A 60-ton solar thermal heating and cooling system will be installed on the York Tech Chester Center. The system, believed to be the first commercial solar air conditioning system in South Carolina, is capable of providing air conditioning and space heating for the facility. Solar energy will provide 100% of the energy to operate the heating and cooling system during the day and will operate entirely free of the city's power grid other than the requirements for the fans and circulation pumps.

The solar system will consist of 366 twenty-four square foot Winston Series Compound Parabolic Collectors (CPC) manufactured by Solargenix Energy LLC in Chicago. The award winning solar thermal collectors have a total area of 8784 square feet.  The Winston Series CPC solar collector uses an advanced technology called Non-Imaging Optics, which concentrates the suns energy to increase the operating temperatures of a typical solar thermal collector.  The collector array will provide hot water for the hydronic heating system in the winter and hot water for the air-conditioning chillers in the summer.

The 60-ton absorption hot water fired chillers operate at 185 degrees Fahrenheit, which is, provided by the solar collector array.  Back-up energy to the chillers will be provided by natural gas during nighttime operation and cloudy days.