Wouldn't there be more energy available in solar heat instead of solar electricity?

Heat can be used to drive an absorption type fridge (http://en.wikiped...gerator) and energy can be stored in the form of ice blocks.

As a bonus, the Einstein fridge has no moving parts and no electronics. One could install a set of inclined collector pipes on an angled roof and it automatically acts like a pump to drive the hot water down to the cooling unit.

some batteries


That's a big problem right there, because batteries are expensive and they wear out.

The other problem is that freezing/melting a ton of water represents approximately 100 kWh worth of energy, while the same amount of batteries would cost between $300,000 and $500,000 so obviously it makes more sense to make blocks of ice when energy is available, rather than store it in batteries.

You can also easily transport the ice to smaller iceboxes in homes and offices. It's a bit of 1800's technology, but it's dead simple and extremely cheap.