solar thermal (3)
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Vision
Potential
Deployment Roadmap
Strategic Research Agenda
Solar Heating and Cooling or a
Sustainable Energy Future in Europe
R e v i s e d V e r s
i o n
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Image on Title: The Sun
(Source: Triolog, Freiburg, Germany)
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This document was prepared by the European Solar Thermal Technology Platorm
(ESTTP).
Reproduction is authorised provided the source is acknowledged.
The Secretariat o the ESTTP, which was responsible or the fnal editing, layout and
printing o this document, is supported by the Sixth EU Framework Programme orResearch and Technological Development, FP6 (Contract Number TREN/07/FP6EN/
S07.68874/038604).
The sole responsibility or the content o this publication lies with the authors. It does
not represent the opinion o the European Communities. The European Commission is
not responsible or any use that may be made o the inormation contained therein.
The ESTTP Secretariat is jointly run by:
European Solar Thermal Industry Federation (ESTIF)•
European Renewable Energy Centres Agency (EUREC Agency)•
PSE AG•
Contact:
ESTTP
c/o ESTIF
Renewable Energy House
Rue d‘Arlon 63-67
B-1040 Brussels
BelgiumTel.: +32 2 546 19 38
Fax: +32 2 546 19 39
E-Mail: [email protected]
Web: www.esttp.org
Imprint
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1 FOREWORD 4
2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 5
3 ABOUT THE EUROPEAN SOLAR THERMAL TECHNOLOGY PLATFORM 9
4 THE UNIQUE BENEFITS OF SOLAR THERMAL 13
5 A TECHNOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE ON SOLAR THERMAL POTENTIAL 175.1 Current trends in the ST market 185.2 Short-medium term ST potential 21
5.3 Main applications in short-medium term 21
5.4 Medium-long term ST potential (advanced technologies) 22
6 VISION 2030 256.1 Macro-economic benefts 26
6.2 Cost competitiveness 27
6.3 Employment 31
6.4 International competition and technological leadership 34
7 DEPLOYMENT ROADMAP 377.1 Towards the active solar building 38
7.2 Industrial process heat, including water treatment and desalination 46
7.3 District heating and cooling 57
Table o Contents
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8 STRATEGIC RESEARCH AGENDA 65
8.1 Solar thermal collectors 668.1.1 Low tempera ture collectors 67
8.1.1.1 Technology status 67
8.1.1.2 Potential and challenges or technological development 68
8.1.2 Process heat (medium temperature) collectors 708.1.2.1 Technology status 70
8.1.2.2 Potential and challenges or technological development 71
8.1.2.3 Non-technical challenges or solar process heat collectors 71
8.1.3 R&D agenda 72
8.1.4 Timetable 74
8.2 Thermal storage 768.2.1 Technology status 77
8.2.2 Potential and challenges or technological development 79
8.2.3 Research agenda 79
8.2.4 Timetable 82
8.3 Solar thermally driven cooling and refrigeration 838.3.1 Technology status 868.3.2 Challenges and potential or technological development 87
8.3.3 R&D needed to achieve the goals 88
8.3.4 Timetable 91
8.4 Multi-functional components 948.4.1 Technology status 948.4.2 Challenges and potential or technological development 96
8.4.3 Research agenda 96
8.4.4 Timetable 988.5 Control systems 1008.5.1 Technology status 101
8.5.2 Challenges and potent ial or technological development 1018.5.3 Timetable 104
8.6 Water treatment (desalination) 1058.6.1 Technology status 106
8.6.2 Barriers to increased deployment 107
8.6.3 R&D needed to achieve the goals 108
8.6.4 Timetable 109
9 RESEARCH INFRASTRUCTURE 113
9.1 Solar assisted cooling and air-condit ioning 114
9.2 Process heat collectors 116
9.3 Heat storage 116
10 REFERENCES 119
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Dear Reader,
For a long time, low-temperature solar thermal has only played a minor role compared to other renewable energy sources. The popular concep- tion concerning energy was ocused almost exclusively upon electric- ity generation, even though heating constitutes almost 50% o the total energy consumption. Solar thermal was considered mainly to provide or water heating needs, where technologically mature solutions exist. Inthe scenarios o uture energy strategies, heat generation consequently played only a very small role.
The situation has changed dramatically. Without a doubt, the Europeangoal o covering 20% o energy needs with renewable energy can only
be reached with a signifcant increase o renewable energy capacities in the heating sector. The explosion o crude oil and natural gas prices along with increasing import dependency have urther increased public attention and interest. However, the question remained which role solar heating was supposed to play.
At the same time, it is nothing new that low-temperature solar thermal technology has the greatest potential among all renewable energies inthe heating area. Today, it are primarily the advancements made by the European Solar Technology Platorm (ESTTP) that outline the large tech- nological development potential o low-temperature solar thermal. This potential is triggered by the enhancements to system types and compo- nents but also primarily in the development o new uses or the technol- ogy, such as solar heating, process-heating generation, district heating and solar assisted cooling.
Already in 2006, the ESTTP ormulated its 2030 vision or low-temperature solar thermal. Since then, numerous experts rom the industry and re- search sectors o Europe have worked on a strategic research agenda to implement this vision. With this document, you hold the results o this work in your hands. It is the frst time that the technological perspectives o low-temperature solar thermal have been so systematically presented.It will certainly contribute to evaluate the opportunities or solar thermal more realistically.
Out o this research program comes the challenge o overcoming the research unding defcits o the previous years. Low-temperature solar thermal must play an important role in the research programs o the EU and the member states. The unding or solar thermal research must be signifcantly increased and the research capacities must be systemati-
cally expanded.
I would like to thank all o the experts who have been involved in this extensive task and cordially invite all who are interested to use this docu- ment to obtain a comprehensive overview o the technological per- spectives on low-temperature solar thermal and work together with us to implement this research strategy. On this note, I wish you a most interest- ing read.
Sunny regards,
Gerhard Stryi-Hipp
The paper has been written by the European Solar Thermal Technology Platorm(ESTTP). The ESTTP was co-ounded and is supported by the European Solar Thermal
Industry Federation (ESTIF) and the by EUREC Agency, an association representing the
European research institutes active in the renewable energy feld.
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Foreword1
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Solar thermal energy is an extremely convenient source o heating; and a technology
that does not rely on scarce, fnite energy resources. It has the potential to cover 50%
o the total heat demand. To reach this goal existing technologies have to expand and
new technologies should be developed or new sectors like apartment buildings and
the industrial sector. Research is needed or new applications like, compact seasonal
storage, industrial applications (up to 250 °C) and solar cooling.
In this document the current trends and technological perspective is described and
the vision or 2030. Then the deployment road map is given to reach this perspective.
The strategic research agenda and the research inrastructure needed or reaching the
goals are described in the chapter 8 and 9.
This vision, deployment road map and research agenda was developed by the Euro-
pean Solar Thermal Technology Platorm (ESTTP). The ESTTP was set-up by the Euro-
pean Solar Thermal Industry Federation (ESTIF) and the European Renewable Energy
Research Centres Agency (EUREC Agency). In the plat orm about 100 leading experts
in the feld o solar thermal research and applications co-operated to write this report.
The main fndings o this report are:
Current status
The demand or heating and cooling is 49% o the total energy demand in Eu-•
rope, most o which is needed at low- to medium temperatures (up to 250°C).
Technologies are available or can be developed to cover in principle most o this•
demand.Solar thermal applications do not depend on fnite sources and solar energy is•
available everywhere.
Already today, solar thermal energy or domestic hot water preparation and or•
space heating is a developed technology with a high penetration rates in some
countries.
Vision 2030
Solar thermal can cover 50% o the total heat demand, i the heat demand is frst•
reduced by energy saving measures.
To reach this goal new applications have to be developed and deployed. The•
main ones are the active solar building, the active solar renovation, industrial ap-
plications up to 250 °C, solar heat or district heating and cooling.
5
Executive summary2
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Figure 1 shows how this long term goal o the vision can be reached and how this
is split over current technologies (business as usual), advanced market deployment
(by developing new technologies and application sectors) and new applications
where R&D is needed to develop them (like compact heat storage and high tempera-
ture collectors)
Figure 2 shows how this target o 50% compares to the total heat demand. First the
energy demand can be reduced by 40% and rom this reduced demand solar cancontribute 50% in the long run (around 2050). The division over the application sec-
tor is included.
6
Figure 1: Growth in solar thermal energy use in dierent scenarios. (Source: ESTIF, 2008)
Figure 2: Contribution o solar thermal to EU heat demand by sector, assuming that the total heat demand can
be reduced by energy conservation and a 40% increase in efciency by 2030. (Source: AEE INTEC, 2008)
2 Executive summary
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Deployment roadmap
The deployment roadmap shows what research, development and demonstrations are
needed to develop the main application felds: residential & commercial buildings,
industrial process heat, desalination and water treatment and district heating. Beside
the technological developments also the market issues are described.
The strategic research agenda
To reach the goal o supplying 50% o the heat demand, a new generation o solarthermal technologies need to be developed or new application areas. The main
new applications are: solar combi-systems using compact seasonal storage, higher
temperature collectors or industrial applications and solar cooling. The main research
challenges are:
To develop compact long-term efcient heat storage. The storage technology•
should make it possible to store heat rom the summer or use in winter in a cost-
eective manner
To develop new materials or solar systems. The new materials are needed be-•
cause the materials as currently applied have a limited technical perormance and
could potentially be replaced with cheaper options.
Basic research or improvement in solar cooling, high temperature solar collectors•
and solar desalination.
For each application feld the industrial development and the basic research that isneeded is described in detail.
The research infrastructure
The Research Inrastructure needed to implement the Research Agenda is a s tructured
collaboration o research institutes and industry.
It includes:
a RD&D Network;•
a Joint European Laboratory dedicated to solar cooling and process heat; and•
Regional Solar Cooling and Process Heat Development Centres or demonstration,•
technology transer and training.
Future actions
To reach the goals, a whole range o activities is needed rom basic research to promo-
tion, because solar thermal is a technology that includes applications that are cost-
eective (like solar water heaters in sunny climates) to completely new technologies
(like compact chemical heat storage). The development o the current markets is thebasis. With these existing technologies new application areas, like industrial heat and
multi-amily houses can be developed. Improved technologies can urther open these
markets and expand them to solar cooling, solar desalination and higher temperature
applications. Basic research should lead to a new generation o solar technologies likeseasonal storage o solar heat and a new generation o solar systems with improvedprice perormance.
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The Earth seen from Apollo 17
Source: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bild:The_Earth_seen_rom_Apollo_17.jpg
(Author: Image courtesy o Earth Sciences and Image Analysis Laboratory,NASA Johnson Space Center. File Name AS17-148-22727;
created by NASA)
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9
Solar Heating and Cooling
or a Sustainable Energy Future in Europe
A Strategic Research Agenda
About the European Solar Thermal
Technology Platorm
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This document has been produced by the European Solar Thermal technology Platorm
(ESTTP).
Technology Platorms are seen as a very important tool to rame and promote the u-
ture development o a technology. In order to strengthen the pan-European understand-
ing and development o solar thermal technology an Initiator Group has been workingtowards a ESTTP since the beginning o 2005.
Several active members o the European Solar Thermal Industry Federation (ESTIF)
and the European Renewable Energy Centres Agency (EUREC Agency) ounded the
ESTTP Initiator Group. Both organisations strongly support the plat orm. Furthermore itinvolves “neighbouring” industries (or example, rom construction, heating ventilation
and air conditioning and metals sectors) as well as policy makers.
The diagram below shows the structure of the Technology Platform.
High level Group: Consists o CEOs and representatives rom the European Com-
mission and national ministries. It provides direction and advice on the work o the
Technology Platorm.
Steering Committee: Is responsible or managing the Technology Platorm.
Focus Groups: Coordinate the activities o one feld o research and provide inorma-
tion or a wide number o members interested in a par ticular feld o solar thermal re-
search such as the building sector, industrial applications or market and policy issues.
The Focus Groups are subdivided into 12 working groups.
Steering Committee
Chair: Gerhard Stryi-Hipp,
Werner Weiss, Nigel Cotton
Today: 17 members
Focus Group 1
Solar thermal sys-
tems for buildings
(heating and cooling)
Chair: Volker Wittwer
+ Working Groups
Focus Group 2
ST systems for
industrial applications
(including refrigera-
tion)
Chair: Werner Weiss
+ Working Groups
Focus Group 3
ST deployment,
strategy and scena-
rios (market and
policy)
Chair: Teun Bokhoven
+ Working Groups
National
Technology
Platforms
ESTTP Support Group
More than 170 members
ESTTP Secretariat
ESTIF / EUREC / PSE
High Level GroupStructureof the ESTTP
Figure 3: Current structure o the European Solar Thermal Technology Platorm
3 About the European Solar Thermal Technology Platorm
3 About the European Solar Thermal Technology Platorm
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Working Groups: Work on dierent issues, such as undamental research, applied re-
search, market deployment and political instruments. These groups take responsibility
or progressing the work at a detailed level. All interested European experts can apply
or membership.
National Mirror Groups: Work on a national level to provide input or the ESTTP andharmonise the European and national research agendas. National mirror groups will
be initiated by national experts.
Support Group: More than 180 companies, R&D institutes and associations have
become Support Group members. The Support Group comprises all companies andorganisations that have signed the let ter o support or the ESTTP. They are invited to
participate in the ESTTP working groups and to attend General Assemblies.
Structure o Focus and Working Groups
Focus Group 2
Solar Heat for Industrial Applications
Chair: Werner Weiss, AT
WG 2 A
Process Heat
C. Brunner,
AT
WG 2 B
Water Treat-
ment
H. Müller-Holst,
DE
WG 2 D
PH Collectors
MT Storage
A. Häberle, DE
R. Tamme, DE
WG 2 E
District Heating
J.O. Dalenbäck,
SE
WG 2 C
Refrigeration
D. Mugnier, FR
M. Motta, IT
Focus Group 3
Market deployment, strategy and scenario development
Chair: Teun Bokhoven, NL
WG 3 A
Market assessment
& incentive schemes
L. Bosselaar, NL
WG 3 B
The solar thermal roadmap
R. Buchinger, AT
Focus Group 1
Solar Thermal Systems for Buildings
Chair: Volker Wittwer, DE
WG 1 A
Collectors
M. CollaresPereira, PT
WG 1 B
Storage of
Thermal Energy
W. van Helden,NL
WG 1 D
Active Solar
Renovation
R. Schild, DEI. Opstelten, NL
WG 1 E
System Design
and Perfor-
manceH. Drück, DE
WG 1 C
Buildings with
High Solar
FractionW. Sparber, IT
Figure 4: Structure o Focus and Working Groups 1
Figure 5: Structure o Focus and Working Groups 2
Figure 6: Structure o Focus and Working Groups 3
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Diameter comparison of Sun and Earth
Source: http: //de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bild:Sun_Earth_Comparison.png
(created by NASA)
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Solar Heating and Cooling
or a Sustainable Energy Future in Europe
A Strategic Research Agenda
The unique benefts
o Solar Thermal
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Heating accounts or a signifcant proportion o the world’s total energy demand.
The building sector alone consumes 35.3%, o which 75% is or space heating and
domestic water heating (IEA, 2006). Besides buildings, there is substantial heat con-
sumption or industrial processes and heat-intensive services.
In Europe, the fnal energy demand or heating and cooling (49%) is higher than orelectricity (20%) or transport (31%) (EREC, 2006).
In the past, the heating sector has been traditionally neglected in the energy policy
debate. Now it is becoming increasingly evident that the renewable heating and cool-ing (RES-H/C) sector must play a major role in reaching the European policy goals in
terms o reducing greenhouse gas emissions, increasing the renewables share in theenergy mix, and reduction o the dependency on imported ossil uels.
O course, RES-H/C deployment must go hand in hand with a substantial improvement
in the energy efciency o buildings and o heat consuming processes. It is imperative
that both pathways develop as rapidly as possible to dramatically increase efciencyand to replace the remaining heating and cooling demand by RES. Higher efciency
values create the neccessary conditions or a ully renewable supply o thermal energy
demand, reeing the scarce ossil uel resources or other purposes where they are less
easily replaceable.
During the coming years and decades, ossil uels and nuclear power will become
increasingly scarce and expensive as a result o the exhaustion o natural resourcesand the climate change mitigation policies. This process has obviously already started.
Thereore, using ossil uels or electricity as the main resource to achieve the low
temperatures required or heating and cooling buildings will become too expensive or
most people and will be seen as an unacceptable squandering o resources.
Figure 7: Final Energy demand in the European Union. (Source: EREC, 2006)
4 The unique benefts o Solar Thermal
4 The unique benefts o Solar Thermal
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Certainly, the use o biomass and heat pumps will rise signifcantly. However, scarce
biomass resources are needed to ulfll the demand rom other energy and non-energy
felds, while a wide deployment o heat pumps as a main source o heating would im-
ply a massive increase in electricity consumption, with strong economic and environ-
mental external costs. Thereore, solar thermal (ST) will become an indispensable and
crucial pillar o the uture energy mix or heating and cooling.
Within the RES-H/C portolio, ST has unique and specifc benefts:
ST always leads to a direct reduction o primary energy consumption•
ST can be combined with nearly all kinds o back-up heat sources•
ST has the highest potential under the RES-H/C-technologies and does not rely on•
fnite resources, needed also or other energy and non-energy purposes
ST does not lead to a signifcant increase in electricity demand, which could•
imply substantial investments to increase power generation and transmission
capacities
ST is available nearly everywhere. Current limitations, or instance at very high•
latitudes or in case o limited space or heat storage, can be largely overcome
through R&D, as shown later in the present document
ST prices are highly predictable, since the largest part o them occur at the mo-•
ment o investment, and thereore does not depend on uture oil, gas, biomass, or
electricity prices
The lie-cycle environmental impact o ST systems is extremely low•
ST replaces (mainly imported) natural sources with local jobs. Wherever the ST•
hardware will be produced in the uture, a large portion o the value chain (distri-
bution, planning, installation, maintenance) is inherently related to the demand
side
Solar thermal is thereore the absolute best option or ulflling the long-term heating
and cooling supply. In the long-term, the goal will be to meet our heating demand as
much as is technically possible with solar energy; preserving the scarce electricity,
biomass and ossil uel resources or instances where solar heating is not yet availableat acceptable costs.
In principle, most people would agree with these statements. However, in the past
many did not regard solar thermal as an important pillar o the energy supply system
since they could not imagine the huge technological potential o solar thermal. These
advantages will be described in the ollowing chapters.
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Ocular projection of the sun with large sunspots using a spotting scope
Source: http:/ /de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bild:Sun_projection_with_spotting-scope_large.jpg(GNU Free Documentation license; Photographer: SiriusB)
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Solar Heating and Coolingor a Sustainable Energy Future in Europe
A Strategic Research Agenda
A technological perspective onSolar Thermal potential
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The independent Global Climate Decision Makers Survey (GCDMS, 2007) presentedin December, 2007 at the UN Climate Change conerence in Bali showed that, amongapproximately 20 carbon reduction technology options, solar thermal and passivesolar are considered over the next 25 years to be technologies with the highest carbonreduction potential without unacceptable side eects. This shows that politicians andexperts are becoming increasingly more aware o the importance o harnessing thepotential o ST.
Despite these realized benets, widespread usage is still a long way away and wemust intensiy our eorts in order to make the ST potential ully easible. Today, STis mainly used in the heating o domestic hot water. The share o systems which aresupporting space heating is presently small, yet growing. Up until now, ST systems are
almost exclusively used in residential homes. Thereby we must ollow our strategiessimultaneously to develop the ull potential o ST.
1. The number o solar thermal systems has to be sharply increased (market deploy-ment measures are needed)
2. The share o solar thermal energy which is covered by a ST system per build-ing has to be increased step-by-step up to 100% (market deployment and R&Dmeasures are needed)
3. ST has to be introduced in new market segments like the commercial and indus-trial sector (R&D and market deployment measures are needed)
4. New ST applicat ions, e.g. Solar Assisted Cooling and process heating have to bedeveloped (strong R&D and market deployment measures are needed)
ST is becoming more and more popular in a growing number o countries worldwide.The worldwide market or ST systems has been growing continuously since the begin-ning o the 1990s. In Europe, the market size nearly tripled between 2002 and 2006.Even in the leading European ST markets Austria, Greece and Germany, only a minorpart o the residential homes are using ST. In Germany, about 5% o one and twoamiliy homes are using ST energy.
Figure 8: Market development o solar thermal in the European Union. (Source: ESTIF, 2007)
5 A technological perspective on Solar Thermal potential
5 A technological perspective on Solar Thermal potential
5.1 Current trends in the ST market
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Other European countries are now systematically developing their ST markets as well,such as Spain, France, Italy and the UK. However, both within Europe and at a globallevel, the ST market development has been previously characterized by huge gaps be-tween a small number o rontrunner countries and a large number o countries whichare still in the star ting blocks.
The chart above shows that, in absolute terms, China by ar comprises most o theST market worldwide. In spite o the strong technological leadership o the EuropeanST industry and the high variety o available ST technology, Europe has only a smallmarket share worldwide, whereas North America and Oceania still play an insignicantrole. Among the “others”, ST is mainly used in Turkey, Israel and Brazil.
The chart below reviews the same data, but per capita.
Figure 9: Annual newly installed capacity o fat-plate and evacuated tube collectors in kW th by economicregion. (Source: IEA, 2007)
Figure 10: Annual newly installed capacity o fat-plate and evacuated tube collectors in kW th per capita.(Source: IEA, 2007)
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Taking into account the population, the Chinese leadership is less strong, whileOceania, Europe and Japan are in a better position. However, the huge imbalancebetween dierent regions remains impressive.
Even stronger gaps are registered within Europe. Solar Thermal Markets 2006 in Europe
Figure 11 shows that Germany has by ar the biggest ST market, ollowed by Austria,Greece, France, Italy and Spain. All o the other European countries have relativelysmall market as o now. However, this order is dierent i one looks at the ST mar-ket per capita. While Cyprus enjoys particularly avourable conditions, Austria is arather average country, considering its climate, building stock and prevailing heatingsystems. However, with over 250 kWth by Mid 2008 per 1000 inhabitants, Austria ismore than six times ahead o the EU average, and 10-40 times ahead o most othercountries, including those with high potential such as Italy, Spain and France. It is evident that these huge gaps between neighbouring countries are not due to suchdramatically dierent technological barriers or objective conditions, but mainly to
market dynamics and political ramework conditions.
Even in Austria, with its comparatively large stock o ST capacity, there is not the slight-est sign o market saturation. I the current trend in the Austrian ST market continues, Austria will reach the per capita level o Cyprus in less than a decade.
Figure 11: ST capacity installed in 2006 in dierent European countries total (orange bars) and per capita(blue dots). (Source: ESTIF, 2007)
5 A technological perspective on Solar Thermal potential
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ST will cover 50% o the heating demand in Europe in the long term when ST will be used in al-most every building, covering more than 50% o the heating and cooling demand in reurbishedbuildings and 100% in new buildings. ST will also be used in district heating systems, and incommercial and industrial applications with many new and improved ST technologies. But whatcould be the short-medium term ST potential?
With the current ST technologies, the European short-medium term ST potential is certainlysubstantially higher than the level o Austria (ca. 250 kWth per 1.000 capita). Also, it is higherthan the level o Cyprus today, where solar thermal is currently used almost exclusively ordomestic hot water (DHW) preparation. Moving the entire EU to the current level o Cyprus wouldimply multiplying the ST capacity in operation by 15 in the EU. This shows that, or the next twodecades, the available technology is denitely not a actor limiting growth! Technological devel-
opment will also certainly help speed-up the market penetration o solar thermal in the short-medium term. However, the main barriers to growth are still o a non-technological nature.
ESTIF sets the goal o one m² solar capacity in operation until 2020 as a short-medium goal,which is equivalent to a capacity o 700 kW th per 1000 capita. ESTIF’s Solar Thermal Action Planor Europe (www.esti.org/stap) oers a systematic analysis o the barriers to growth o solar ther-mal with existing technologies, and guidelines how to overcome them through industry actionsand public policies. It can be expected that the upcoming EU Directive will reduce these gaps andallow or a more rapid exploitation o the short-medium term ST potential. The increased marketvolumes will provide the ST industry the means or a substantial increase in R&D investments.This will extend the boundaries o the ST potential, opening the way or the implementation o theESTTP’s vision or 2030.
Compared to other continents, Europe has the most sophisticated market or di erent solar ther-mal applications, with a relatively wide mix o dierent applications such as hot water prepara-tion, space heating o single- and multi-amily homes and hotels, large-scale plants or districtheating as well as a several pilot systems or air conditioning, cooling and industrial applications.
However, also in Europe, the majority o the new ST systems are installed on residential homesor heating domestic hot water (DHW) only, with typical solar ractions (i.e. the share o DHW de-mand covered by solar) in the range o 40-80%. Nevertheless, there is already a clear tendency
towards combined ST systems or DHW and space heating support in countries like Germany and Austria, where 50% or more o the newly installed systems are combined systems.
Additionally, in markets like Spain, France and Austria, large ST collective systems or multi-amily homes have a signicant share. The systematic development o the market or collectiveST systems is important to reach the short-medium term goals, since the majority o the Europeanpopulation is living in such homes.
5.2 Short-medium term ST potential
5.3 Main applications in short-medium term
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By overcoming a series o technological barriers, which are analyzed in detail below, itwill be possible to achieve a wide market introduction at competitive costs o advancedST applications like:
Solar Active Building, covering at least 100% o their thermal energy with solar,•
and in some cases providing heat to neighbours
High solar raction space heating or building renovations•
Wide use o solar or space cooling•
Wide use o solar or heat intensive services and industrial process heat, including•
desalination and water treatment
These are the key elements o the ESTTP Vision, Deployment Roadmap and StrategicResearch Agenda discussed below.
Figure 12: Growth in solar thermal energy use in dierent scenarios. (Source: ESTIF, 2008)
5.4 Medium-long term ST potential (advanced technologies)
5 A technological perspective on Solar Thermal potential
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By implementing them, the potential or economically viable ST usage can be substan-tially expanded. This expansion is refected in the ollowing, simplied diagram.The lower curve (orange area) is a “business as usual” scenario based on a moder-ate growth rate. The middle curve (green area) is a scenario based on an advancedmarket deployment o current ST technologies through strong support policies. Thisleads to relatively high growth rates in the rst period, but ater a certain period o timethe achievable potential with current technologies begins to become saturated andthereore the growth in capacity starts to stagnate at a relatively low level.
The higher curve (gold area) assumes both an advanced deployment o current tech-nologies and strong private and public R&D investments. The technological progressleads to a ull exploitation o the ST potential, thus using solar energy to ulll a
substantially higher share o the total demand or heat and cold. Saturation is reachedlater, and at a higher level o capacity.
Based on political support mechanisms, technical developments based on increasedR&D and on independent report1 calculations o the ESTTP show realistic growths rateso 20% in the solar thermal market.
These growth rates would lead to an installed capacity o 970 GW th by 2030 in theEU. Based on the EU-25 heat demand o the year 2004 (AEBIOM, 2007), these solarthermal collectors could supply about 8% o the total heating demand. Combinedenergy conservation measures and increased eciency in the building sector (-40%heat demand compared to 2004) would enable solar thermal systems to supply about20% o the overall heat demand in EU-27 by 2030.
The long-term potential (2050) o solar thermal is to provide or about 50% o the EU´sheat demand. In order to achieve this goal an installed capacity o 2576 GW th or 8 m²per inhabitant would be necessary.
1 Sustainability Report o the Swiss Sarasin Bank
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Sun photo with hydrogen alpha flter
Source: http:/ /de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bild:Son-1.jpg(GNU Free Documentation license)
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Solar Heating and Coolingor a Sustainable Energy Future in Europe
A Strategic Research Agenda
Vision 20306
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The ESTTP’s main objective is to create the right conditions in order to ully exploitsolar thermal’s potential or heating and cooling in Europe and worldwide. This wouldensure long-term technological leadership o the European industry.
The achievement o this potential will not be completed by 2030. However, under posi-tive ramework conditions, it will be possible to substantially expand the use o solarthermal, and to set the technological basis or achieving ull potential in the ollowingtwo decades.
As a rst s tep or the development o the Deployment Roadmap and o the StrategicResearch Agenda, the ESTTP has developed a vision or solar thermal in 2030. Its keyelements are to:
establish the• Active Solar Building as a standard or new buildings by 2030 - Ac-tive Solar buildings cover 100% o their heating and cooling demand with solarenergy;
establish the• Active Solar Renovation as a standard or the reurbishment o exist-ing buildings by 2030 - Active Solar renovated buildings are heated and cooledby at least 50% with solar thermal energy;
satisy with solar thermal energy a substantial share o the• industrial process heatdemand up to 250°C, including heating and cooling, as well as desalination andwater treatment and a wide range o other high-potential processes; and
achieve a broad use o solar energy in existing and uture• district heating andcooling networks, where it is particularly cost eec tive.
The ollowing sections discuss cer tain economic implications o this vision. Subsequentchapters consider the Deployment Roadmap or the dierent applications, and theStrategic Research Agenda required to achieve this vision.
Solar thermal energy replaces imported uels with local jobs. There would also bemany other economic benets resulting rom the ull exploitation o the ST potential.By implementing the ESTTP Vision, the EU would save approximately 47 Mtoe per
year by 2030, and 126 Mtoe per year by 2050. The economic value o this would besignicant, but cannot be quantied without knowing the prices and quantities o oil,gas, electricity and biomass or heating in the years discussed.
Beyond a reduction in energy bills, the advantage o highly predicable prices or heat-ing and cooling must also be considered. The majority o ST costs are incurred at theinitial investment stage, so can be easily predicted. Conversely, the total costs o allother heating supply technologies depend largely on the unpredictable uture develop-ment o uel and/or electricity prices. I ST were to be ully exploited, it would signi-cantly reduce the macro-economic risks linked to the fuctuation o energy prices andthe security o energy supply.
6 Vision 2030
6 Vision 2030
6.1 Macro-economic benets
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A high share o solar energy in the heat supply will also have benets in terms o socialpolicy. The high oil prices have become a substantial threat to low-income house-holds in Europe. Several Member States recently increased nancial support to thosehouseholds that cannot aord the current heating oil and gas prices (“heating aid”, orexample the French Government’s announcement on 11 November 2007 to doubleheating aid rom €75 to €150 per household, thus earmarking a total o 70 millionEuro to oset the negative economic eect o high ossil uel prices).
Currently, at least 80% o the solar thermal value chain serving the EU market is basedin the European Union, including:
over 90% o manuacturing;•
almost 100% o sales and marketing; and•
100% o installation and maintenance (which are inherently local and always•
create local jobs and wealth).
Only raw materials are largely imported (see below or more de tails on employment).
By helping to increase the uptake o solar thermal, the ESTTP improves Europe’s tradebalance and lowers the running costs o both businesses and private households.
Improved competitiveness is necessary or moving rom early markets to mass mar-kets. Under positive boundary conditions, solar domestic hot water is oten alreadycost-competitive with ossil-uel based technologies, i considered over the lietimeo the solar system. Applications or space heating in multi-amily houses, as well assolar assisted district heating are also close to competitiveness. These applicationshave the potential or short payback times. They are reliable, but their higher initialinvestment costs means they appear more expensive to potential purchasers whencompared with conventional heating systems. However, this is not the case i cos ts arecompared over a ull lie cycle.
Practical experience shows that cost competitiveness does not automatically lead to amass market. There are plenty o potential energy eciency measures with a return on
investment o only two or three years, and still they remain unused. In economic terms,this may be due to incorrect inormation about the perceived transaction costs. Inpractical terms, it may be due to iner tia, lack o inormation, lack o nancial resourcesand other priorities, or the eec ts o publicity.
6.2 Cost competitiveness
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This means that cost competitiveness does not necessarily create a mass market ora product. However, it can be assumed that moving towards a mass market will beeasier, as return on investment times become shor ter.
The table below shows a range o prices or heat generated by a solar thermal system,compared to the current price o gas and elec tricity or the end user, and the priceprojected or 2030. Infation is not taken into consideration.
Cost in €-cent per kwh
Today 2030
CentralEurope
SouthernEurope
CentralEurope
SouthernEurope
Solar thermal 7 - 16 5 - 12 3 – 6 2 - 4
Natural gas 8,5 - 29 17 - 58
Electricity 7 - 33 14 - 66
The costs o solar heat include all taxes, installation and maintenance. The spread iswide, because the total costs vary strongly, depending on actors such as:
quality o products and installation;•
ease o installation;•
available solar radiation (latitude, number o sunny hours, orientation and tilting•
o the collectors);
ambient temperature; and•
patterns o use determining the heat load.•
By 2030, it is assumed that technological progress and economies o scale will lead toaround a 60% reduction in costs.
The current costs o gas and electricity are based on Eurostat data, pertaining toprivate households or the second quarter o 2007 with a small load, and includingall taxes. The cost o heating equipment is not taken into account, as this is deemedto be a necessary back-up or a solar thermal system. To reduce the eect o outliers,
the cheapest and the most expensive countries have not been taken into consideration.The current price levels are somewhat underestimated. Eurostat has data rom all 10Eastern European new Member States and rom Croatia. However, it only has guresrom 4 o the EU-15 countries, where nal user prices tend to be higher. It should alsobe stated that larger cus tomers, such as big business, are able to obtain lower prices
6 Vision 2030
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and do not pay VAT. The assumption underlining the 2030 prices is an average 3%annual real increase in the cost o electricity and associated prices, which is clearlylower than during the last decade. Infation is not taken into consideration.
While important cost reductions in solar thermal can be achieved through R&D andeconomies o scale, the table shows why ESTTP’s priority is to enable the large-scaleuse o solar thermal energy through the development to mass market o new applica-tions, such as Active Solar Buildings, solar cooling, process heat, and desalination.
Over the last decade, investment cost reductions o around 20% have been observedor each 50% increase in the total installed capacity o solar water heaters. Combi-sys-tems in particular have beneted rom these cost reductions, and have increased theirmarket share. Further RD&D investment can help to drive these costs down urther.Cost reductions are expected to stem rom:
direct building integration (açade and roo) o collectors;•
improved manuacturing processes; and•
new advanced materials, such as polymers or collectors.•
Furthermore, cost reduction potential can be seen in increasing productivity by themass production o standardised (kit) systems, which reduce the need or on-siteinstallation and maintenance works.
Figure 13: Typical cost ranges o domestic water/space heating with solar thermal, gas and electricity.(Source: ESTIF, 2008)
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Advanced applications, such as solar cooling and air conditioning, industrial applica-tions and desalination/water treatment, are in the early stages o development, withonly a ew hundred o rst generation sys tems in operation. Considerable cost reduc-tions can be achieved i R&D eort s are increased over the next ew years.
Figure 14: Development o specic costs and installed capacity or small solar thermal systems(orced circulation) in central Europe. (Source: ITW, University Stuttgart)
Figure 15: Indication o the current state o deployment o solar thermal applications rom development toapplication in the mass market. (Source: AEE INTEC, 2008)
6 Vision 2030
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As is the case with other renewable energy industries, solar thermal has become a jobmotor in Europe. The solar thermal sector in Europe currently provides 28,000 ull-timepositions in a range o sectors, including manuacturing, marketing, system designand engineering, installation and ater sale services. Provided that Europe is able torapidly increase its share o the global market and expand its domestic market, thisgure is expected to increase to 220,000 by 2020.
The ollowing table shows gures or production, turnover and employees or some othe leading European solar thermal manuacturers.
Company Production Turnover(EUR million)
Employees
Tm2 Pro-ducts
Total Solarthermal
Total Solarthermal
Alanod (DE) 1400 C n.a. 25 milEUR
440 35
BBT (DE) 260 FPC,ETC
2800 ~ 11% (1) 12900 n.a.
BlueTec (DE) 1100 C 25 100% 20 20
GREENoneTEC(AT)
760 FPC, A,ETC
80 100% 360 360
KBB (DE) 330 A, FPC 100% 65 65
Paradigma/Ritter
(DE)
100 ETC 47% 264 160
Schot t (DE) 28 ETC 2200 n.a. 6900 150
Schüco (DE) 200 FPC 1600 ~ 3% 4700 400 (2)
Solvis (DE) 160 A, FPC 47 48% 120 n.a.
SunMaster (AT) 120 A, FPC 18 100% 83 83
Thermomax (UK) 93 ETC 26 100% 220 220
ThermoSolar(DE/CZ)
200 C, A,FPC
20-25 > 80% 140 120
TiNOX (DE) 480 C 10 100% 20 20
Vaillant (DE) 65 FPC,
ETC
2000 ~ 5% n.a.
Viessmann (DE) 345 FPC,ETC
1400 ~ 20% 7400 n.a.
Wagner (DE) 170 FPC,ETC
120 40% 250 170
Wol (DE) 95 FPC 230 25% 1200 40
6.3 Employment
FPC: fat-panel collectors; ETC: tube collectors; A: Absorber; C: Absorber Coating.1) Renewables segment overall;2) ST and PV;Source: W.B. Koldeho, August 2007.
Table: Production, turnover and employees or selected European collector and absorber manuacturers in2006. (Source: Sarasin, 2007)
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The table above is by ar not complete: There are many more collector and absorbermanuacturers in the EU. Within the manuacturing sector, other jobs are created in thesupply industries (metal, glass and insulation material), as well as in the componentproduction sector (storage tanks, piping, controllers and transer fuids). In total, thereare about 8,000 ull-time positions in the ST manuacturing sector. Most o these jobsare in marketing and distribution, systems design and engineering, installation andater-sales services.
Manuacturing represents limited labour costs, while the orange areas relate mainly to
local labour-intensive services.
It is crucial to maintain the technological leadership o European manuacturers, inorder to ensure a signicant market share o the u ture global ST market. Global annualsales are currently in the region o 18 GW th (25 million m2) per year. And the Euro-pean share o the present global market is only around 15-20%, due to the dominanceo the Chinese low tech, low cost demand, which is mainly served by local producers.
To make a projection on uture employment rates in the ST sector, it is necessary tomake certain assumptions on:
the global and EU domestic market development;•
the export capacity o the EU ST industry; and•
labour productivity increases.•
Figure 16: Shares o costs o Solar Thermal systems (small domestic hot water system, orced circulation,estimated EU average). (Source: ESTIF internal survey)
6 Vision 2030
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Assuming an average annual growth rate o 20%, a global market size in the rangeo 150 GWth (250 million m2) per year can be projected or 2020. This is a relativelyconservative assumption, taking into account that Europe recently experienced higherrates or several years. Whereas North America and other parts o the world have yet tobegin serious ST development.
By increasing their technical leadership, European manuacturers could increase theirshare o the global market rom the present 15-20% to 40%. O course, this largelydepends on R&D progress by European companies, compared to global competitors.This assumption is ambitious but easible, when taking into account an increase inthe demand or high-quality European products, which can be expected in North andSouth America, advancing Asian countries, as well as in Europe itsel. This would lead
to annual sales by European manuacturers in the range o 70 GWth (100 million m
2
);a large percentage o which would be exports. Even making conservative assumptions(very high productivity increases), this would create approximately 220,000 ull-time
jobs, 100,000 o which would be in manuacturing, and 120,000 in ST services (mar-keting, distribution, system design, installation and maintenance).
Figure 17: Solar Thermal jobs in Europe. Eects on uture employment based onthe 20% market growth rates discussed earlier. (Source: AEE INTEC, 2008)
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Europe is without any doubt the worldwide technological leader in solar thermal devel-opment. European companies lead mainly in the ollowing sectors:
Selective suraces or absorbers•
Advanced collector production methods (e.g. laser welding)•
Advanced fat plate collector technology•
High quality vacuum tube collectors•
Process heat collectors•
Stratied hot water storage•
Electronic controllers•
System technology (e.g. solar combi-systems with a burner directly integrated•
into the storage)
Large-scale ST systems combined with seasonal heat stores•
Advanced applications (cooling, combi-systems and industrial applications)•
So, Europe is currently leading in nearly all sectors o ST technology, which explainswhy the manuacturing capacity in Europe is growing enormously, notably in relativelyhigh-wage countries, such as Austria, Germany, Denmark and the UK.
Moreover, some European countries, including Sweden, Denmark, Germany and Aus-tria are leaders in low-energy building technologies, which are a prerequisite or a highratio o solar thermal in heating systems. In this area, strong cooperation with other
technology platorms, such as ECTP and SusChem, is necessary.
The signicant growth seen in the European market over the last decade has helpedto consolidate this technological advancement. However, the current market size inEurope (around 2 GWth new installed capacity per year) is s till tiny, compared with thecurrent Chinese market (12.6 GWth per year) and the expected uture global ST market,which could reach 100-200 GWth within a decade.
6.4 International competition and technological leadership
6 Vision 2030
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However, in the context o such dynamic market growth and technical development,maintaining technological leadership cannot be taken or granted. In order to maintainthis European technological leadership, it is crucial or Europe to invest serious moneyin ST R&D. Internal demand in Europe also needs to grow quickly enough to make itthe largest market worldwide (per capita). The ESTTP is playing a crucial role in sup-porting and meeting both these challenges.
Figure 18: Contribution o solar thermal to EU heat demand by sector, assuming that the total heat demandcan be reduced by energy conservation and a 40% increase in eciency by 2030.(Source: AEE INTEC, 2008)
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This image o the sun reveals the flamentary nature o the plasma
connecting regions o dierent magnetic polarity
Source: http:/ /commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:171879main_LimbFlareJan12_lg.jpg(created by NASA); Author: Hinode JAXA /NASA)
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Solar Heating and Coolingor a Sustainable Energy Future in Europe
A Strategic Research Agenda
Deployment roadmap7
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This chapter outlines a roadmap or the deployment o solar thermal energy towardsthe implementation o the V ision 2030 discussed above.
The basic principle o solar thermal is always the same, and similar components andtechnologies are used in all applications. However, there are certain technological andmarket development challenges. This chapter addresses key areas or the use o solarthermal energy, which include buildings, industrial processes (desalination and watertreatment) and district heating. An introduction to each o these sectors is ollowed bya table giving an overview o the current situation, and the predicted stage o develop-ment in 2020 and 2030, taking into account a number o technological and marketdevelopment parameters.
This Deployment Roadmap serves as the basis or the detailed Strategic Research Agenda, assuring that the proposed research elds are embedded into the requirementsarising rom expected market needs. The Strategic Research Agenda (see Chapter 8)describes in detail the necessary R&D work.
It is expected that the energy and climate crisis will drastically change the heatingmarket over the next two decades. In new buildings, we expect a tightening o energyperormance requirements, including the obligatory use o renewables, which will beincreasingly required by governments and the market. In the existing building stock,energy savings will become the key driver or renovations, and district heat operatorswill become more interested in, and possibly be orced to increase the share orenewables.
For industrial process heat and cooling, the key driver will be the need to reduce grow-
ing energy costs, and possibly the cost o emission allowances at the carbon market,as long as they are applied to heat consuming processes.
All these developments will lead to a sharp increase in the use o solar thermal tech-nologies and the subsequent need or new and advanced technologies in this eld.
As seen above, most solar thermal systems are currently dedicated only to hot waterproduction, which has traditionally been the main application or solar thermal. Over
the last decade, “Combi-systems,” which provide both hot water and space heating,have become a standard product, and have gained a considerable market share in theleading markets o Central and Northern Europe. Typically, the average combi-systemcovers 70-90% o the hot water demand and 10-20% o space heating demand,depending on a number o external actors.
The ESTTP vision is to es tablish the Active Solar Building as a standard or new build-ings by 2030. Active Solar Buildings cover 100% o their demand or heating (andcooling, i any) with solar energy.
For existing buildings, the aim o the ESTTP is to os ter the Solar Active Renovation,achieving massive reductions in energy consumption through energy eciency meas-ures and passive solar energy. The aim is also to cover substantially more than 50% othe remaining heating and/or cooling demands with active solar energy.
There are already many Active Solar Buildings with a proven track record in CentralEurope. In 1989, the rst one-amily house covering 100% o its heating requirements
7 Deployment roadmap
7 Deployment roadmap
7.1 Towards the active solar building
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with solar energy was created in Switzerland. More recently the rst multi-amily build-ings with 100% solar thermal coverage were introduced.
The requirements are high eciency values, a su ciently large solar collector area anda seasonal heat storage sys tem, enabling solar energy accumulated in the summermonths to be used during the winter.
Heat storage represents a key technological challenge, since the wide deploymento Active Solar Buildings largely depends on the development o cost-e ective andpractical solutions or seasonal heat s torage. The ESTTP vision assumes that, by 2030,heat storage systems will be available, which allow or seasonal heat storage with anenergy density eight times higher than water. In other words, to store the same amounto energy, 8 times less volume than water will be required.
For solar collectors, signicant improvements are still possible, particularly in terms ocost reductions and design. However, low temperature collectors, which are usuallyused on buildings, are already very ecient.
High energy eciency values can be reached through:
high insulation standards, which reduce losses; and•
optimal architecture, which integrates passive solar measures, such as ac tive•
windows, shading or ventilation systems.
Furthermore, the productivity o solar thermal systems is enhanced by heating andcooling systems that require a low temperature dierence between the supply systemand the indoor temperature, such as radiant suraces, foor heating and cooling, ceil-
ing heating and cooling, and heating/cooling o ventilation air. Most o these solutionsalready exist, but there is still potential or cost reductions, increased perormance andeasier integration.
The demand or cooling in buildings is growing dramatically; and not only in SouthernEurope. Despite the impressive growth rates, solar assis ted cooling is still in the veryearly stages o development. Over the next decade, the rs t Solar “Combi+-Systems,”supplying domestic hot water, space heating and cooling or buildings will be installed.However, signicant R&D must be carried out in order to exploit the potential or urthertechnological development, which will pave the way or the large-scale deployment osolar cooling. These R&D investments will be benecial or society as a whole, takinginto account that solar assisted cooling will replace highly inecient electrical coolingsystems that consume very expensive and polluting electricity at peak times.
Figure 19: 100% solar heated multi-amilyhouse in Switzerland. Installed capacity 193kWth (276 m² collector area) and a 205 m³
heat storage.(Source: Jenni Energietechnik AG, Switzerland)
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In the uture, solar active systems, such as thermal collectors, PV-panels and PVT-sys-tems, will be the obvious components o roo and açades. And they will be integratedinto the construction process at the earliest s tages o building planning. The walls willunction as a component o the ac tive heating and cooling systems, supporting thethermal energy storage through the application o advanced materials (e.g. phasechange materials). One central control system will lead to an optimal regulation othe whole HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) system, maximising theuse o solar energy within the comort parameters set by users. Heat and cold storagesystems will play an increasingly important role in reaching maximum solar thermalcontributions to cover the thermal requirements in buildings.
Key areas or technological development
While a very small number o Solar Active Buildings have already been showcased,making them a mainstream building standard by 2030 will only be possible i signi-cant technological progress is achieved in the ollowing areas:
High-efciency solar collectors• will increase the energy gained under winterconditions, while maintaining high levels o durability and increasing the cost-eciency o the manuacturing and installation process.
New• compact, time indierent thermal storage technologies will signicantlyreduce the space required or heat s torage devices. This will lead to cheaper andmore practical seasonal heat storage, allowing large amounts o heat accumu-lated during the summer to be used or space heating during the winter.
Improved•
solar thermally driven cooling systems will make it possible to covermuch o the ris ing demand or air conditioning with solar energy.
Intelligent control systems• o the overall energy fows in buildings will contributeto a reduction in energy consumption and the optimisation o solar energy usage.
The ollowing tables outline the various scenarios and requirements rom now until 2030.
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RESIDENTIAL/COMMERCIAL, NEW & EXISTING BUILDINGS
2008 2020 2030
TECHNICAL
Fundamental research
Orientation stage or•
Compact Time-indie-rent Storage (CTIS)
Orientation to start R&D•
on new or innovativematerials (low cost/
high requirement)
Second generation•
compact storagestarted
Cooling option or•
domestic purposesreaching conclusion
Full undamental R&D•
completed or CompactTime-indierent Storage
New materials proven•
to be usable or STapplications
Building integration ai-•
med at integration withbuilding elements andintegration with otherequipment
Next generation•
Industry developments
System development or•
cooling systems
Combi-systems and•
system integration
Price/perormance•
optimisation on SDHW-systems
Building integration•
Product development to•
commercial compact/ time-indierent storagesystems or wide use incombi-systems
Cooling options as•
integrated units ordomestic sector
New materials incor-•
porated in productdevelopment (expectedimpact on cost price/ perormance ratio tolead to a 25% impro-vement)
Greater adaptation to•
the building sector,urther integration withheating systems androo
Integrating compact/ •
time-indierent storagesystems in existingbuildings
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RESIDENTIAL/COMMERCIAL, NEW & EXISTING BUILDINGS
2008 2020 2030
Identied demonstration/lighthouses
Cooling or 10 kW +•
systemsDemo compact heat•
storage rst generation
Third generation combi-•
system, using CTIS(100% DHW+SH)
High perormance reno-•
vation; passive house
standard or renovation
Plug and play•
Active solar renovation•
with less than a 75%energy requirement
100% market applicable technologies
Solar domestic•
hot water systems(SDHW) (Solar raction50-90%, depending onlatitude)
First generation combi-•
system deployed on aairly large scale in AT
+ DE (solar raction ataround 75% or DHWand 10% or spaceheating)
SDHW systems•
Solar cooling or com-•
mercial sector
Solar combis (second•
generation - DHW80-90+%, SH25-50%+ dependingon latitude)
Compact heat storage•
in 2nd generation in ullmarket deployment.
Cooling or all building•
types available
Combi systems provide•
100 % solar raction
Combi systems with•
cooling possibilities
Solar systems integ-•
rated with ventilationsystem, heat pumpsetc.
Standards and certication
Calculation methods or•
EPBD through CEN, TC312, + upgrade o CENseries
Keymark on collectors•
– widespread systemscertication (Keymark)initiated
Installation qualication•
in some countries
Combi-systems in•
Keymark
Standard and certica-•
tion process or cooling
in nal stageSeparate standards or•
CTIS in preparation
Full standards and•
certication or all STapplications in newbuild sector
Certicates based on•
standards or productsand systems on instal-lation quality
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RESIDENTIAL/COMMERCIAL, NEW & EXISTING BUILDINGS
2008 2020 2030
Perormance and durability
First generation o sys-•
tems and componentshave proven 15-25 yrs+ lie expectancy
Price/Perormance inc-•
reased overall by 35%check costs gures withnew chapter comparedto 2007
Durability proven to be•
> 20 yrs on system level
Add remark on LCA and•
the need or materialswith less environmentalimpact
New materials reduced•
burden on scarcer rawmaterials
Recycling standard in•
design o systems
Durability to maintain•
on 20-25 yrs lietime
expectancy
RESIDENTIAL/COMMERCIAL, NEW & EXISTING BUILDINGS
2008 2020 2030
MARKET
Share o solar in dierent applications and regions
< 1-50% o SDHW sys-•
tems in new buildings,depending on localpolicies (not climaterelated)
Combisystems- rst si-•
gnicant market sharesentries in D & Austria
> 90% o EU ST market•
in small buildings (hou-ses or 1-2 amilies).In a ew regions, rstsignicant penetration
into new large buildingsExisting buildings:•
High share only insome regions
25-75% o new•
buildings use SDHW(standard now or allnew buildings)
Existing buildings:•
Penetration o 10% inall Europe. Best regionsreach 80% penetration
Combi systems are•
commonly used in allcountries (o whichmany combine themalso with cooling) >
50% o the ST marketconsists o CombiSystems
Wide use o ST also in•
large buildings
All new buildings rely•
on their heating, coo-ling and comort systemon integrated solarthermal systems
Integration with building•
construction and otherinstallation components(like ventilation, heatpumps) are commonpractice
Buildings without a•
solar system catch
people’s eyes: childrenask “why doesn‘t thathouse have a solarcollector?”
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RESIDENTIAL/COMMERCIAL, NEW & EXISTING BUILDINGS
2008 2020 2030
Education o proessionals
Training programmes•
are set-up in mostcountries; however theimplementation in theinstaller sector showsdelays. Nr o trainedinstallers is consideredtoo low or market
deployment ambition
In most regions, still•
very low awareness &training among heatingengineers, architects.The latter partly stillalmost hostile
Education in vocational•
schools and highereducation is gettingshape
Solar Thermal is normal•
part o the curriculum atall levels in educationsystem
Knowledge base at ins-•
tallers level is adequate
Complementary•
trainings are oeredor combi-systems andcooling
Solar Thermal is normal•
part o the curriculum atall levels in educationsystem
Regulatory issues
Ater having been•
neglected or decades,RES-H is now rmly onthe EU agenda, withrst results in terms oconcrete legislation atnational and regio-nal levels. Future EUdirective will, or therst time, orce MemberState to set targets thatalso cover ST
Against the background•
o new legislation onEnergy Perormancerequirements in newbuildings, a ew MS im-plement regulations onenergy perormancesstandards to make STa competitive opportu-nity, whilst others takeurther steps to make STa requirement in newbuildings.
Standards: develop-•
ment towards EU-wideacceptance o CENstandards, rather thanMS national standards
EU has driven the•
regulatory basis orobligations in newbuildings and majorrenovations; at thisstage to provide aminimum o 50-100%o domestic water and25% o space heating / cooling rom solar
All systems required•
to meet CE and SolarKeymark requirements
and standardsEnergy perormance•
requirements or reno-vation and obligationsin some regions
Building regulations do•
not allow the use o ex-ternal energy sources.
All energy needs to beproduced on site byrenewables
Standards: EU-wide•
required CEN standardsand certication
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RESIDENTIAL/COMMERCIAL, NEW & EXISTING BUILDINGS
2008 2020 2030
Price / Perormance
Due to rising energy•
prices, technologicalprogress and eects oneconomy o scale theP/P ratio has improvedand reaches a neutralbalance in comparisonwith most tradition
uels, allowing earlyadaptors to enter
Guaranteed Solar Result•
Contracts and otherST-ESCO solutions areoered only by ew, pe-ripheral market players
Lower solar raction•
options are all compe-titive; the higher solarraction options reacha neutral balance incomparison with mosttradition uels, allowingearly adaptors to entry
Guaranteed Solar Result•
Contracts and otherST-ESCO solutions arestandard or mediumand large systems, andpartly used or smallsystems, within a con-text o growing use oESCOs in buildings
P/P ratio very competi-•
tive compared to traditi-onally uelled buildingsor heating and cooling.NPV o Renewableenergy system showhousing cost (includingenergy) considerably
lower compared toliving / working in exis-ting building stock.
Guaranteed Solar Result•
Contracts and otherST-ESCO solutions arestandard or all systemsizes, within a contexto wide use o ESCOs inbuildings
Financial support
Most countries (> 75%•
o MS) have some sorto nancial support,usually around 10-20%o the investment costs
Financial support sche-•
mes no longer neededor SDHW. They remainnecessary or very highsolar ractions on spaceheating or cooling andother new market entrytechnologies during de-monstration and marketintroduction stage
There is no nancial•
support required
Image and awareness
Large dierences occur•
over the various MS.
Scattered pattern,depending very muchon local market deve-lopment, public interestand awareness. Overalltendency is that withinthe RE portolio: ren.heating is not high-lighted; public at largeis not aware o largepotential
Solar Thermal is now•
considered a standard
option. No doubt ordebate on eectiven-ess. It is considered astandard and normaltechnology to makebuildings aordableand sustainable
Solar homes are•
considered cheaper,
more comortableand provide long termsecurity o energysupply. All attributing toa positive appreciationand acceptance
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RESIDENTIAL/COMMERCIAL, NEW & EXISTING BUILDINGS
2008 2020 2030
Market environment
in EP driven markets,•
ST becomes a com-petitive option to reachEP-levels
Heating industry has•
seriously got involvedin ST
Construction industry is•
starting to show inter-est, particularly but notonly in obliged markets
The building and•
installation sector havebecome used to solarthermal. From designto installation the“standard” options areall automatically takeninto account
The technology is con-•
sidered common andstandard
Solar Heating or Industrial Processes (SHIP) is currently at the very early stages odevelopment. Less than 100 operating solar thermal systems or process heat are re-ported worldwide, with a total capacity o about 24 MWth (34,000 m²). Most o thesesystems are o an experimental nature, and are relatively small scale. However, thereis great potential or market and technological developments, as 28% o the overallenergy demand in the EU27 countries originates in the industrial sector, and much othis is or heat o below 250°C.
In the short term, SHIP will mainly be used or low temperature processes, rangingrom 20 to 100°C. With technological development, more and more medium tempera-ture applications, o up to 250°C, will become market easible. According to a recentstudy (Ecoheatcool 2006), around 30% o the total industrial heat demand is requiredat temperatures below 100°C, which could theoretically be met with SHIP using cur-rent technologies, and 57% o this demand is required at temperatures below 400°C,which could largely be supplied by solar in the oreseeable uture.
In several specic industry sectors, such as ood, wine and beverages, transportequipment, machinery, textiles, pulp and paper, the share o heat demand at low andmedium temperatures (below 250°C) is around 60% (POSHIP 2001). Tapping intothis potential would provide a signicant solar contribution to industrial energy require-ments.
7 Deployment roadmap
7.2 Industrial process heat, including water treatmentand desalination
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Substantial potential or solar thermal systems exis ts in the ood and beverages, textileand chemical industries, as well as in washing processes.
Among the industrial processes, desalination and water treatment (such as sterilisa-tion) are particularly promising applications or the use o solar thermal energy, asthese processes require large amounts o medium-temperature heat, and are otennecessary in areas with high solar radiation and conventional energy costs.
Clearly, the use o Solar Heating or industrial processes should be par t o a compre-hensive approach, which also takes into account:
energy eciency measures;•
the integration o waste heat into processes; and•
a reduction in heating and cooling demand through the use o a heat exchange•
network.
Key areas or technological development
Since Solar Heat or Industrial Processes (SHIP) is in the initial stage o development,the orthcoming challenges relate to both technology and market deployment. Detailso the most important challenges are set out below.
Medium-temperature collectors and components: An ample choice o solar thermalcollectors is commercially available or low temperatures (operating temperatures upto around 80-90°C) and or high temperatures (>250°C, mainly used or electricitygeneration). The development o cost-eective and reliable medium-temperature col-lectors, which can meet the requirements o most industrial processes, is now required.
Other components o solar systems also need to be adapted to this range o tempera-tures. For example, SHIP would benet rom the development o a new generation ocompact and/or seasonal heat storage systems, and rom advanced controllers.
Figure 20: Processes at dierent temperature levels in dierent industry sectors; Data or 2003, 32 Countries:EU25 + Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey, Croatia, Iceland, Norway and Switzerland. (Source: ECOHEATCOOL (IEE
ALTENER Project), The European Heat Market, Work Package 1, Final Report published by Euroheat & Power)
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Thermodynamic optimisation o processes: Despite the act that many processes inthe industry operate at temperatures below 100°C, the heat supply o most industrialmachines is currently provided by steam networks operating at between 140 and180°C. This makes the use o solar thermal less attractive, or even impossible.
Switching to lower temperatures would imply signicant investment or inrastructure(network) modication and process redesign, which reduces the attractiveness o solarenergy. New technologies can be developed, which allow processes to operate at lowertemperature. One example is the reduction o bath temperatures in pickling plants. Insome cases, processes can also be e ciently redesigned to make them more compat-ible with the daily and/or seasonal cycle o solar energy supply. Moreover, when new,long-term industrial process acilities are planned, there is always the possibility o
subsequent solar add-ons.
Integrating solar thermal into industrial processes will be a complex process, requiringsupport rom energy agencies and other public players, dedicated to specic industrialsectors.
Need or dedicated design guidelines and tools: Currently only a ew engineer-ing oces and research institutes have experience with SHIP ins tallations. Planningguidelines and tools or typical industrial uses need to be made available to a widercommunity o SHIP-experienced engineers. This would mean that:
other potential users could be oered a SHIP solution;•
system design costs would all; and•
the broader experience would increase the eectiveness o SHIP systems.•
Investment costs: Solar systems are capital intensive, as costs are mainly upront.Industrial companies oten optimise their processes with short-term ROI expectationsthat cannot currently be met by SHIP systems. The wide market development o SHIPwould also require dedicated nancing and contracting solutions; the lack o whichis currently an important barrier to growth. It is crucial, thereore, to rapidly create amarket, in order to reach the minimal critical mass required to start beneting romeconomies o scale.
While RD&D can increase potential and reduce costs in the medium term, nancialincentives and widespread public-unded demonstration projects are an absolutenecessity.
Applied research is necessary in a number o elds, including:
stagnation behaviour and management o large collector elds;•
monitoring o SHIP systems; and•
system optimisation methodologies, to enhance the interaction o solar energy,•
heat recovery and conventional energy sources in various industrial processes.
Due to their relevance and specic technological requirements, desalination and watertreatment are discussed in a separate overview table on the right:
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INDUSTRIAL SECTOR, PROCESS HEAT
2007 2020 2030
TECHNICAL
Fundamental research
Collectors and systems•
or temperature levels o80-250°C
R&D on new/innovative•
materials and con-cepts or heat storage
(such as latent heatand phase-changingmaterials)
R&D on heat storage or•
temperature > 100°C
Simulation tools or•
planning SHIP systems
R&D or storages•
> 100°C
New materials that can•
be used or ST applica-tions
Collectors and systems•
or high temperaturelevels (> 250°C)
Next generation•
Development in industry
Solar Thermal Collec-•
tors with operating tem-peratures o 80-250°C
Systems with water,•
thermal oils, steamand air
Double glazed collec-•
tors and anti-refective-glass
Parabolic collectors and•
CPC collectors
Product development•
or heat storages
Standardisation o•
system concepts
Solutions or stagnation•
problems in big systems
Solar roos or industry•
buildings
Next generation•
Identied demonstration/lighthouses
Systems or hall heat-•
ing, drying processes,washing and brewing- system size: a ewhundred kW
Systems or cooling e.g.•
winery
Large systems with•
high temperature heatstorages
Large systems o more•
then 2000 kW
Plants in all industry•
sectors (ood andbeverage, textileschemicals) and dier-ent applications (wash-ing, drying, boiling,pasteurising and heattreatment)
100% solar heated•
plants and actories ineach industry sector(operation temperature< 250°C)
SHIP or applications•
that require high tem-peratures (> 250°C)
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INDUSTRIAL SECTOR, PROCESS HEAT
2007 2020 2030
100% market applicable technologies
CPC Collectors•
80-120°C
Flat plate collectors•
80-150°C
Vacuum tube collectors•
Systems or processes•
up to 80°C
Collectors with high•
eciency or operat-ing temperatures up to250°C
Solar cooling/heat•
recovery or buildingsector (industry halls
and oce buildings)Methods or the integra-•
tion o solar heat intoeach industry sector’smain processes
Methods or energy•
ecient processes atlower temperature levelsand heat recovery
Monitoring, measure-•
ment and simulationsotware
It is normal in process•
engineering to build aSHIP system or eachprocess with tempera-tures < 250°C
Standards and certication
Keymark on collectors• Standard & certi-•
cation process orlow&medium tempera-ture systems in nalstage
Full standards and•
certication or all STapplication in processheat sector
Perormance and durability
Long experience•
at low temperaturelevels (< 100°C). Firstgeneration systems and
components have aproven lie expectancyo 15-25 yrs +
The monitoring o•
systems that have beenrunning or many yearsshows that there is no
signicant reduction inperormance
New materials reduced•
burden on scarcer rawmaterials
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INDUSTRIAL SECTOR, PROCESS HEAT
2007 2020 2030
MARKET
Share o solar in dierent applications and regions
Worldwide installed•
capacity o about 27MWth (38,500 m²)
About 85 solar thermal•
plants with SHIP world-wide
4 GW• th (5.7m m²)installed capacity inEU27 or low tempera-tures (<100°C)
0.4 GW• th (570,000m²) installed capacity
in EU27 or mediumtemperatures (100-250°C)
15 GW• th (21m m²)installed capacity inEU27 or low tempera-tures (<100°C)
2 GWth (2.85m m²)•
installed capacity in
EU27 or medium tem-peratures (100-250°C)
Education o proessionals
No special training•
programs available;only regional activities,events or workshops
No knowledge in•
process engineering ointegration o solar heat
Planning guidelines•
or all applications orSHIP are standard ineducation or processengineers
Courses or installers•
and plant constructors
are available
Solar Thermal is a•
standard part o thecurriculum at all levelsin the education system
SHIP is standard in the•
education o installersand plant constructors
SHIP courses are avail-•
able at university
Regulatory issues
Not yet• All systems required•
to meet CE and SolarKeymark requirementsand standards
Renewable energy laws•
oblige the industry touse SHIP or a mini-mum share o requiredenergy
Price / Perormance
Company decision•
makers expect 3-5years amortisation time
New ST-ESCO solutions•
are oered by only aew companies
New business models•
are oered on the mar-kets (guaranteed solaryields and contracting)
Price/perormance•
ratio is very competitivecompared to tradition-ally uelled processesor heating and cooling
Guaranteed Solar Result•
Contracts and otherST-ESCO solutions arestandard or all systemsizes, within the contexto a widespread use oESCOs in buildings
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INDUSTRIAL SECTOR, PROCESS HEAT
2007 2020 2030
Financial support
Only a ew special•
regional support pro-grams or building SHIPsystems, or example,
Austria/Upper Austria
National support pro-•
grams or R&D
Financial support•
schemes or SHIP
Support schemes or•
demonstration projects
Support or R&D•
projects
No nancial support•
required
Image and awareness
Solar process heat is•
an unknown technol-ogy. There are only aew companies ocusedon oering systems orsolar process heat
Decision makers in all•
relevant industry sectorsknow about SHIP pos-sibilities
Lighthouse projects and•
best practise systemsinspire condence inthe new technologies
Image campaigns and•
inormation or SHIP
Solar plants are•
considered cheaper,more comortable andprovide long-termsecurity o energy sup-ply. This all contributesto a positive image andacceptance
Market environment
There is no demand•
rom consumers or in-dustry. Finished projectsare demonstrationprojects driven by theR&D sector
Process technology•
does not consider therequirements or solarthermal process heat
Industrial processes•
are not always energyecient (supply tem-perature is on hightemperature level withno heat recovery)
Companies are oering•
turn-key SHIP systemsin cooperation withplant constructors
Trade airs or SHIP•
bring this technologyto industry decisionmakers
Plant constructors•
have specialised SHIPdepartments
The technology is con-•
sidered common andstandard or plants
Solar Thermal is the•
main heat source orprocesses < 250°C innew build actories.
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DESALINATION and WATER TREATMENT
2007 2020 2030
TECHNICAL
Fundamental research
R&D on new/innovative•
materials (low cost/ high requirement) orecient thermally-driven heat and masstranser (evaporation
and condensation)Eciency increase o•
solar power generationor desalination pur-poses
Polymer science (unc-•
tional material oils andabrics, heat conduct-ing polymers) - marketresearch
Multi-water quality gen-•
eration; combination odesalination methods
Multi-stage desalina-•
tion; salt production;high recovery - 30 to50%
Develop low cost and•
robust concept or easytechnology transer
R&D on new/innovative•
materials (low cost/ high requirement) oreven more ecientthermally-driven heatand mass transer
(evaporation and con-densation)
Oil-ree plastic heat•
transer materialscondenser
R&D on system design•
and system compo-nents
Polymer science (unc-•
tional material oils andabrics, heat conduct-ing polymers) - marketresearch
Material research•
or high temperature(rather “medium tem-perature” or “elevatedtemperature”) plasticmaterials
Chemical ree brine•
disposal
Oil and metal ree•
plastic materials orhigh perormance anddurability at low cost
Direct solar thermal•
water evaporation with
integrated heat recovery(large-scale CSP&W)
New desalination proc-•
esses
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DESALINATION and WATER TREATMENT
2007 2020 2030
Development in industry
Easy and maintenance•
ree water pre-treatmentor thermal desalina-tion, without oulingand scaling ormation
Envisaged: eciency•
increase o thermal
processes dependingon the capacity
System design or small•
applications
Cost ecient, inte-•
grated transport casingdesigns
House integrated build-•
ing designs; desalina-tion becomes part ohouse technology
Easy-to-build and to•
maintain systems ordecentralised, small-
scale applicationswithout the need orexternal power supply(electricity, uels)
New solar collectors•
and storage adaptedto the needs o solardesalination systems:mid temperature(90-150°C - suitable orhigh resistance againstthe aggressive seasideconditions)
Combination o solar•
thermal desalinationand power generation
Multi-stage desalina-•
tion, using severallinked processes to in-crease recovery by upto 65%
House o the uture:•
design includes solarthermally-driven com-ponents
Grey water recycling•
and sea water de-salination are standard
components o anybuilding
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DESALINATION and WATER TREATMENT
2007 2020 2030
Identied demonstration/lighthouses
About 10 installed•
plants with small scalesolar desalination (1 to50 m³ per day )
100 installed demon-•
stration plants o small(1 to 50 m³ per day)and larger systems(50-500 m³ per day)
First installations o•
solar power generation
and thermal desalina-tion
Small networks o•
renewably driven waterdistribution systems (orcommunities o up to50,000 people)
Highly ecient solar•
thermal power plants
with cooling and desali-nation
100% market applicable technologies
Autonomous systems•
up to 10 m³ per daySystems up to 50 m³•
per dayLarge variety o small•
1-200 m³ per day(standard), me-dium (150-2000 m³per day) and large(1500–20000 m³/day)are ready or the market
Standards and certication
Solar Keymark on col-•
lectorsStandard or the design•
o systems up to 50 m³
Energy labels or e-•
cient desalinationtechnologies
Full standards and Full•
standards and certica-tion or all componentsin a desalination system
Certied procedures or•
system integration
Perormance and durability
First generation o sys-•
tems and componentshave proven 15-25years + lie expectancy
Perormance increased•
by 5-10%
Durability proven to be•
> 20 yrs on system level
Price/perormance•
reduced by another15-25%
Recycling procedures•
or all types o systems
Durability to maintain•
on 20-25 yrs lietimeexpectancy
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DESALINATION and WATER TREATMENT
2007 2020 2030
MARKET
Share o solar in dierent applications and regions
Only a handul o instal-•
lations2000 systems are in-•
stalled in aected areasSolar desalination is•
used in all aectedregions to providedrinking water
Education o proessionals
Systems are sold turn-•
key. Training is providedby the suppliers
Planning guidelines or•
solar desalination arestandard in educationor process engineers
Courses or plant con-•
structors are available
Solar thermal is a xed•
part o the curriculum
Solar desalination is•
standard in the educa-tion o plant construc-tors
University courses are•
available
Regulatory issues
Not yet• All systemsare required•
to meet CE and SolarKeymark requirementsand standards
- 25% share o renew-•
able energy supply orall new installed smalland large desalinationunits obligatory
CEN-standards and•
certication is required
Price / Perormance
Guaranteed Solar•
Result Contracts andother ST-ESCO solutions
are oered by only aew, peripheral marketplayers
Price/perormance•
reduced by 15-35%depending on system
type
Guaranteed Solar Result•
Contracts and otherST-ESCO solutions are
standard or all systemsizes, within the contexto widespread use oESCOs in buildings
Financial support
No grants or solar•
desalination available
Implementation o•
grants or desalinatedwater produced by solaror renewable energy
Grants or solar share•
in desalination (CO2-emissions trading, extragrant or solar heat inindustrial processes (in-cluding desalination )
There is no nancial•
support required
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DESALINATION and WATER TREATMENT
2007 2020 2030
Image and awareness
Unknown technology• Solar Thermal uel saver•
mode now considered astandard option
Autonomous state-o-•
the-art small desalinati-on systems
Market environment
Construction industry is•
starting to show interestHouse o the uture:•
design includes solarthermally-driven com-ponents, especially de-salination and cooling
The technology is con-•
sidered common andstandard
Currently, around 9% o the total heating needs in Europe are covered by block anddistrict heating systems. This share is much higher in a number o countries, especiallyEastern Europe and Scandinavia.
Within district heating systems, solar thermal energy can be produced on a large scaleand with particularly low specic costs, even at high latitudes, such as in Swedenand Denmark. Only a very minor share (less than 1%) o the solar thermal market inEurope is linked to district heating systems, but these systems make the most o large-scale solar heating plants.
The table below lists the larges t solar heating plants (>2 MWth) in Europe - all o themare connected to district heating networks.
Plant,Year in operation, Country
Coll.area[m²]
Size[MWth]
Marstal, 1996, DK 18 300 12,8
Kungälv, 2000, SE 10 000 7,0
Braendstup, 2007 DK 8.000 5.6
Strandby, 2007 DK 8.000 5.6
Nykvarn, 1984, SE 7 500 5,2
Graz (AEVG), 2006, AT 5 600 3,9
Falkenberg, 1989, SE 5 500 3,8
7.3 District heating and cooling
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Plant,Year in operation, Country
Coll.area[m²]
Size[MWth]
Neckarsulm, 1997, DE 5 470 3,8
Crailsheim, 2003, DE 5 470 3,8
Ulsted, 2006, DK 5 000 3,5
Ærøskøping, 1998, DK 4 900 3,4
Friedrichshaen, 1996, DE 4 050 2,8
Rise, 2001, DK 3 575 2,5
Ry, 1988, DK 3 040 2,1
Hamburg, 1996, DE 3 000 2,1
Schalkwijk, 2002, NL 2 900 2,0
München, 2007, DE 2 900 2,0
Together, these sys tems account or less than 0.5% o EU installed solar thermalcapacity. However, their combined capacity is higher than that o 25,000 small solardomestic hot water systems.
The prevalence o Scandinavian countries is surprising, since solar radiation is lowerin this region. Central and Eastern European countries and district heating systems inSouthern Europe oer much better conditions.
Typical operating temperatures range rom low (30°C) to high (around 100°C) or wa-ter storage. The majority o plants are des igned to cover the heat load over the summermonths (hot water and heat distribution losses) using diurnal water storages. However,some are equipped with seasonal storages and cover a larger part o the load. Theseasonal storages comprise water in insulated tanks (above or below ground) in tenplants, the ground itsel in seven, aquiers in two and a combination o ground andwater in another. More than 80% o the plants are equipped with fat-plate collectors,mostly large-module collector designs. Most plants also have pressurised collectorsystems with an anti-reeze mixture - usually glycol and water - while a ew plants inthe Netherlands have drain-back collector systems.
Several solar district heating systems, especially in Sweden and Denmark, haveground-mounted collector arrays. This can be a very cheap solution, when suracesare available and solar is connected to a network serving existing buildings.
Figure 21: Marstal (DK) 12.9 MWth capacity(18,365 m² collector area), integrated into thelocal district heating system. The world’s largestsolar thermal plant provides 30% o the totalheat demand o a Danish island.(Source: Arcon Solvarme A/S, Denmark)
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In 1995, the district heating operator in Marstal, on a small Danish island, installedaround 8,000 m² solar collectors and a 2,100 m³ water storage tank to cover up to15% o their annual heating load. The plant was later extended to 18,300 m² (12,8MWth) and is so ar the largest solar heating plant in the world. A recent s tudy o theuture potential or solar district heating in Denmark has resulted in two new plants o3.5 and 5.6 MWth.
In Germany, and Austria, roo-integrated or roo-mounted solar collectors, placed onresidential or service buildings, are oten used.
In the 1980 s, Swedish housing company, EKSTA Bostads AB, pioneered the use oroo-integrated solar collectors in new building areas. At present, EKSTA owns andoperates about 7,000 m² o roo-integrated collectors. Initially, EKSTA used site-builtcollectors, but the latest development, a roo module collector mounted directly on theroo trusses, has been used recently in new and exis ting buildings. This developmenthas resulted in a superior integration into the building process, as well as reducedinvestment costs and improved thermal perormance.
The German large-scale solar heating plants are mainly applied in new residen-tial building areas, using roo-integrated or mounted collectors. Some o the large
projects have so-called “solar roos”. Until 2003, eight projects with seasonal storageand around 50 large to medium-scale projects, with short-term storage, had beencompleted within the Solar thermie2000 programme. In Neckarsulm (Figure 20) andCrailsheim, there are two plants with > 5,000 m² o roo-integrated collectors and inMunich, a new plant with 2,900 m² has been constructed.
The rst large-scale solar plant in Austria – a small local biomass-red heating plantcomplemented with a solar system - was built in Deutsch-Tschantschendor in 1995.Graz is now the large-scale solar city o Austria. The rst plant, built in 2002 (SeeFigure 23), and two newer plants, the largest with > 5.000 m², are connected to thedistrict heating network.
Figure 22: Solar block heating in Neckarsulm, DE.(Source: Stadtwerke Neckarsulm and STZ-EGS, Germany)
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The most widely implemented application o large solar heating systems in The Neth-erlands is collective housing, institutions and homes or the elderly. Most systems haveabout 100 m² o solar collectors, but some are larger, or example, the “Brandaris”building in Amsterdam, which has 700 m² o rootop mounted collectors. Two large-scale plants are designed with seasonal storage, one is a recent plant with 2,900 m²o solar collectors connected to an aquier s torage in Schalkwijk. There are also solarblock heating plants in France, Switzerland and Poland.
Key areas or technological development
In the short term, the broader use o solar energy within district heating (and cool-ing) systems is mainly a question o policy, namely, incentives, regulation, and thedemonstration o existing technologies. In the medium and long term, considerableR&D eor ts are needed to utilise the ull potential o large-scale solar systems linked todistrict heating.
The need or basic and applied research is mainly related to the development odurable and cost-eective (plastic) liners and water resistant insulation materials or
long-term (seasonal) storages. Basic and applied research is also required, relatedto the urther development o large-scale solar collectors, as well as dedicated controldevices and optimisation strategies.
Figure 23: Solar district heating plant in Graz, AT.(Source: S.O.L.I.D. Solarinstallation und Design GmbH, Austria)
7 Deployment roadmap
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DISTRICT HEATING
2007 2020 2030
TECHNICAL
Fundamental research
Orientation stage or•
Compact Time-indier-ent Storage (CTIS)
R&D on new/innovative•
materials (low cost/ high requirement) or
solar collectors andstorages is starting
R&D on absorption•
and adsorption coolingprocesses
Second generation•
compact storageconcepts
New materials or col-•
lectors and storages
Absorption and adsorp-•
tion cooling processes
New materials or col-•
lectors and storages
Developments in industry
Large module collectors•
or roos and ground
Building-integrated•
solar collectors
Various cooling ma-•
chines
Seasonal storage con-•
cepts by (contractors)
Second generation•
large module collectorsor roos and ground
Second generation•
building-integrated
solar collectors
Second generation•
cooling processes
Second generation sea-•
sonal storages concepts(contractors)
Compact storage sys-•
tems (new industry)
Next generation solar•
collectors, storages andcooling systems
Identied demonstration/lighthouses
Block and district heat-•
ing systems with diurnaland seasonal storageor new and existingbuildings
Solar block cooling sys-•
tems or new buildings
Solar district cooling•
Systems with compact•
storage concepts
New concepts•
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DISTRICT HEATING
2007 2020 2030
100% market applicable technologies
Solar block heating•
systems with collectorson fat roos and diurnalstorages
Solar district heating•
systems with groundcollectors and diurnal
storages
Block and district heat-•
ing systems with diurnaland seasonal storagesor new and existingbuildings
Solar block cooling sys-•
tems or new buildings
Compact storage•
systems
Second generation•
systems o all sizes
Solar district cooling•
Standards and certication
Solar Keymark on col-•
lectorsStandards or the design•
o large systemsFull standards and•
certication or all solardistrict heating andcooling
Perormance and durability
First generation o•
systems and compo-nents with a proven lieexpectancy o 15-25yrs +
Perormance increased•
by 5-10%
Durability proven to be•
> 20 yrs on system level
Price/perormance•
reduced by another5-10%
Recycling procedures•
or all types o systems
Durability to maintain•
on 20-25 yrs lietimeexpectancy
DISTRICT HEATING
2007 2020 2030
MARKET
Share o solar in dierent applications and regions
Solar delivers only•
0.1% o total district
heatingThe market or solar in•
district heating is 1% othe total solar market
Solar delivers 1% o the•
total district heatingSolar delivers 10% o•
the total district heating
Solar district cooling•
is included in 10% osolar district heatingsystems
Education o proessionals
Systems are sold turn-•
key. Training is providedby the suppliers
Solar thermal is a xed•
part o the curriculum
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DISTRICT HEATING
2007 2020 2030
Regulatory issues
Standards: develop-•
ment towards theEU-wide acceptanceo CEN-standardsinstead o MS nationalstandards
All systems required•
to meet CE and SolarKeymark requirementsand standards
CEN-standards and•
certication is required
Price / PerormanceGuaranteed Solar•
Result Contracts andother ST-ESCO solutionsare oered by only aew, peripheral marketplayers
Price/perormance•
reduced by 15-35%,depending on systemtype
Price/perormance very•
competitive comparedto traditionally alterna-tives
Financial support
Most systems are built•
with some nancialsupport
Financial support•
schemes no longerneeded or systemswithout storage or with
short-term storage.They remain necessaryor market entry tech-nologies, e.g. compactseasonal storage, dur-ing the demonstrationand market introductionstage
No nancial support is•
required
Image and awareness
Solar Thermal is now•
considered a standardoption
Market environment
Construction industry is•
starting to show interestThe technology is con-•
sidered common andstandard
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The Sun, as seen rom the surace o Earth through a camera lens.
Source: http: //de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bild:The_sun1.jpg
(GNU Free Documentation license)
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or a Sustainable Energy Future in Europe
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65
Solar Heating and Cooling
or a Sustainable Energy Future in Europe
A Strategic Research Agenda
Strategic Research Agenda8
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In the Deployment Roadmap above, we have considered the dierent broad areas
o application o solar thermal rom a market point o view. The Strategic Research
Agenda, however, takes an industrial and technological approach, looking mainly at
single components, such as collectors, thermal storages, cooling machines, multi-
unctional components and control systems. A more holistic approach is used in the
case o solar cooling and water treatment (desalination), as these specic applicationsimply a number o technological questions that must be solved in a coherent manner.
Each chapter, which is the result o the collective work o a number o specialists rom
industry, research and test institutes oers:
a detailed analysis and perspective on technological development;•
ormulate a specic research agenda; and•
outline a timetable or its eects.•
Solar thermal collectors are all technical systems, which convert solar radiation into heat.
Low temperature applications (< 80ºC) are by ar the most common, typically involv-
ing domestic hot water preparation and space heating. Glazed fat plate and vacuum
tube collector systems currently dominate this market. Other technologies are alsoavailable, such as unglazed collectors (or very low temperature applications, such as
swimming pool heating) and ully CPC type stationary concentrators.
At the high temperature end (> 250ºC), several high concentration technologies are
already available on the market. These are mainly used or electricity productionthrough thermal cycles (high concentration parabolic troughs, Fresnel concepts, solar
towers and paraboloids). However, this temperature range is largely outside the scope
o this report, since the ESTTP ocuses on thermal applications rather than electricit y
generation.
8 Strategic Research Agenda
8 Strategic Research Agenda
8.1 Solar thermal collectors
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Between these two temperature ranges, there is great potential or many new applica-
tions in the medium temperature range. This is relevant or buildings (due in particlar
to thermally driven cooling technologies, which require heat at temperatures up to
120ºC or single e ect systems and 160-180ºC or more ecient cycles), process heat,
including various industrial processes, as well as desalination and water treatment.
Currently, there is a lack o commercially available collectors suitable or the mediumtemperature range.
The potential evolution o existing technologies to provide collectors or the medium
temperature range includes advanced fat plate collectors, evacuated tube collectors,
stationary or quasi-stationary CPC type collectors and low concentration trackinglinear parabolic or Fresnel collectors. Some companies are now developing products
or this range, however major R,D&D e orts are still required in these areas.
Flat plate collectors dominate the European market, with more than 2 millions m²/year
installed (approximately 85% o the market). Due to the dierent application modes,
including domestic hot water, heating, preheating and combined systems, and due tovarying climatic conditions, a number o dierent collector technologies and system
approaches have been developed.
In some parts o the production process, such as selective coatings, the market has
developed to industrial large-scale production. A number o dierent materials, includ-
ing copper, aluminium and stainless steel, are applied and combined with di erent
welding technologies to achieve a highly ecient heat exchange process in the collec-tor. The materials used or the cover glass are structured or fat, low iron glass. The rst
anti-refection coatings are coming onto the market on an industrial scale, leading to
eciency improvements o around 5%.
8.1.1 Low temperature collectors
8.1.1.1 Technology status
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The improved characteristics o collectors can lead to higher stagnation temperatures,
up to 250°C. This should not be conused with the application temperature, which
remains in the range o 80°C. Such increased stagnation temperatures require the
availability o temperature resistant back insulation materials and heat transer fuids.
Typically, water-glycol mixtures are used, but water systems are coming onto the mar-
ket with dierent rost protection technologies. Another heating option is with solar aircollectors, which are used mainly or the preheating o air in industrial buildings.
Flat-plate collectors can be installed as single modules on roos, can be manuactured
in a larger ormat or roo integration and, or acade integration, where a standard ex-
ists. Flat-plate collectors can also be installed as large modules on ground and on fatroos. Nonevacuated CPC collectors are available with very low concentration values;
they can even operate in thermo siphon systems, with higher concentration at higher
temperatures. However, the increase in concentration involves a number o unresolved
issues, including the control o stagnation temperature and the durability o materials.
Vacuum tube collectors make up roughly 10-15% o the European solar thermal mar-ket, varying rom country to country. In general, the vacuum tube collectors are more
ecient, especially or higher temperature applications. The production o vacuum tube
collectors is currently dominated by the Chinese Dewar tubes, where a metallic heat
exchanger is integrated to connect them with the conventional hot water systems. In
addition, some standard vacuum tube collectors, with metallic heat absorbers, are on
the market. New European vacuum tube collector producers are also appearing on themarket.
As or improved fat plate collectors, it must be ensured that vacuum tube collectors
can withstand stagnation temperatures. Dewar type vacuum collectors can be massproduced on a large scale at low cost. However, quality levels need to be monitored
and maintained, especially related to long-term durability. There are now some initialideas on how to integrate vacuum tubes into acades, but there is currently no standard
technology available. Vacuum tubes could also be combined with low concentration
optics (CPC type or other), creating a new amily o collectors, which might be very
ecient at temperatures ranging rom 100ºC to 180ºC.
At present, low temperature collectors are widely used. There are also many otherhigh quality products on the market, which ollow dierent approaches, depending on
climatic conditions and applications.
However, in view o the anticipated market development, a number o technological
challenges are arising. Some o the key issues include cost reduction, higher quality,aesthetics and building integration.
With regard to cost reduction, the basic trade-o between cost and quality (perorm-
ance, durability, recyclability and aesthetics) need to be considered. The bulk o the
European market has evolved towards higher quality products and systems, but thishas not been the case elsewhere (or example, in China, which accounts or more than
two thirds o global sales). Looking at the European market, there is ample potential
to develop cheaper products, which may be less durable and eective, but which are
cheaper and can be easily replaced. This may lead to a di erent approach, whichcould be advantageous i lower perormance is compensated by lower costs and thus
a aster uptake o solar thermal energy use.
8.1.1.2 Potential and challenges or technological development
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Building integration is relevant or both new and existing buildings. It includes issues
such as the:
inclusion o solar collectors in pre-abricated roos, awnings and acades; and•
urther development o collectors conceived or ver tical uses (acades), including•
large area acade-integrated collectors, which can be combined with so-called
active walls or with photovoltaic modules.
Higher levels o building integration require new rounds o RD&D e orts, in close
interaction with architects, construction companies and manuacturers o building
envelopes.
A related issue is collector size, which is traditionally relatively small (around 2m²).
However, there is a recent trend towards larger collector sizes, implying a di erent
set o conditions or collector design, manuacturing, logistics and installation. In this
area, there is signicant potential or technological development. Taking into account
the projected rapid increase in market size, the recycling potential o materials used inthe solar collectors will be a major issue. The liecycle assessment o the whole solar
thermal system, taking into account the energy uels and the materials they replace,
will also be crucial. And the role o new approaches, such as the active wall concept
that heats and cools the room behind it, are very promising and should be developed.
For all issues mentioned in this chapter, specic RD&D at tention should be given to air
and vacuum tube collectors. Although air collectors have great potential, particularly
or applications such as space heating, ventilation and space cooling through ventila-
tion, they are less developed than liquid based collectors. For vacuum tube collectors,the potential or ur ther development lies mainly in improved building integration. This
includes easier tube replacement in case o ailure, resistance to stagnation, possiblethermal improvements and longevity.
Clearly, a major issue is the automation o manuacturing processes, particularly or
collector construction, where there still is great potential or increased productivity.
Major eorts are needed in the ollowing areas:
More ecient ways to use conventional collector materials (metals, glass, insula-•
tion), especially with a view to developing multiunctional building components,
which also act as an element o the building envelope and a solar collector.
Evolution in the optical properties o collector components. In particular, a more•
systematic use o optical lms to enhance heat /light transmission in glass covers
and reduce this transmission during excessive exposure; and the use o colours inabsorbers or covers to achieve more fexible integration concepts.
Alternative materials or collector production: the use o polymers or plastics, the•
coating o absorbers optimised to resist stagnation temperatures and new materi-als to tackle deterioration resulting rom UV exposure.
Improvement in the recycling potential o collector components and materials in•
view o liecycle cost reduction, and overall sustainability o materials.
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Special topics will include issues such as:
The control o solar energy delivered by entire acades, in particular the aspects•
related to ault detection and the consequences o stagnation temperatures when
a prolonged no-load situation coincides with peak solar radiation;
New component testing and evaluation methods; and•
A dedicated concept or the automation o manuacturing processes and assem-•
bly techniques.
Some process heat applications can be met with temperatures delivered by “ordinary”low-temperature collectors, namely rom 30 to 80°C. However, the bulk o the demand
or industrial process heat requires temperatures rom 80°C up to 250°C.
Process heat collectors are a new application eld or solar thermal heat collectors.
Typically, these types o systems require a strong capacity (and thereore large collec-
tor areas), low costs, and high reliability and quality.
While low temperature and high temperature collectors are oered in a dynamically
growing market, process heat collectors are at a very early stage o development and
there are no products available on an industrial scale.
The technological approaches or process heat collectors can be grouped according tothe concentration ratio or the tracking mode. Optical concentration is a way to achieve
higher operation temperatures, by reducing the absorber area with respect to the ap-
erture area. The drawback is that concentration reduces the angular acceptance o the
aperture area, which means the collector’s orientation needs to be adjusted towards
the sun. This adjustment is usually seasonal or low concentration ratios, while morerequent adjustments are required or higher concentration ratios. Tracking involves
additional mechanical structures with moving parts, which imply additional costs and
maintenance needs.
In addition to these “concentrating” collectors, improved fat collectors with double and
triple glazing are currently being developed, which might be interesting or processheat in the range o up to 120°C.
8.1.2 Process heat (medium temperature) collectors
8.1.2.1 Technology status
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Increasing the temperature o the heat delivered, while keeping the collector eciency
above 50% is quite a challenge, and requires major RD&D eort s, rom industry and
the academic world. In this respect, eorts are already underway, but there is still a
long way to go.
Initial RD&D eor ts will be directed towards the:
control o heat loss; and•
maximisation o energy collection.•
The control o heat loss will be addressed by managing convection through the use o:
double glazing;•
honeycomb transparent insulation materials;•
single transparent lms; and•
by applying heavy molecules to create an iner t inner atmosphere.•
Work in these areas will lead to so-called advanced fat plate collectors. Heat loss con-
trol will also be addressed by the introduction o concentrators, with or without track-
ing. The maximisation o energy collection will encourage the use o high perormanceoptics, such as CPC in single or double stage concentrating s teps. Evacuated tubular
collectors with concentrators could be useul in tackling both these issues.
For process heat collectors, research into materials is crucial. Long-term resistance o
components at ever higher temperatures must be improved and better materials are
needed to produce the concentrating optics. These developments will also require acorresponding evolution in manuacturing techniques, systems testing and cer tication
and installation.
For most industrial processes, continuity o operation must be guaranteed. Managers
o industrial acilities are, thereore, sceptical about any intervention that could poten-tially cause interruptions to the heat supply system. The act that there are only a ew
working solar thermal process heat systems means that trust in these systems has not
been built up, potential users are not attracted and costs are increased or individual
projects.
At the same time, industrial heat users are oten able to purchase oil or gas at muchbetter rates than private households, increasing the barriers to solar uel savers.
8.1.2.2 Potential and challenges or technological development
8.1.2.3 Non-technical challenges or solar process heat collectors
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In order to reduce these non-technical barriers to the wider deployment o solar process
heat, it is important to:
establish strong and ocused nancial incentives, leading to a signicant number•
o demonstration projects, possibly with the goal o creating critical mass in a
specic industrial and/or geographical sector;
adjust existing quality norms and certication procedures or low temperature col-•
lectors, making them applicable to process heat collectors; and
promote solar thermal energy service companies (ST-ESCOs), oering their serv-•
ices to the industrial sector.
The undamental challenge here is the development o a new generation o process
heat collectors, raising the temperature, eciency and perormance o current lowtemperature collectors.
The main basic research topics arise in the eld o materials research.
Functional suraces (such as anti-refective or low-e coatings, sel-cleaning sur-•
aces and anti-corrosive coatings)
Highly refective, precise and weather resistant lightweight refectors•
Improved selective absorbers (or example, long-term stability in aggressive•
climates, such as salt-water droplets rom the sea)
Cheaper glass with high solar transmittance and exchangeable optical properties•
Heat transer fuids with higher temperature stability (above 160 °C)•
Temperature-stable and inexpensive thermal insulation (or example, vacuum•
insulation)
New design concentrators, avouring roo mounting and low maintenance needs•
New heat transer media, withstanding reezing and high operating temperatures•
New concepts or system integration and overheating protection•
Depending on the price evolution o current raw materials, such as copper, aluminiumand oil-based plastics, substitution materials may need to be developed. New concepts
like PV-thermal collectors will require specic basic developments, which are not cur-
rently available.
8.1.3 R&D agenda
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The main applied research topics are:
New manuacturing techniques or the large-scale production o medium tem-•
perature collectors and components.
Stagnation-proo collectors and ways to prevent or mitigate the diculties associ-•
ated with stagnation. This is particularly relevant or industrial processes that do
not run continuously.
Reliable methods to remove air rom the collector circuit, in order to achieve an•
even fow distribution and to slow down the aging o the heat transer fuid.
New testing techniques geared towards accelerated aging tests o solar system•
collectors and components, covering specicities arising rom the use o collec-
tors in acades and maritime ambience.Large systems control and management, reducing maintenance costs without•
lowering perormance.
Simple concepts or quasi–stationary concentrators (tilt adjusted).•
Integration with conventional heat sources or into conventional systems.•
Integration into building suraces (or example, in combination with shading•
devices).
Component durability without lowering perormance (light and cheap refecting•
suraces and conventional selective absorbers).
Precise, robust and cost-eective tracking devices (adjusted according to the•
required degree o accuracy).
Solar air process heat collectors.•
The main topics or development are:
Develop cheap and reliable collectors based on new materials, which are easy to•
integrate into various roos and acades.
Develop practical ways to integrate conventional metal collectors onto metal•
acades and roos.
Develop collectors that can be connected with a heat pump (i.e. condensation•
inside the collector must not be a problem)
Improve heat transer in the collector and heat exchanger•
Develop cheap, energy-ecient pumps•
Develop connectors that acilitate the quick and easy installation o collectors.•
Develop evacuated tube collectors with a better price/perormance ratio (soda-•
lime glass and anti-refective coatings).
Develop low concentration stationary or quasi-stationary collectors or higher•
temperature applications in buildings, which can be combined with evacuated
tubular collectors.
Develop PV-thermal hybrid collectors that save installation costs and increase•
total conversion eciency, compared with side-by-side systems.
Air collectors with improved heat transer.•
Develop cheap sensors and electronics or ault detection and identication.•
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Timetable specics or low temperature collectors:
Short term
2008 – 2012
Medium term
2012 – 2020
Long term
2020 – 2030
and beyond
Industry
manuacturing
aspects
Absorber•
production
technologies
Combining•
collectors andbuilding
components
Automatic•
production o
collectors as
building
components
Full integration•
o new solutions
in building
codes and
practices
Applied/advanced
technology aspects
Improved sensor•
technology
The use o•
colour in solar
collectors
Test procedures•
or accelerated
lie time tests
Air collectors•
providing heat-ing and cooling
Window-like•
technology or
collectors
PV-T collector•
Hybrid PV-T col-•
lector with stor-
age or acadeintegration
Basic researchundamentals
Heat transer•
fuids
Vacuum•
insulation
Functional coat-•
ings
New materials•
Polymer•
absorbers,
boxes, and
covers
Combined•
collector-storage
systems
Switchable coat-•
ings
“Invisible” col-•
lector is a practi-cal reality
8.1.4 Timetable
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Time table specics or process heat (medium-temperature) collectors:
Short term
2008 – 2012
Medium term
2012 – 2020
Long term
2020 – 2030
and beyond
Industry manuac-
turing aspects
Development goal:
Process heat•
collector:
600 € /kWth
Manuacture•
rst pilot plants
based on the
prototype collec-tors developed
in recent years
Installation o•
subsidised pilot
projects on the
basis o existing
technologies
Discuss integra-•
tion o processheat collec-
tors in existingstandards
Development goal:
Process heat•
collector:
400 € /kWth
First industrial-•
scale manuac-
turing o process
heat collectors
Gradual reduc-•
tion in subsidiesor demonstra-
tion projects
Implementation•
o standards
in a European
and national
ramework
Development goal:
Process heat•
collector:
300 € /W th
Fully industrial-•
scale manuac-
turing o process
heat collectors
Reach baseline•
o subsidies or alarge number o
industrial pro-
cess heat
projects in
all European
countries
Implementation•o standards that
cover all avail-able collector
technologies
Applied/advanced
technology aspects
Development•
o perormance
test procedures
or process heatcollectors
Improved and•
cost eectivetracking
systems
Integration o•
process heat
collectors into
industrial
buildings
Standardised•
system designs
Investigation•
into process
integration
Perormance•
test procedures
implemented
Second genera-•
tion o process
heat collectors
at signicantlylower cost
and increasedperormance,
due to the use o
new materials
Full integration•
o process heat
collectors into
industrial build-
ing structures
Standardised•
solar heat inte-gration
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Short term 2008 – 2012
Medium term 2012 – 2020
Long term 2020 – 2030
and beyond
Basic research
undamentals
New optical•
designs
New materials•
or:- structures- refectors- receivers
- heat transermedia
Lie-cycle Cost•
Assessment LCA
Reliability and•
durability omaterials
Higher perorm-•
ance materials
Introduction o•
new materials
New concept•
testing
Heat storage increases the use that can be made o the solar resource by allowing heatto be ‘consumed’ when there is demand or it, rather that at the time when it is pro-
duced. Storing solar heat or one or two weeks, is a common practice, with acceptable
costs and heat losses. Dierent solutions or heat storage on a timescale o seasons
(several weeks or months) have allowed solar heat accumulated over the summer to
be used during the winter months. However, these technologies are still in their inancy.
Only when seasonal heat storage is widely available at low costs will it be possible toachieve the ESTTP’s vision o 100% solar space heating as standard in new buildings.
Some o the key parameters to be considered or thermal s torage systems are: cost,
capacity, charge and discharge power, space taken up by the heat store, time between
charging and discharging, transportability, saety, and integratability into buildingsystems.
Short-term buer storage systems show short reaction times, and must deliver high
power with small capacities. “Medium term” stores dene stores rom one day upwards.
Low storage capacities are measured in the kWh scale, while large ones are in MWh.
The size o the store depends on the specic heat capacity o the heat storing medium
(usually water), the heat capacity o which is relatively low: large volumes are needed
to store relatively small amounts o heat. This is a problem because space inside (or
below) buildings is expensive. For example, in order or solar energy to cover the ull
space heating and hot tap water needs o a well-insulated house in Central Europe, a
typical water heat storage o about 30m3 at 85 °C would be required, equivalent to10% o a typical house’s usable space! The ratio o store size to building size is better
in larger buildings with many residential units.
8.2 Thermal storage
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The large size o season-scale stores makes it dicult to use solar heat in winter. It is
also dicult to integrate such systems into existing buildings. Thereore, developing
new, compact season-scale heat storage technologies is crucial or the commer-
cialization o solar thermal systems capable o covering 100% o space heating and
domestic hot water demand.
Another important parameter is the required storage temperature. Low temperature
stores are used in buildings to stop room temperatures alling below 20-24 degrees.
The termperature o the storage medium is less than 100 °C. Medium temperature
stores store heat or industrial applications at temperatures exceeding 100°C, where
non-pressurised liquid water cannot be used as a storage medium. The upper tempera-ture limit corresponds to the temperature limit dened or low or intermediate concen-
trating solar collectors.
Heat can be stored at low temperatures or periods up to six months. The size and
capacity o the storage technology is not only determined by the storage period, but
also by the building’s demand or heat. For example, there is a signicant dierencein heating demand between an oce building in the Mediterranean area and a one-
amily house in Denmark.
The theme o ”thermal storage” also includes systems that store cold. It can be wise to
include cold storage in thermally-driven rerigeration systems (see later).
Four main types o thermal energy
storage technologies can be distin-
guished: sensible, latent, sorption
and thermochemical heat storage2.
Sensible heat storage systems use
the heat capacity o a material. When
heat is stored, the temperature o thematerial increases. The vast majority
o systems on the market is o this type
and use water or heat storage. Water
heat stores cover a very broad range
o capacities, rom several hundredlitres to tens o thousands o cubic
metres. Medium temperature heat is
stored in a single-phase storage mate-
rial. In single-phase materials, the state o charge corresponds to the temperature o
the material concerned. Examples o materials are concrete, molten salt, or pressurisedliquid water. Storage systems using molten salt at temperatures between 300°C-400°C
were demonstrated in solar thermal systems in 2008.
8.2.1 Technology status
2 Thermal energy storage or solar and low energy buildings. State o the art by the IEA Solar Heating andCooling Task 32. June 2005, editor Jean-Christophe Hadorn, ISBN: 84-8409-877-X.
Figure 24: Water lled heat storages are cur-rently the most common sensible heat storage
systems. (Source: Vaillant, Germany)
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In latent heat storage systems,
thermal energy is stored during thephase- change, either melting or
evaporation, o a material. Depending
on the temperature range, this type
o storage is more compact than heat
storage in water. Most o the currentlyused latent heat storage technologies
or low temperatures are or storing
heat in building structures to improve
thermal perormance, or in cold stor-
age systems. For medium temperature
storage, materials used or storage arenitrate salts. Pilot storage units in the
100 kW range are currently operated
using solar steam.
In sorption heat storage systems, heat is stored in materials using water vapour up-taken by a sorption material. The material can be either a solid (adsorption) or a liquid
(absorption). These technologies are still largely in the development phase, but some
are on the market. In principle, sorption heat storage densities can be more than our
times higher than sensible heat storage in water.
In thermochemical heat storage systems, the heat is stored in an endothermic chemi-
cal reaction. Some chemicals store heat 20 times more densely than water, but more
usually, the storage densities are 8-10 times higher. Few thermochemical storage
systems have been demonstrated. The materials currently under investigation are all
salts that can exist in anhydrous and hydrated orm. Thermochemical systems can
compactly store low and medium temperature heat.
Figure 25: An experimental latent heat storage
with macro encapsulated PCM (paran).(Source: Ciril Arkar, University o Ljubljana,
Slovenia)
Figure 26: The principle o thermochemicalheat storage: heat is used to separate a
chemical compound into its component parts.
The components can then be stored or longperiods with practically no heat loss. When the
components are reunited, a chemical reactionoccurs and heat is produced.(Source: ECN, The Netherlands)
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In order to achieve a larger solar raction in housing stock, a new generation o
thermal energy stores are needed. These stores must be compact, cost eective, sae,
clean and easy to handle. To meet these requirements, new materials and technologies
must be developed.
At present, the research groups working on thermal energy storage are spread aroundEurope, small, and insuciently aware o each other’s work. For decades, the main
potential beneciaries o thermal storage technology, which include the cogeneration
and district heating sectors, have not unded the basic research needed to advance this
technology. Nor have public bodies.
This might soon change. The creation o the European Solar Thermal Technology Plat-
orm, which is dening thermal storage as an R&D priority, aims to secure public and
private spending on this research.
Innovation in compact thermal energy storage would be boosted signicantly i a
strategy were dened and executed between research centers and industry or thistechnology’s short-, medium-, and long-term R&D.
A network o experts and companies interested in thermal energy storage should be
built up. Sharing inormation, expertise and acilities e ectively is a precondition orrapid progress in research, development and innovation. Public R&D unds should beearmarked or thermal storage at national and European level.
Basic research
Basic research in new materials to store much thermal energy in little space is essen-tial, with thermochemical systems the ront-running technology or the most compact
systems. The materials in existing systems, based on PCMs and sorption should be
improved or replaced with better materials.
The most important research topics are:
Material development
Improvement o compact storage materials, such as zeolites, Metal Organic•
Framework (MOF), silica gels, hydration reaction thermochemical materials and
other thermochemical materials. The development should be aimed at improving
thermo-physical properties, including storage capacity, heat transer, structuralintegrity and hydrodynamic behaviour.
8.2.2 Potential and challenges or technological development
8.2.3 Research agenda
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Better understanding o the relation between structure, composition and thermal•
storage characteristics o these materials;Improved techniques or the synthesis and production o compact storage materials;•
Characterisation and standard tests or materials;•
Numerical models or molecular and crystalline interactions;•
Multi-scale numerical modeling: coupling o models on a micro and meso/macro-scale.•
Materials with high ability to insulate, including vacuum insulation and aerogels;•
Improved phase change materials (PCM) to achieve higher latent heat values•
at the appropriate temperature levels and gain a better understanding o how to
master sub-cooling and the phase separation. Improve the long-term stability o
PCMs.
Understand the eec ts o combining materials rom dierent classes, or combin-•
ing a thermal storage material with a carrier material. Such as, silica gel andzeolite combinations; salt hydrate in zeolites; silica gels or zeolites in metal
oams; and the use o carbon lattices.
Combinations o active materials with a liquid carrier: suspensions o micro-•
encapsulated or micro-coated phase change materials, controlled crystallisation,
emulsions o active materials, ionic liquids and the development o additives.
Combined PCMs (organic and inorganic) in order to eliminate certain undesirable•
characteristics o individual PCMs;
Materials and techniques or encapsulation and coating o phase change materi-•
als and materials that absorb heat by changing their chemistry;
Suspension and emulsion techniques or compact thermal energy storage materials.•
Numerical models in order to understand the encapsulation process, material•
choices and the emulsion techniques.
Laboratory tests and simulations to improve the interaction between multiphase•
fow and solid walls, thus increasing the heat transer rate;
Figure 27: Sample o magnesium sulphatepowder - one o the thermochemical materials
under investigation.
(Source: ECN, The Netherlands)
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Chemical technology
Thermochemical reactor technology or heat production and storage, using heat•
rom distributed systems or solar collectors
Two-phase reactors with optimised heat and mass t ranser•
Micro-reactor systems or heat storage in distributed systems or in novel solar•
thermochemical collectors: heat and mass transer on the micro-scale
Reaction catalysis: understanding and developing the eect o catalysts on ther-•
mochemical processes
Membrane technology: development o membranes or the selective transer o•
reactants
Applied research
PCM macro-encapsulation techniques that take into account material compatibil-•
ity, saety and durability, with the aim o integrating PCMs into building construc-
tion and components
Transport o powder, suspensions and emulsions or both PCM and thermochemi-•
cal materials within systems and components
Fast and secure connection o pipes and wires•
Low-cost sensors and communications technology or heat fow, fuid fow, tem-•
perature, pressure and compositionFlexible volume tank systems; fexible walls or fexible diaphragms•
Further development o a range o reactors or thermochemical heat s torage and•
or sorption thermal storage systems. These include hydrate powder, membrane
and suspension reactors
Study and optimisation o combined heat and mass transport inside a reactor•
Sorption material production technology development, with special attention to•
the combined production o sorption material and heat transer suraces
Emulsion techniques or paran•
Measurement technologies to identiy charging status o latent heat storage•
systems
Optimisation o hydraulics in advanced water stores, reduction o mixing and•
increased stratication
Coatings or tank and pipe suraces•
Technologies to mix phase change materials with or into building materials•
Optimised or intelligent hydraulics and/or air fow schemes and control systems•
or the use o thermal storage in heating systems
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Demonstration
It is necessary to demonstrate both the unctioning o newly developed materials or
methods, and to prove new concepts on the laboratory scale.
This should be ollowed by demonstrating the technology in a complete system, to
ascertain the extent to which they improve on state-o-the ar t technology (i.e. what
solar raction they achieve). Several technology lines should be ollowed in parallel,
including advanced water, PCM, sorption and thermochemical. The development o
other components and auxiliary equipment should proceed in parallel. The durabil-ity o near commercial solutions, including their technical components, must also be
demonstrated, in order to estimate their long-term perormance. It is also important to
demonstrate systems that include heat storage or short and long periods.
In medium temperature heat storage, the ollowing should be demonstrated:
employing thermal storage to reduce the start-up time;•
using storage to prevent system overheating;•
dynamic solutions or reaction time and peak-power o heat storage; and•
long-term perormance o storage units.•
Short term
2008 – 2012
Medium term
2012 – 2020
Long term
2020 – 2030
and beyond
Industry
manuacturing
aspects
Advanced water•
heat storages
PCMs•
Medium tem-•perature storagecost
optimisation•
o design andnorms
denition o•
standards
Improved sorp-•
tion systems
First systems•
with advanced
heat storage
materials
Compact heat•
storage system
technology
Commercial•
applications o
low and medium
temperature
storage tech-
nologies
8.2.4 Timetable
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Applied/advancedtechnology aspects
Improved•
production
technologies or
sorption materi-
als and PCMs
Novel storage•
geometries and
auxiliary materi-
als
Control inter-•
aces
First stor-• age systems
demonstrated
to replace ossiluelled acilities
Storage systems•
to reduce start-up time and
compensate or
cloud transients
Production•
technologiesor advanced
materials and
reactors
New medium•
temperature
storage materi-
als and concepts
to be demon-strated
Micro reactor•
devices
Synthetic materi-•
als rom materi-als engineering.
New ther-•
mochemicalsystems
Medium tem-•
perature storagetechnology to
enable solaronly operation
o solar thermal
power
Basic research
undamentals
Advanced mate-•
rials or compact
thermal storage
Reactor tech-•nologies
Development•
o theoretical
and numerical
methods
Reactor heat•
and masstranser
Micro reactor•
technologies
Numerical meth-•
ods or materialsengineering
Reaction cataly-•
sis, membrane
technology
Second genera-•
tion o medium
temperature
storage materi-als
Most cooling and rerigeration systems worldwide are powered by electricity. Thermally
driven cooling technologies are set to play a key role in the ecient conversion oenergy in the eld o building air-conditioning and rerigeration. Today, these technolo-
gies are used largely in combination with waste heat, district heat or co-generation
units. One o the main advantages o such sytems is that thermally driven cooling
cycles can be run with solar thermal energy, thus producing solar air-conditioning and
8.3 Solar thermally driven cooling and rerigeration
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rerigeration. Over the last two decades, most installations have been publicly unded,
in the ramework o research demonstration programmes. Only very recently, the start
o market development has been observed in the residential sector in Mediterranean
countries, particularly in Spain. There is substantial potential to support this develop-
ment with urther R&D work.
Industrial rerigeration
There is a large and slowly growing market or industrial rerigeration, especially or
ood or medicines. Rerigeration units will deliver temperatures in the range -30°C to20°C. The output o most units is in the range o 100 kW to several MWs.
Conventional systems are operated by large, electrically driven, vapour compression
rerigeration machines, which supply cold air to a distribution network. The perorm-
ance o a rerigeration cycle is usually described by the coecient o perormance
(COP), dened as the benet o the cycle (amount o heat removed or cooling capac-ity), divided by the total energy (or power) input required to operate the cycle. The COP
o electrically driven cooling machines ranges rom 3 to 6, and is largely a unction
o the required output temperature. Usually, large cooling towers are employed to dis-
sipate condenser heat.
Several industrial installations use waste process heat to operate thermally-driven cool-ing equipment, which is competitive with vapour compression technology in areas with
an unstable electricity supply. Thermally-driven cooling systems applied or industrial
rerigeration always use closed thermodynamic cycles, which produce cold air, which
is transerred by a liquid (or solid/liquid, such as ice slurries) heat-transer medium. Atpresent, solar thermally-driven industrial rerigeration includes systems employing roo-or ground-mounted low- and medium-temperature solar collectors. These systems can
be coupled with hot or cold stores, depending on the application. Only a small number
o these applications have been studied and a ew new systems are in operation in the
southern Mediterranean.
Currently, solar thermally-driven systems nd it hard to compete with conventional,electrically- driven rerigeration equipment. The high capital cost o solar rerigeration
is particular actor preventing wider market uptake. On the other hand, the rising price
o electricity and the number o successul solar industrial rerigeration demonstration
projects have made such systems more attractive. In this eld, there still is a great
potential to develop economies o scale in manuacturing, oering thus excellent
medium-term prospects.
Air-conditioning o buildings
The demand or cooling in buildings is rising across the world and notably in southern
Europe, in both the residential and tertiary sectors. This has created a massive increasein peak electricity demand, putting heavy demands on power supply inrastructure and
generation capacity, increasing the risk o blackouts and o damaging the environ-
ment. Alternatives to electrical cooling need to be developed rapidly. While demand-
side management is crucial, on the supply side solar thermal is the best medium-term
solution.
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Around 250 solar air-conditioning systems were installed in Europe by 2007, with
an exponential increase o activity in the last two years. Solar collectors or the air-
conditioning o buildings are generally also used or other applications, such as space
heating and domestic hot water production. This increases energy savings and thus
the productivity o the investment. The systems in operation range rom small units or
single-amily houses to large units or the air-conditioning o actory buildings.
Conventional air-conditioning is based on vapour compression cycles that consume
signicant amounts o electricity to drive the compressor. In the building sector, the
market is dominated by small single-split systems (or a single room) or multi-split
systems or a fat or a foor level. Typical COPs or small split systems are about 2.5 to3. In larger commercial buildings, there oten are cooling networks operated by large
centralised water chillers. These systems can achieve much higher COP-values o up to
5-6, in particular when they use a wet cooling tower to reject the waste heat.
Although the basic principles remain the same, there are three main dierences in thetechnologies used or air-conditioning in buildings and industrial rerigeration:
1. Air-condi tioning o buildings in summer can include both cooling and, depending
on the outdoor humidity and internal latent loads, dehumidication. So, both ther-
modynamic machines and so-called open cycles (also called desiccant cooling
systems) can be applied. In open cycles, air passing through a thermally-drivenair handling unit is brought to the correct temperature and humidity. The heat can
come rom solar collectors.
2. Depending on the indoor systems, the temperature o output air should usuallyrange rom 6°C to 16°C. Temperatures below 6°C are not necessary unless icestorage is required. Output termperatures in this range can be produced by solar
thermal systems.
3. Systems or air-conditioning come in many sizes, rom small water chillers, with a
capacity o ew kW or single-amily houses, to centralised systems or air-condi-
tioning large buildings, which can be in the range o several MW capacity. Smallthermally-driven water chillers came on the market only very recently
Solar assisted air-conditioning o buildings currently requires low- and medium-tem-
perature solar collectors, which are usually roo mounted. For large buildings, ground
mounted collector systems are also used. There are two major types o cooling cycles:
Open cooling cycles, in direct contact with environmental air. They use a sorptive•
component, able to dehumidiy air. This increases the potential or using evapora-
tive cooling. Heat is required to remove the water vapour bond in the sorption
matrix.
Closed cycle machines, employing a rerigerant that undergoes a closed thermo-•
dynamic process. It is thereby able to take up heat at a low temperature level (the
useul cooling eect) that is then released at a medium temperature level (heatusually rejected into air). The process is driven by the dierence in temperature
between the input heat rom the collectors or heat store and the temperature o the
heat sink.
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Open cooling cycles (or desiccant cooling systems) as discussed above, are mainly o
interest or the air-conditioning o buildings. They can use solid or liquid sorption.
The central component o any open solar-assisted cooling system is the dehumidica-
tion unit. In most systems using solid sorption, this dehumidication unit is a desiccant
wheel, which is available rom several suppliers or dierent air volume fows. Various
sorption materials can be employed, such as silica gel or lithium chloride. All othersystem components are to be ound in standard air-conditioning applications with an
air handling unit and include the heat recovery units, heat exchangers and humidiers.
The heat required or the regeneration o the sorption wheel can be provided at low
temperatures (in the range o 45-90°C), which suits many solar collectors on themarket. Other types o desiccant dehumidiers using solid sorption exist. These have
some thermodynamic advantages and can lead to higher eciency, but place higher
demands on the material and the equipment. There is potential or urther R&D work
here.
Liquid sorption techniques have successully been demonstrated. The input air isdehumidied when it comes into contact with a salt solution, such as water/lithium
chloride. The diluted solution is re-concentrated using low temperature heat that can
be provided by solar collectors. The advantage o liquid sorption is the capacity o the
concentrated and diluted salt solution to store energy, without heat loss. This enables
high density energy storage. The temperature required or regeneration is comparable
to that required or solid sorption, and is thus perectly compatible with solar collectors.
Closed heat driven cooling cycles have been known or many years. They are usually
used or large capacities, rom 100 kW upwards. The physical principle used in mostsystems is based on the sorption phenomena. Two technologies are established toproduce thermally driven low and medium temperature rerigeration: adsorption and
absorption.
Absorption technologies cover the overwhelming majority o the global thermally
driven cooling market. The main advantage o absorption cycles is their higher COPvalues, which range rom 0.6–0.8, or single stage machines, and 0.9 –1.3 or double
stage technology. Typical heat supply temperatures are 80–95°C and 130–160°C
respectively. The absorption pair in use is either lithium bromide and water or
ammonia and water. For lithium bromide and water cycles, the evaporator tempera-
ture is limited to 4°C and the condenser temperature is below 35°C. The condenser
temperature means that a costly and high water consuming wet cooling tower is oten
required. Ammonia and water cycles allow or designs that can reach evaporatortemperatures o below 0°C, and heat rejection temperatures o up to 50°C. Thereore,
they can be used or deep reezing applications, using dry air-cooled condensers or
heat dissipation.
Adsorption rerigeration cycles using, or instance, silica gel and water as the adsorp-
tion pair, can be driven by low temperature heat sources down to 55°C, producing
temperatures down to 5°C. This kind o system achieves COP values o 0.6-0.7. Today,
the nancial viability o adsorption systems is limited, due to the ar higher production
costs compared to absorption systems.
8.3.1 Technology status
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A number o thermally-driven cooling systems have been built employing closed
thermally-driven cooling cycles, using solar thermal energy as the main energy source.
These systems oten cater or large cooling capacities up to several hundred kW.
In the last 5-8 years, a number o systems have been developed in the small capacity
range, below 100 kW and in particular below 20 kW down to 4.5 kW. These smallsystems are single-eect machines o di erent types, used mainly or residential build-
ings and small commercial applications.
While open cooling cycles are generally applied or air-conditioning in buildings,
closed heat-driven cooling cycles can be used or both air-conditioning and industrialrerigeration.
Other cycles - Other options or the conversion o solar energy into useul cooling
besides sorption-based cycles also exist. In an ejector cycle, heat is transormed into
kinetic energy o a vapour jet, which enables the rerigerant to evaporate. In a solarmechanical rerigeration cycle, a conventional vapour compression system is driven
by mechanical power that is produced with a solar driven heat power (or example,
Rankine) cycle, in which a fuid is vaporised at an elevated pressure by heat exchange
with a fuid heated by solar collectors. Last but not least, elec tricity generated in a
photovoltaic array can be used to operate ordinary vapour compression machines.
Increased cost-perormance• : When compared to mechanical (i.e. electrical)
vapour compression, heat driven cooling is still new and relatively unexplored
technology. There is signicant potential or lowering costs and/or increasing per-
ormance through technological improvements in basic materials, to componentdesign and systems technology.
Lack o practical experience and specifc know-how• : A major barrier to the
widespread implementation o solar air-conditioning and rerigeration systems isthe lack o awareness o and experience in these technologies. Too ew people are
knowledgeable both o solar thermal and air conditioning in buildings. The decit
in solar thermal knowledge is par ticularly marked among specialists in industrial
rerigeration.
High investment cost• : Solar driven air-conditioning and rerigeration systems
have a high capital cost because o the many components involved in the system:
the cooling equipment, the solar collectors and the heat storage appliances. At
present, these systems are not competitive with conventional electrically-drivencooling systems. This is especially the case o commercial applications, where a
short return on investment is expected.
Lack o technology• : Most o the thermally-driven cooling components on the mar-ket now have not been designed to operate with solar energy. The designs must
be adapted to cope with varying input temperatures and input powers.
Ecient heat dissipation systems, which are easy to maintain and operate at low
temperatures, are not yet available. New components need to be developed in
both these areas.
8.3.2 Challenges and potential or technological development
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Building integration• : At present, systems are added to a building ater it has been
built. In uture, systems will increasingly be incorporated in new buildings as they
are being built. Solar collector and heat sinks and heat stores could be integrated
into buildings (the latter, or example, through phase change material in the build-
ing structure).
Use o solar cooling in industrial processes hindered by over-designed systems:•
The cold supply rom most equipment in industrial processes is provided at
temperatures ar below the levels that are actually required by the process. As aconsequence, the potential or integration o solar driven rerigeration systems is
signicantly reduced, and in many cases excluded.
Lack o design guidelines and design tools• : There are only a ew people andresearch institutes with experience in solar cooling or buildings; and even ewer
with experience in solar rerigeration or industrial purposes. There is also a lack
o design guidelines and tools specically developed or solar cooling systems or
particular applications. Stagnation-proo collector designs need to be developed.
With these tools, costs could be brought down. These elements strongly contribute
to the currently high cost o solar cooling.
Awareness• : particularly a problem or solar rerigeration.
This section only covers research activities that specically relate to thermally driven
cooling. Research activities related to the components o solar thermal systems in
general, such as solar collectors and thermal storage, are only mentioned i they needspecic attention in relation to thermally driven cooling.
Basic research with the long-term aim o optimising thermally-driven cooling cycles is
required. Basic research is needed to:
achieve a higher co-ecient o per ormance (COP-values)•
make machines more compact•
enable machines to operate at lower driving temperatures•
Research on new sorption materials, new coatings o sorption materials on heatexchanger suraces, new heat and mass transer concepts and the design o new ther-
modynamic cycles will be needed. It will also be needed or cold stores, which coulduse phase change materials and thermo-chemical reactions.
8.3.3 R&D needed to achieve the goals
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Basic research topics include:
The development o new, highly porous sorption materials, in particular using•
adsorption chemistry. Many materials have not yet been ully investigated or heat
transormation applications. Ionic liquids may also be candidates or new liquid
sorption working pairs.
Sorptive material coatings on dierent metal substrates or optimised heat and•
mass transer
Micro-fuid systems or compact, highly ecient heat exchangers in the sorption•
and desorption regimes
New sorption heat exchanger matrices, such as metal oams•
Nano-coated suraces in heat exchangers or reduced riction losses during fuid fow•
New materials or cold storage at dierent temperature levels or high storage•
density
New cycles (high temperature lit; double, triple stage and novel open sorption)•
with optimised internal heat recovery or high COP-values
Perormance analysis tools, such as exergy analysis, lie cycle analysis and com-•
parison methodologies to assess new concepts
Advanced simulation tools or systems modelling at dierent scales, starting rom•
the molecular scale (sorption phenomena) up to the system scale
Applied research
The main ocus o applied research is to develop machines or apparatus based on new
approaches. Applied research also includes the development o test methods or the
standardisation o thermally driven cooling cycles.
Applied research topics include:
Integration o the new heat exchanger concepts, developed in undamental•
research, into a machine concept
Advanced machines based on the new thermodynamic cycles, including hybrid•
sorption-compression systems or operation with heat and electricity alternatively
Highly compact machines o a capacity to cool a single room; these machines•
could be adapted or use in road vehicles Adjustment o machines or solar operation, i.e. under variable temperature and•
power conditions (highly fexible cycles)
Advanced ejector cycles using dierent working pairs adjusted to dierent ap-•
plications
• Advancedopencyclesusingliquidsorptionmaterialswithahighstoragedensity
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• Cooledopensolidsorptivecycleswithahighdehumidicationpotentialforwarm
and humid climates
• Advancedcontrolconceptsforcomponentsandoverallsystems,includingself-
learning control, uzzy logic and adaptive control
• Assessmentofnewheatdissipationoptions,usingtheairorgroundasaheat
sink. Heat dissipation devices must be adjusted to the various sizes and tempera-
ture levels o thermally driven cooling cycles and need to ocus on low:
water consumption;•
health risks;•
power consumption;•
initial costs;•
operation and maintenance costs.•
Advanced modelling and simulation tools or the thermodynamic analysis o•
systems and to support the planning and design o systems
Ways to integrate solar driven rerigeration systems with industrial processes•
Optimisation o large solar rerigeration plants•
Advanced control systems or the solar rerigeration systems (solar collection, cold•
production and cold storage charge and discharge)
Demonstration and technology transer
Commissioning procedures and guidelines•
Hydraulic concepts, design guidelines and proven operational and maintenance•
concepts or overall systems;
Identication o the most promising industrial applications or solar rerigeration•
systems;
Hybrid systems that combine compression technology with heat driven machines•
supplied with solar thermal heat and cold and (heat) storage
Installation and long-term monitoring o various systems in di erent congura-•
tions, sizes, climates and operating conditions
A set o standards or components and overall systems•
Documented experience in the practical operation o installations•Development o appropriate training materials or dierent levels o engineering•
education
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Short term2008 – 2012
Medium term 2012 – 2020
Long term 2020 – 2030
and beyond
Industry manu-
acturing and
technology transer
aspects
Production o•
small capacity
systems (e.g. or
residential ap-plication) on a
small industrial
scale
Initiation o•large-scale,
monitored
demonstration
programmes indierent regions
and sectors
Suitable com-•
missioning
procedures and
guidelines
Installation•
and long-term
monitoring olarge capac-
ity systems in awide variety o
congurations
and site condi-
tions.
Development•
o perormance
criteria
Cooperation•
with machinery
producer and
adaptation omachines or
solar cooling
Identication o•
the most prom-
ising industrial
applications or
solar rerigera-
tion systems inenergy and
economic terms
Large-scale•
industrial
production o
small capacity
systems
Proven systems•
concepts read-
ily availableor large-scale
implementation
Transer to•
proessionals on
a large scale.
Highly ecient•
and user-riendly
tools or systems
design
Adaptation o•
processes or
low and medium
temperature so-lar rerigeration
Solar cooling is•
part o standard
proessional
education at all
levels (installers,engineers and
planers)
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Short term2008 – 2012
Medium term 2012 – 2020
Long term 2020 – 2030
and beyond
Applied/advanced
technology aspects
New open liquid•
sorption cycles
with high stor-
age density
Cooled open•
sorption cycles
Development•
o integratedsolutions or thebest use o solar
rerigeration in
the industrial
process
Development•
o new hybrid
systems (solar
driven and
conventionaltechnology) or
dierent applica-
tions
Development•
o hydraulic
concepts, design
guidelines andproven op-
erational and
maintenance
concepts
Hybrid sorption-•
compression
cycle ready or
practical ap-plication
New cycles•
available or di-
erent technolo-gies (sorption,
ejector, open,
closed)
Design and•
optimisation o
large-scale solar
rerigerationplants
Compact closed•
machines or
application in
small capacity
range, includingautomotive
High density•
cold stor-age available
or industrial
application (e.g.
based on PCM
or thermo-chemical)
Advanced over-•
all solar cooling(and heating)
systems with
high integration
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Short term2008 – 2012
Medium term 2012 – 2020
Long term 2020 – 2030
and beyond
Basic research
undamentals
Screening o•
new sorption
materials
Nano-coatings•
or heat
exchanger
developed
First design•models ondierent levels
(molecular,
micro-technol-
ogy)
Development o•
advanced cold
storage materi-
als
Development o•
new cycles (high
temperature
lit, higher COPand novel open
sorption)
Development•
o new heat
driven concepts
(e.g. thermo-
mechanicalprocesses such
as Rankine-
Rankine)
Successul•
laboratory
development o
advanced sorp-
tion materials
Availability o•
micro-fuid heat
exchangers orthermally driven
cooling
New heat•
exchanger ma-
trices, such as
metal oam
New storage•
materials
Powerul models•
or integrated
process model-
ling on dierent
levels (multi-scale models)
Development•
o new cycles
(double, triple
stage, novel and
open sorption)
Long-term,•
stable and cost
eective new
sorption materi-
als applicableon industrial
scale
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By 2030, the solar building will have become a common sight. They will be attractive,
comortable and environmentally riendly. Its supply system will collect, store, distribute
and provide thermal and electrical energy. And it will be constructed mainly rom
multi-unctional building elements.
the building = the energy system
Multi-unctional components combine the unctionality o today’s standard compo-
nents (static, shelter rom weather and re resistance), with an ability to meet the
energy requirements o the building, by producing, storing, distributing or dissipating
heat.
Examples o multi-unctional building elements are:
Water pipes that also ull a structural unction•
Facade collectors that reduce heat loss rom buildings, serving as energy sources,•
heat sinks and/or stores, and provide shading
Roong elements that provide shelter, act as windows and as solar thermal•
collectors or PV modules, and which may be integrated with an energy storage
module
Walls that support the building or divide it into room, while acting as heat stores•
and thermal insulation
Disguised collectors: a special kind o acade or roo-integrated collector that•
imitates building materials and ts aesthetically with historic buildings
Intelligent building components, such as windows with sel adapting transmis-•
sion, based on the intensity o solar irradiance
Collectors that serve as a balcony foor, terrace, shading device, or semi-transpar-•
ent acade element
Some examples o multi-unctional components involving solar thermal or PV thathave already been introduced into the built environment include:
shading systems made rom PV and/or solar thermal collectors;•
acade-collectors;•
PV-roos;•
thermal energy roo systems; and•
Solar thermal roo-ridge collectors•
8.4 Multi-unctional components
8.4.1 Technology status
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Currently, undamental and applied R&D activities are also underway related to thedevelopment o:
transparent solar thermal window) collectors (see pic ture)•
acade elements consisting o vacuum insulation panels, PV-panels, heat pump•
and an heat-recovery system connected to localised ventilation (see picture)
Energy unctionality is insuciently integrated into the struc tural elements o build-
ings. Most multi-unctional components are also added on ater the construction o the
building. It would be cheaper to add them during construction. Solar thermal elements
could be integrated into preabricated attic expansions, oering a standardised and
thereore low cost way or people to build solar thermal into their lots.
Figure 28: Example: A solar thermal roo-ridge
collector is a “hidden” installation, which is
already used in a ew EU countries. It providessolar heat and also acts as a “standard” roo
ridge. It has been developed primarily as an
architectural solution to the integration o solaractive roo elements, which will not impede sub-
sequent roo alterations, such as the installationo a dormer window.
(Source: Inventum, The Netherlands)
Figure 29: Transparent solar thermal collector (let). (Source: Fraunhoer ISE, Germany)Figure 30: integral solar-active acade (right). (Source: www.smartacade.nl)
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Manuacturing and installing multi-unctional building elements requires knowledge
that can rarely be provided by a single person or installation company. The elements
are unlikely to have the all advantages o all the building elements they replace without
any disadvantages. Building designers sometimes ail to choose the best combination
o multi-unctional elements or their budget.
Because so ew examples o their deployment exist, designers are reluctant incorporate
multi-unctional elements, earing they will break down and won’t resist bad weather.
The design o existing buildings is oten not ideal or the integration o new types o
energy systems. Perpetuating these design faws in new buildings must be avoided.
There is a lack o advanced simulation tools that dynamically describe the exergy
energy perormance, room temperature and air replacement rate o a building design.
Basic research
The optimal use o the limited building shell area requires structural demands in build-
ing components to be combined with solar unctions or heat storage and thin, highly
ecient insulation layers.
Phase change materials are a promising option or short and medium term heat stor-
ages. Knowledge is needed o how to integrate this type o storage into the building
when it is being constructed, or example in its walls.
Areas or development
Solar collectors that are part o the building shell need to be developed, as they
combine several unctions. They can be part o transparent acades and have daylight
and shading unctions, as well as their energy collecting unction. Collectors integrated
into opaque acades can protect against heat. In addition, they may act as a heat store
and/or supply system on the internal wall.
Measures to optimise energy gains o acade-integrated collectors are also needed,
such as partly tilted absorber components. Basic research in this eld needs to ocus
on materials and be closely linked to applied research on components.
Advanced coatings need to be developed or windows with switchable variabletransmission, or or collectors with controllable glazing transmission as well as ab-
sorptance. This is especially important or polymer-based collectors, in order to avoid
stagnation problems.
Advances are needed in tools or commissioning buildings as a whole, and methods
to ensure that predicted results are e ectively obtained by the building. Standards orthe hydraulic and electrical interconnectors o dierent building components are also
required.
8.4.3 Research agenda
8.4.2 Challenges and potential or technological development
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Applied research
The limited available space or solar systems on the roo requires developments in
acade collectors and roo spanning systems to increase the usable surace area or
the harvesting o renewable (thermal) energy.
The development o a HUB interace, such as acade-integrated systems or solar
thermal collectors, would lead to ur ther standardisation and make a modular designeasible. In turn, this may lead to the development o modular replacement elements,
resulting in a complementary set o modular, multi-unctional components and
interaces - the HUB toolkit. Typical elements o this toolkit could be:
The distribution o heat and cold via pipes embedded in the construction, in•which liquids or gases circulate, carrying the heat or cold
Facade collectors used to collect a solar heat or radiate it in case o cold pro-•
duction, as well as or reducing heat loss
Roong elements that shelter and protect the building, or that let light into the•
building, while also generating or storing energy
Collectors designed to resemble the building elements o old buildings, espe-•
cially on the acade or roo
Windows with sel-adapting transmission, based on the intensity o solar radiation•
Demonstration
New components and supply systems need to be tested in new and existing build-
ings. Prototypes o the HUB interace and modular elements need to be built as
research into them goes on. This testing can be carried out at research laboratories
and test dwellings at R&D institutes. At this stage, limits o the HUB-toolkit should
also be determined.
When the HUB-toolkits are in the nal stage o development beore commercializa-
tion, complete HUB-toolkits should be made available through the construction and
supply industries. Once it has won the approval o these users, the toolkit can be
made available to housing corporations and the “do-it-yoursel” market.
Figure 31: Modular roo elements or solar thermal and solar electrical panels (with or without a window) in
combination with heat storage in the attic. (Source: ECN, The Netherlands)
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Short term2008 – 2012
Medium term2012 – 2020
Long term2020 – 2030
and beyond
Industry
manuacturing
aspects
Prototypes and•
possible struc-
tural compo-
nents, such asHUB-interaces
or existing en-
ergy systems
Design demands•or “missing
links” (sub- sys-
tems) estab-
lished
Denition o•
standardised
hydraulic andelectrical inter-
aces or the in-
terconnection o
dierent building
components
Proo o Manu-•
acturing HUB
interace and
sub-systems
Major part•
o identied
“missing links”
availableThe manu-•
acturing andconstruction
industry brings
several variants
to market, com-
bining uniqueand common
elements
Development o•
methods or the
integral planning
o buildingsDevelopment•
o commis-
sioning tools
and methods to
ensure that thepredicted results
are achieved by
the building
Large-scale•
implementation
realised
Do-it-yoursel•
renovation kits
available or
unplug-and-
replace energysystem compo-
nents
Dierent, optical•
identical roo
elements that
provide shelter
and ull dier-
ent unctionssuch as a win-
dow, solar water
or air collector,
PV module or
energy storagemodule
Invisible collec-•
tors
8.4.4 Timetable
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Short term2008 – 2012
Medium term2012 – 2020
Long term2020 – 2030
and beyond
Applied/advanced
technology aspects
Set-up o com-•
mon language/
protocol or
energy systemsand modular
system compo-
nents
Set-up o com-•mon hydraulic
and mechani-
cal interaces
between collec-tors and acade
systems
Construction•
o prototypes
o rst HUB-
interaces
acade collectors•
used as (solar)
heat sourcesand heat sinks,
as well as orheat loss reduc-
tion
Collectors that•
also act as
fooring
Set-up HUB•
toolkit or reno-
vation
Intelligent build-•
ing compo-
nents, such as
windows with
sel-adaptingtransmission,
based on the
intensity o the
solar irradiance
Monitoring and•
optimisation o
HUB interaces
Development•
o modular
replacement
elements
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Short term2008 – 2012
Medium term2012 – 2020
Long term2020 – 2030
and beyond
Basic research
undamentals
Establish reno-•
vation challeng-
es between end-
user demands(health, comort,
etc.), building
process require-
ments and
environmental
impacts (energy,material, etc.)
Inventory o•
alternative unc-
tions o struc-
tural building
components
Identication o•
“missing links”
Legal and/or•
architectural
restraints, orboundary condi-
tions
Building Process•
Innovation:
changing the
value chain
Development o•
“missing links”
Development o•
testing methodsand assessment
procedures orvarious com-
ponents o the
supply system
Development o•
advanced coat-
ings (e.g. or
window collector
glazing andabsorbers within
the collector),
with variableabsorptance and
transmittance
Systems study o•
new additions to
HUB toolkit
Solar thermal natural fow (thermosiphon) systems or domestic hot water production
do not require a pump as the circulation arises naturally through the dierence in den-sity between hot and cold water. However, natural fow systems only cover domestic
hot water demand. Forced circulation systems require a control system.
Typically, solar thermal control systems consist o a microprocessor controller, sensors
or the detection o input parameters, or example, temperature and radiation, and ac-
tuators, such as pumps and valves. Together, these components control the collection,
storage, distribution and emission o energy, thereby keeping the building’s climate in
line with the wishes o the building occupiers.
In some cases, solar thermal systems also require controllers to vent or send to a heat
sink low temperature waste heat.
8.5 Control systems
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Solar thermal systems are requently part o more complex heating systems, or pos-
sibly cooling and/or ventilation (HVAC) systems. In turn, HVAC systems are themselves
part o a larger system (the building itsel, with its natural or specically designed
ability to store heat). Control systems that control only one sub-system are o ten sub-
optimal. Unortunately, today’s installations typically have separate controllers, which
do not talk to each other, or hot water production, space heating and cooling andventilation.
Today, most control systems are based on micro-processors. Sensors are typically
connected to the control system by wires. The control system can be based on simple
or complex algorithms depending on a ew or many parameters.
It would be best i one controller governed the whole HVAC system (and possibly
lightning and other electrical applications and related sub-systems installed in a build-
ing). What stops this happening is inadequate standardisation o the interaces and
communication between the dierent HVAC sub-systems. No standard exists or com-
munication between the sensors or the actuators and the control system, which leadsto unnecessary cost, since the same measurement (or example, the temperature in a
specic room) is oten taken by two separate sensors, each o which provides a signal
to a dierent controller.
The overall goal o uture HVAC control systems should be to operate the whole system
(e.g. a building) to minimise non-renewable energy consumption or a given set ting o
room temperature set by the users. Reaching the highest possible overall eciency im-
plies that one o the sub-systems may temporarily need to run at a sub-optimal level.
In order to overcome these problems, a detailed analysis o the energy fuxes within the
entire system (or example, the building) is required. It is necessary to consider all theenergy fows in a specic application and to develop one control centre or the entire
energy system. The controller should remember the preerences o individual users and
adjust the system according to these preerences while minimising energy consump-
tion. O course, the user should be able to override the system i it is not doing what (s)
he wants.
In addition, the controller should notiy the user when maintenance is required or when
a malunction is detected. Controllers should oer as standard the ability to compare
the perormance o the system they control with reerence values or an optimised
system operating under the same conditions (external temperature, solar radiation,internal temperature and hot water load).
8.5.1 Technology status
8.5.2 Challenges and potential or technological development
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Basic research
Worldwide survey and benchmarking o available technical solutions•
Survey o available control equipment and control strategies•
Scenarios or user expectations o control systems in 2030•
Improvement o system and building simulation and design tools, in order to take•
into account all comort parameters, such as temperature, humidity and light, as
well as energy consumption.
Methods to assess the environmental perormance o the building as a whole over•
its lietime are required. A common platorm or the simulation data exchangebetween dierent s takeholders should be dened
Development o advanced control equipment or the supply system that is easy to•
use and standardised
sel-adapting and sel-optimising strategies
control systems responsive to weather orecasts
user riendliness
integration o new automated methods, such as “uzzy logic” controllers and
control algorithms based on optimisation theory
the development o cheap and intelligent (or example, sel-adapting)
sensors, or the usage o “virtual sensors”, estimating process conditionsusing mathematical models instead o, or in conjunction with physical
sensors. Virtual sensors can be used i a physical sensor is too slow, too
expensive or too complicated to be maintained
early detection o aults in the system
monitoring perormance with advanced communication technologies like
wireless
the integration o data acquisition and evaluation
Development o communication platorms or data exchange between dier-•
ent components and the controller. These platorms can be based on wireless
technologies or networks that already exist and are used or other purposes. This
communication platorm can also act as an inter ace or a “hardware-in-the-loop”simulation and testing o control strategies on the real system.
Development o methods or the planning o the entire system/building, taking into•
account preerences or comort, energy consumption, resources used and costs
during the building’s lietime (lie-cycle costs)
Development o commissioning tools and methods in order to ensure that the•
orecast results are really obtained by the system
Development o a standardised method or the assessment o the overall perorm-•
ance o the system/building and or checking i the requirements o the energylabel are ullled
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Applied research
Development o the supply system:
Development o one centralised control system or the entire energy system. This•
means a system or the collection, storage, distribution and release o thermal
energy
The centralised control system should use all available sources or the collec-•
tion o energy, such as solar radiation, ambient air, waste water and air, and the
ground beneath and/or around the building.
The centralised control system should manage the heat and cold stores in the•
system.
With regard to the release o excess energy (or example, rom a cooling ma-•
chine), the centralised control system should sent it to the most appropriate heat
sink (ambient air, perhaps, via solar collectors, waste water, the ground).
Demonstration
On-site testing o centralised controllers in new and old buildings, as well as k inds o
energy systems such as solar process heat plants.
Capacity building
Training or technicians who will install the advanced centralised controllers. Peoplemust be trained in monitoring the system, to a deeper level than the installers.
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Short term 2008 – 2012
Medium term 2012 – 2020
Long term 2020 – 2030
and beyond
Industry
manuacturing
aspects
Survey and•
benchmarking o
currently avail-
able technicalsolutions and
experiences
Denition o•
standardisedelectrical
interaces or
the interconnec-
tion o dierentsensors and
actuators to the
control system
Development o•
methods or the
integral planning
o the building / system as a
basis or the pro-
gramming o the
control system
Development o•
commissioning
tools and meth-
ods to ensurethat predicted
results are re-
ally obtained by
the building /
system
Wireless con-•
nection o mo-
bile units to the
control systemas user interace
(e.g. or display-
ing the system
status and user-
based interac-
tion)
Applied/advanced
technology aspects
Further develop-•
ment o sel-
learning / sel-adapting controlstrategies
Development o•
advanced con-
trol equipmentor the entireenergy system
Advanced build-•
ing compo-
nents, such aswindows withcontrollable
transmission
Basic researchundamentals
Determination•
o user expecta-
tions or the con-
troller / building
in 2030
Development o•
testing methods
and assessment
procedures or
dierent com-
ponents o the
supply system,especially with
regard to con-
troller dependentbehaviour
Strategies or•
the wireless
determination o
the user opera-
tion parameters
(such as
temperature)and senses (or
example eeling
hot or cold)
8.5.3 Timetable
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This chapter reers to thermally driven, decentralised water treatment systems, such
as sea water desalination), which provide high quality drinking water to isolated cus-
tomers, such as single households, small- to medium-sized communities and remote
resorts. The needs o di erent target groups map to three categories o system sizes,
each based around a dierent combination o technologies.
Small-scale solar driven desalination processes
(0.01 to 0.5 m3 /day)
This size is typically required or individual buildings. Typical technologies within this
scope are:
Classical solar stills without heat recovery•
Watercone® technology•
Multiple eect solar stills applying limited and very easy heat recovery•
Small-scale membrane distillation units•
UV disinection using PV, photocatalytic disinection•
Medium-scale solar driven low temperature thermal desalination processes
(0.5 up to 100 m³/day)
These processes are typically used or hotels, holiday resorts and small communities:
Multi-eect Humidication Dehumidication process, MiniSal™ MidiSal™,•
MegaSal™ units
Membrane distillation units•
Other new processes (solar MED, solar MSF)•
Mid-scale hybrid electricity and water generation (up to 1 MWel and 500 m³/day water)
Combined Heat and Power (CHP) generators, solar assisted thermal share•
Use o waste heat rom diesel or vegetable oil-based generators•
Multi Eect Solar Desalination•
8.6 Water treatment (desalination)
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Large-scale combined thermal electricity and water generation
(rom 500 m³/day and 0.2 MWel)
These installations can cover the needs o larger communities, and medium- to large-
sized tourist resorts. The typical technologies used in them are solar thermal power
plants using parabolic trough or Fresnel collectors, with steam generators or electricityproduction and waste heat used or desalination.
Renewable energy-driven water disinection or grey water recycling
Solar driven catalytic water disinection•
PV driven ultraviolet radiation disinection•
Industrial water treatment by renewable energies
Recent research activities on solar powered membrane distillation (MD) systems ocus
on small and medium-scale seawater desalination units. MD, as an innovative and
alternative desalination process, diers rom conventional membrane technologies like
reverse osmosis (RO), in that the membrane is permeable only to gas or vapour and
impermeable to liquids. Thermal energy, such as solar heat or waste heat, can be usedor phase changing, and thereore or the separation process. In the reverse osmosis
process, pressure is used to orce a liquid through the membrane, which retains salts
and other dissolved matter. This makes the system energy intensive and, especially or
small seawater desalination units, uneconomical.
The implementation o small and medium-scale solar powered membrane distilla-tion units in industry is still unusual, although MD is a well-known technology and, in
principle, suitable or puriying water, dewatering waste liquids and generating con-
centrates (ood industry). The main barriers to this technology are the low permeate
fow rate, MD membranes and the integration o solar heat systems into industrial MD
applications. Future research work in the eld o MD should ocus on these areas.
Solar stills are already widely used in some parts o the world (or example, Puerto
Rico) to supply water to households o up to 10 people. The modular devices supply
up to 8 litres o drinking water rom an area o roughly 2 m². The potential or technical
improvements is to be ound in reducing the cost o materials and designs. Increasedreliability and better perorming absorber suraces would slightly increase production
per m².
Multiple Eect Humidifcation (MEH) desalination units indirectly use heat rom highly
ecient solar thermal collectors to induce evaporation and condensation inside a
thermally isolated, steam-tight container. By solar thermally enhanced humidication
8.6.1 Technology status
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o air inside the box, water and salt are separated, because salt and dissolved solids
rom the fuid are not carried away by steam. When the steam is recondensed in the
condenser, most o the energy used or evaporation is regained. This reduces the en-
ergy input or desalination, which requires temperatures o between 70 and 85°C. Over
the years, there has been considerable research carried out into MEH systems and they
are now beginning to appear on the market.
The thermal eciency related to the solar collector area is much higher than or solar
stills. The specic water production rate is in the region o 20 to 30 litres per m² ab-
sorber area and day. At the same time, the specic investment is less than or the solar
still, as the solution is available or sizes rom 500 up to 50.000 litres per day.
Membrane distillation (MD)
Membrane distillation is a separation technique, which links a thermally-driven distilla-
tion process with a membrane separation process. The thermal energy is used or turn-ing water into vapour. The membrane is only permeable to the vapour, and separating
the pure distillate rom the retained solution. MD oers important advantages or the
construction o solar driven, stand-alone desalination systems or applications where
waste heat is available.
Fraunhoer ISE is developing solar driven compact desalination systems, using MD orcapacities between 100 and 500 l /day, and larger systems ranging up to 20 m³/day.
All systems are solar energy-driven, but could also be operated with waste heat. The
electricity or auxiliary equipment, such as pumps and valves, could be supplied by
photovoltaic modules.
Five compact systems or resh water capacities o about 100 l/day and two dou-
bleloop systems (1x 1000 and 1x 1600 l/day) have been installed in dierent test
sites.
Higher investment costs: unortunately, all renewable energy driven systems have
high upront costs and take a long time to pay or themselves. This is caused mainly by
the cost o supplying heat (or example, solar thermal collectors and thermal storage),rather than by the cost o the desalination modules. Desalination systems must be
designed to last a long time and require little maintenance.
This adds to the costs, making this technology prohibitively expensive or end users,
unless subsidised.
Lack o suitable design guidelines and tools: worldwide, there are only ew specialists
in solar desalination installations. More people must be trained in the technology.
Awareness: Too ew people are aware o the potential o renewable-energy-drivendesalination technology. National or regional development plans or water systems
oten only consider centralised solutions. The economic and practical advantages o
decentralised solutions, based on solar energy, need to be highlighted.
8.6.2 Barriers to increased deployment
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Basic research
R&D on new/innovative materials (low cost/high durability) or ecient thermally-•
driven heat and mass t ranser (evaporation and condensation
Polymer science (unctional material oils and abrics, heat conducting polymers)•
- Market research
Multi-water quality generation, combination o desalination methods, such as,•
RO/MEH
Multi-stage thermal desalination, salt production with high recovery rate o 30 to•
50%
Chemical-ree raw water pre-treatment•
Applied research
Increase the eciency o solar power generation or desalination purposes•
House- / building-integrated desalination system designs; desalination becomes•
part o house technology
Systems that are easy to build and maintain or decentralised, small-scale•
applications, which do not need an external power supply (electricity or uel)
New solar collectors and storages adapted or the needs o solar desalination•
systems: mid temperature (90 -50°C, resistant against salty sea air)
Combination o solar thermal desalination and power generation•
Multi-stage desalination, applying several processes consecutively, in order to•increase recovery up to 75%
Integration o desalination devices in buildings•
Systems designed or ease o use•
Awareness raising o solar thermal driven desalination as a cost ecient and•
reliable alternative
Finding o the limits o the production range o possible systems•
Demonstrate consistent system perormance ater long periods o operation•
Development o low cost and robust designs to make it easier to deploy in•
environments where specialists will rarely, i ever, be able to repair or maintain it
Demonstration
Building integration•
Ease o operation, conrmation o low energy demand•
Awareness raising o solar thermal driven desalination as a cost ecient and reli-•
able alternative
Clarication o the wide production range o possible systems•
Continuous operation and permanent water quality•
Development o low cost and robust concept or easy technology transer•
8.6.3 R&D needed to achieve the goals
8 Strategic Research Agenda
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Short term2008 – 2012
Medium term 2012 – 2020
Long term2020 – 2030
and beyond
Industry
manuacturing
aspects
Quality control•
Maintenance•
control and
implementation
Cost reduction o•
system
Standardisation• o testing criteria
or water and
energy demand
Easy and main-•
tenance ree
water pre-treat-
ment or thermaldesalination
without ouling
and scaling
Envisaged: e-•
ciency increase
o thermal proc-esses depending
on the capacity
System design•
or small ap-
plications
Cost ecient,•
integrated
transport casingdesigns
Mass production•
Further cost•
reduction at
stable quality
and durability
Lean production,•
easy design
or assemblyin countries o
application
Standardisation•
and implemen-
tation o systems
Permanent qual-•
ity control by
remote control
Maintenance•
control andimplementation
Further cost•
reductions
8.6.4 Timetable
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Short term2008 – 2012
Medium term 2012 – 2020
Long term2020 – 2030
and beyond
Applied/advanced
technology aspects
Minimisation•
o additional
electrical energy
demand
Optimisation o•
operation and
maintenance
Easy and main-•tenance reewater pre-treat-
ment or thermal
desalination
without ouling
and scaling
Envisaged: e-•
ciency increase
o thermal proc-
esses dependingon the capacity
System design•
or small ap-plications
Cost ecient,•
integrated
transport casing
designs
Building inte-•
grated system
designs - desali-
nation becomes
part o housetechnology
Easy to build•
and maintainsystems or
decentralised,
small-scale ap-
plications with-
out the need orexternal power
supply (electric-
ity, uel)
New solar col-•
lectors and stor-
ages adapted
to the needs o
solar desalina-tion systems:
mid-temperature
(90 -150°C,
suitable or long-
term resistance
to an aggressivesea-side atmos-
phere
Combination o•
solar thermal
desalination and
power genera-
tion
Multi-stage•
desalination
applying sev-
eral processesconsecutively, in
order to increase
recovery up to
65%
Standardisation•
Quality control•
Maintenance•
control and
implementation
Cost reduction•
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Short term2008 – 2012
Medium term 2012 – 2020
Long term2020 – 2030
and beyond
Basic research
undamentals
R&D on new/ •
innovative mate-
rials (low cost/
high require-ment) or e-
cient thermally
driven heat and
mass transer
(evaporationand condensa-
tion)
Eciency•
increase o solar
power genera-
tion or desalina-
tion purposes
Polymer science•
(unctional
material oils
and abrics, heatconducting poly-
mers) - market
research
Multi-water•
quality genera-
tion, combina-
tion o desalina-
tion methods
Multi-stage de-•
salination, salt
production, highrecovery 30 to
50%
Develop low•cost and robust
concept or
easy technology
transer
Standardisation•
Quality control•
Maintenance•
control andimplementation
Cost reduction•
New materials•
and processes
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112
Fraunhofer Lines Diagram. SPECTRUM OF VISIBLE LIGHT from the Sun
shows a continuum of colors crossed by dark absorption lines
Source: http: //de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bild:FraunhoerLinesDiagram.jpg
(created by NASA)
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Solar Heating and Cooling
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A Strategic Research Agenda
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This chapter indicates a number o requirements or the development o research inra-
structures, which are necessary to implement ESTTP’s Strategic Research Agenda.
Following the defnition proposed by the European Roadmap or Research Inrastruc-
tures, published in 2006 by the European Strategic Forum on Research Inrastructures,
Research Inrastructures are “... acilities, resources or services o a unique nature thathave been identifed by pan-European research communities to conduct top-level
activities ... Research Inrastructures may be single-sited, distributed, or virtual ...”
Under this defnition, Research Inrastructures include human resources, equipment, as
well as repositories o knowledge, such as archives and databases. In general, such
inrastructures are costly and are most e fciently set up at a pan-European level.
As a specialised pan-European research and industry platorm, the ESTTP has identi-
fed a need or Research Inrastructures at European level in the ollowing areas:
Solar assisted cooling and air-conditioning•
Medium-temperature (process heat) collectors•
Heat storage•
Compared with other energy technologies that require billions o Euros in R&D
investment, solar thermal R&D is cheap. Furthermore, solar thermal is highly likely to
produce applicable results within a relatively short time.
Basic and applied research in the feld o thermally driven cooling is currentlydominated by Japan and, increasingly, China (the USA led the market in the 1980s).
Europe lagged behind or some time, but due to advances in the efciency o energy
transormation chains, European R&D institutes and universities have been increasing
their eort s on thermally-driven cooling technology, and specifcally on its operation
in combination with solar energy. Today, Europe is one o the global leaders in theimplementation o solar thermal cooling technology.
In several EU countries, research inrastructure or basic and applied research in this
feld is airly well established. There is defnitely a need or a well-organised exchangeon test standards or new machines and cycles. A joint eort or large-scale demon-
stration is needed to ensure successul market introduction. At the same time, the nextphase o development will require ocus on technology transer, widespread demon-
stration projects and training.
9 Research Inrastructure
9.1 Solar assisted cooling and air-conditioning
9 Research Inrastructure
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A structured collaboration among European research institutes and industry will sup-
port rapid commercialisation o solar driven cooling technologies, strengthening the
European dimension o this industrial sector. This collaboration should consist o:
RD&D Network •
One “Joint European Laboratory”•
Regional Solar Cooling Development Centres or demonstration, technology•
transer and training
Networking activities can lead to a powerul e ective exchange between those in-volved in the sector’s R&D, which will reinorce European leadership and guarantee the
rapid achievement o optimal technology development. The required inrastructures orthese networking activities are mainly virtual.
Concerning physical inrastructures a Joint European Solar Heating and Cooling
Laboratory, must be built. In this Laboratory, the common eorts o institutes activein solar energy research, process engineers, and rerigeration experts will lead to the
development o European products or the Mediterranean, Asian and other markets.
This centre should be situated in Southern Europe to take advantage o the higher cool-
ing demand and solar resource. The laboratory will be a decentralised acility or theEuropean researchers and industry (who are mainly based in northern countries), o-
ering the opportunity to test components or systems under real lie conditions (e.g. (1)
medium temperature collectors, based on concentrating technologies, that need a high
ratio o direct to global radiation. (2) thermally driven systems, which can be tested
under hot and humid climate conditions). Such a research inrastructure should also
be used or collaborative research work connected to the use o solar thermal technolo-gies that are not directly connected to cold production, or example, desalination.
While the inrastructures or R&D and testing should ideally be set up at a European
level in the Joint Laboratory discussed above, a small number o Solar Cooling Devel-
opment Centres should be set up at national or regional level in high potential regions
(all the Mediterranean basin and Southern Balkans). In the next phase o development,hundreds o systems will be installed in each o these regions. Visible and well man-
aged demonstration projects or dierent applications will be important, and the moni-
toring o their perormance and good access to this monitoring data will accelerate
innovation. Well trained engineers and installers will do installations o high quality,
achieving big energy savings or their customers and a helping to make the market or
solar thermal sel-sustaining. These activities should ideally be supported by regionalcentres, working in the local language and in close contact with the local market.
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The research inrastructure available or the research and development o process heat
collectors is barely adequate.
Some research institutes are broadening the scope o their work in high temperature
collectors or solar thermal power generation to include process heat collectors (or
example, CIEMAT in Spain, and DLR in Germany), while others are coming at processheat collectors rom a background in low temperature collectors (or example, Fraun-
hoer ISE in Germany, AEE INTEC in Austria, SIJ in Germany, SPF in Switzerland and
INETI in Portugal).
No testing acilities specifcally designed or process heat collectors exist in Europe to-day. The Joint European Solar Heating and Cooling Laboratory (outlined above), could
be the place to test new components or medium temperature applications in outdoor
conditions and serve as a centre or networking and inormation-sharing among mem-
bers o the research community.
As discussed above, the development o advanced thermal s torage technologiespresents substantial R&D challenges. The broad scope o this work should ideally be
addressed on a European scale with dierent industrial sectors (solar thermal, cogen-
eration and district heating) involved where relevant.
The launch o a virtual or real “European Institute for Thermal Energy Storage” would
be helpul. It could help:
scientists to work at each other’s acilities, or visit them•
Scientists to share research inrastructures (testing equipment and communication•
tools)
Strengthen MSc and PhD courses in solar thermal by accessing Europe’s leading•
experts in this feld
Through the outstanding reputation o the European Institute or Thermal Energy S tor-
age it will be much easier to att ract specialists rom other important research felds,
especially materials scientists. The contribution o other felds is o key importance toopen up new ways or arriving at more compact thermal energy storage systems.
An institute also better supports the long term challenge that compact thermal energy
storage poses. Only with a long term programme it is possible to couple basic science
with applied science and engineering. The institute is one o the pillars or such a
progamme.
The research inrastructure necessary or the institute ranges rom specialised analyti-cal equipment or materials research and development, through computing acilities or
specialised numerical modeling technology developments, to dedicated equipment or
component and system testing at medium and high temperatures.
9.2 Process heat collectors
9.3 Heat storage
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Solar Heating and Cooling
or a Sustainable Energy Future in Europe
A Strategic Research Agenda
10 Reerences
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Ecoheatcool 2006: The European Heat Market, Eurohat & Power, 2006.
www.euroheat.org
EREC 2006. European Renewable Energy Council.
www.erec-renewables.org/deault.htm
ESTIF 2003: Sun in Action II, A Solar Thermal Strategy or Europe.
European Solar Thermal Industry Federation.
www.esti.org/fleadmin/downloads/sia/SiA2_Vol1_fnal.pd
ESTIF 2007: Solar Thermal Action Plan or Europe, January 2007.www.esti.org/stap
ESTIF 2007a: Preliminary analysis o ST market in 2007.
not yet published at the time o writing this document.
ESTTP 2006: Solar Thermal Vision 2030, vision o the usage and status osolar thermal energy technology in Europe and the corresponding research
topics to make the vision a reality.
www.esttp.org
EUR Delphi 2004: European Energy Delphi. 2004. Technology and social
visions or Europe’s energy uture: a Europe wide Delphi s tudy. Final Report.EurEnDel project.
Institute or Futures Studies and Technology Assessment (IZT).
Eur. Com 2003: European Commission, DG TREN, 2003. Clean, save andefcient energy or Europe: impact assessment or non-nuclear energy projects
under the Four th Framework Programme.Rep. EUR 20876/2, EC, Brussels.
10 Reerences
10 Reerences
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GCDMS, 2007: Global Climate Decision Makers Survey.
GlobeScan, The World Bank, ICLEI, IUCN, World Energy Council, World Business
Council or Sustainable Development, and others:
www.iucn.org/en/news/archive/2007/12/10_climate_change_survey.pd
IEA 2006. Barriers to technology diusion: the case o solar thermal technologies.International Energy Agency.
OECD/IEA, Paris, 2006.
IEA 2007. Weiss, W., Bergmann, I., Faninger, G.: Solar Heat Worldwide, Markets
and Contribution to the Energy Supply.IEA, 2007.
IEA 2007a: Renewables or Heating and Cooling – Untapped Potential.
IEA, Paris 2007.
POSHIP 2001: H. Schweiger et al., The Potential o Solar Heat or IndustrialProcesses, Final Report, 2001.
http://www.solarpaces.org/Library/csp_docs.htm
Sarasin 2007: Sustainability Report 2007.
Solar Energy 2007 – The industry continues to boom, Switzerland 2007.
Solar Thermal Vision 2030.
European Solar Thermal Technology Platorm, Brussels, May 2006.
Sun & Wind Energy 2007. Sun & Wind Energy.international issue 4/2007, Bieleeld 2007.