Abstract The economics of five cooling systems — two conventional vapour compression systems and three solar (absorption and photovoltaic) cooling systems — are discussed and compared for different occupancies and capacities on the basis of respective life-cycle costs per unit of refrigeration output. The absorption system and the water- and air-cooled photovoltaic systems are assumed to receive equal amounts of conventional electricity. The study concludes that occupancy is a major factor in determining costs per ton-hour and cost per ton of installed capacity for all the cooling systems. At present, no solar cooling system can be considered a viable substitute for the conventional systems. Among all the solar systems considered, the absorption system is the most promising and the cost difference between that system and the conventional systems declines steadily as occupancy increases.