This paper reviews the study and development of photovoltaic (PV) air conditioning system around the world. The PV air conditioning system is introduced as well as the classification. Both the development of the general air conditioning system and the improvement of photoelectric conversion efficiency indicate that the main technologies for the applications of PV air conditioning system are available. On the other hand

the investments of PV air conditioning system have been decreased significantly due to the price drop of PV modules

the profit from the PV system and the reduction of total necessary PV module areas. Then

four kinds of PV air conditioning systems are described in detail about their structures

the test conditions and the testing results which show the satisfying performances. Finally

this paper discusses five issues for our future work

namely

high-efficiency PV direct-driven air conditioning system

subsidy supports for PV air conditioning system

control strategies

the interactions between human behaviors and energy saving of air conditioning system and developing software for designing PV air conditioning system.