 100 deg. C) by relatively simple methods. The given temperature level conditions the scope of applications. These include hot water supply, space heating, air conditioning in residential, public and industrial buildings and process heat for agriculture and industry. 1 tab