TECHNOLOGY TO STORE WINTER CHILL

[Anchor Lead]

What if we could store the winter chill to be used later in the summer? The Korea Institute of Energy Research has turned this wildly hopeful thinking into reality. As soon as this winter, this new technology will be applied to grow crops in a glass greenhouse.

[Pkg]

This farm planted a new kind of strawberry seedlings just a few days ago. The breed is known to push up harvest time. The key to growing strawberries is maintaining a cool temperature of 18 to 23 degrees Celsius. Currently, cool air is supplied by pumping up underground water. But this does not work in summer.

[Soundbite] Park Hyeong-gyu(Strawberry farmer) : "The quality of strawberries can be maintained longer at lower temperatures. But the air-conditioning costs are too expensive."

The Korea Institute of Energy Research developed a heat exchange device that stores the chilly air of winter for use in the summer. In the winter, there is a temperature difference between the cold outside air and the warmer underground water. In this case, refrigerant materials inside these tubes vibrate at a high speed to transfer the heat from the water. The technology incorporates the trait of how refrigerants turn from gas to liquid and then back to gas again. Cold underground water is stored and then converted into cold air when summer arrives. With no external power source necessary, the latest development can cut energy consumption by more than half compared to existing heat exchange devices.

[Soundbite] Youn Young-jik(Korea Institute of Energy Research) : "The technology enables a non-powered thermal conductor that can transfer a large volume of heat with no external power sources as long as temperature gaps exist."

Using this technology, researchers will store this winter's chilly air and use it to grow strawberries next summer inside glass greenhouses.