Technoeconomics of solar thermal-assisted sorption cooling systems under tropical climate condition – A case of Malaysia

•A comprehensive analysis to estimate the techno-economic potential and environmental compatibility of the solar absorption and adsorption cooling systems for tropical climate.•Comparison of the performance of solar absorption and adsorption cooling systems to select appropriate solar sorption cooling system with regards to the tropical climate.•Development of a novel analytical approach to determine the performance of the solar thermal system and to investigate the impact of this system on the solar absorption and adsorption cooling systems and primary energy consumption under tropical climate. Solar energy is an accessible and sustainable energy source to meet the rising air conditioning demand. This study investigated the performance of solar thermal assisted sorption cooling systems, namely, solar absorption (SABC) and adsorption cooling (SADC) systems. A novel analytical approach to determine the techno-economic potential for specific climate conditions has been developed. The climatic conditions of Malaysia were used as a case study. Both cooling systems were simulated using TRNSYS coupled with VISUAL BASIC and optimized using a multi-objective optimization algorithm implemented in MATLAB. The results show that the COPchillerand collector area have the most significant impact on the performance and primary energy consumption of SABC and SADC systems. On average, 36 % and 27 % of the useful energy gain of solar collectors was converted to the cooling effect in SABC and SADC systems, respectively. Meanwhile, the minimum amount of non-renewable primary energy, the non-renewable primary energy savings ratio, and the least payback period are 0.57 and 0.39, 7.6 % and 7.5 %, and 4 and 9 years, for the SABC and SADC systems, respectively.