The Engineering Research Center of Solar Power and Refrigeration (SPR), approved by the Chinese Ministry of Education (MOE), began operation in May, 2001. SPR is devoted to developing new technologies on solar energy utilization, more specifically, incubating new products and making them commercialized in corporation with well-known manufacturers. 

Its current activities involve solar thermal utilization, solar cooling, solar desalination, and photovoltaic cells and others that aim at technology transfer, as well as fundamental research. Adsorption refrigeration and their applications by using solar thermal energy and waste heat is its typical research area. By now SPR has developed solar air conditioning, air source heat pump water heater, adsorption ice maker products and technologies. SPR now has two individual departments, solar cells and solar thermal and cooling utilization. The research center is also eligible to undertake research and engineering projects, basedon the two academic institutes, namely, the Instituteof Refrigeration and Cryogenics (State Key Academic
discipline), and the Institute of Solar Energy. The foundation of SPR is a milestone for the research and utilization of solar energy in SJTU. SPR is nowmaking great efforts with keen determination and a fresh outlook to build itself up to an engineering research center at national level.