Air conditioning goes green thanks to experience on thermal engineering for satellites

Air conditioning for offices, factories, shopping centres and homes has long been recognised as a large contributor to carbon dioxide emissions, and boosting its efficiency would help to combat climate change. Zero-carbon buildings are now one step closer thanks to four space engineers pooling their expertise gained from building complex telecom and Earth observation satellites, and using it to create an environmentally friendly alternative to conventional temperature-control systems. Using sunshine instead of electricity to power air conditioning and central heating, their system can also cool fridges and heat water.