Cooling supply is expected to be the fastest growing energy consumer of buildings. However, the majority of both comfort and industrial cooling supply is still based on costly and CO2-intensive supply technologies such as compression chillers (CC). At the same time, only sparse information exists on the spatial distribution and installed cooling capacities of cooling installations worldwide. The aim of this study is therefore, to introduce a novel approach to identify and quantify installed cooling capacities of CCs by aerial image analysis. We demonstrate this easily applicable method at a university campus in Germany, where 36 air-cooled CCs with a total installed cooling capacity of 20.5 MW are considered. The installed cooling capacities of all detected CCs are estimated based on the number of identified fans by considering the performance specifications of the respective CC manufactures. The comparison with the actual installed cooling capacities revealed an average deviation of 36 %. With increasing installed cooling capacity (> 350 kW) the relative accuracy of the method improves indicating a higher suitability of the applied method for larger installations. The proposed method can significantly contribute to an improved understanding of location and quantity of cooling capacities and enables facilitated sustainable urban planning and the transition from decentralized cooling machines to renewable and sustainable supply solutions.

制冷供应有望成为建筑物中增长最快的能源消耗者。但是，舒适度和工业制冷供应中的大多数仍基于昂贵且二氧化碳密集的供应技术，例如压缩冷却器（CC）。同时，关于全球制冷设备的空间分布和已安装制冷能力的信息很少。因此，本研究的目的是介绍一种通过航拍图像分析来识别和量化CC安装冷却能力的新颖方法。我们在德国的一个大学校园中演示了这种易于使用的方法，该大学考虑了36个风冷CC，总装机容量为20.5 MW。所有识别出的CC的已安装冷却能力是根据已识别风扇的数量，通过考虑各个CC制造商的性能规格来估算的。与实际安装的冷却能力的比较显示平均偏差为36％。随着安装的制冷量（> 350 kW）的增加，该方法的相对精度也随之提高，这表明所应用的方法对大型安装的适用性更高。所提出的方法可以极大地增进对制冷能力的位置和数量的了解，并可以促进可持续的城市规划以及从分散式制冷机向可再生和可持续供应解决方案的过渡。与实际安装的冷却能力的比较显示平均偏差为36％。随着安装的制冷量（> 350 kW）的增加，该方法的相对精度也随之提高，这表明所应用的方法对大型安装的适用性更高。所提出的方法可以极大地增进对制冷能力的位置和数量的了解，并可以促进可持续的城市规划以及从分散式制冷机到可再生和可持续供应解决方案的过渡。与实际安装的冷却能力的比较显示平均偏差为36％。随着安装的制冷量（> 350 kW）的增加，该方法的相对精度也随之提高，这表明所应用的方法对大型安装的适用性更高。所提出的方法可以极大地增进对制冷能力的位置和数量的了解，并可以促进可持续的城市规划以及从分散式制冷机到可再生和可持续供应解决方案的过渡。