Renewable energy for Latium: looking for innovative technologies in PV and solar thermal field.

European METTTES Project, financed within the FP6-2005-INNOV-7 call, aimed to test a new methodology to encourage the launch of transnational collaborations technology based among European small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and/or research organizations, focusing its attention on regional technology demand, influenced by changes in regulations and standards and fostered by local incentives. METTTES considered European directives, national, regional and local measures (i.e. incentives, projects, etc.) potentially influencing companies’ behavior. In addition, METTTES has also taken into account the IPPC (Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control) Directive 96/61/EC, whose purpose is to achieve an integrated pollution prevention and control from the industrial activities. At the end of these analysis, METTTES derived the technology demand not from the needs of individual enterprises, but instead from the regional system. A certain number of Regional Demand Profiles (RDPs) on particular interesting industrial fields have been collected at European level; the documentation includes a comprehensive analysis and detailed presentation of current regional technology demands and forecasts as well as foresight regarding future demands triggered by legal requirements new administrative regulations or national environmental policy and BATs analysis. Each RDP document has been edited with the collaboration of local stakeholders and administrations and by auditing involving SMEs. Results of each RDP have been high quality Technology Requests (TRs) expressed by local companies which seek technological collaboration. For Latium Region this task has been performed by CNR in the sector of PV and solar thermal technologies

Solar thermal heating and cooling. A bibliography with abstracts

This bibliographic series cites and abstracts the literature and technical papers on the heating and cooling of buildings with solar thermal energy. Over 650 citations are arranged in the following categories: space heating and cooling systems; space heating and cooling models; building energy conservation; architectural considerations, thermal load computations; thermal load measurements, domestic hot water, solar and atmospheric radiation, swimming pools; and economics

The Importance of Monitoring Renewable Energy Plants: Three Case Histories

Many renewable energy plants are put into operation without providing a monitoring system to evaluate their performance over time. Then if is often difficult to realise the bad working of the system and the loss of efficiency results in an economic loss. In the Author\u2019s experience as designer or supervisor of such plants, he came across various examples that pointed out the advantages of having installed a monitoring system, of course with a careful data analysis. Problems sometimes arose from poorer performance than anticipated in the design, but more often from inefficient plant operations after some months or years from the starting. Three quite different examples, derived from the Author\u2019s direct experience, are reported to illustrate how real performance can be lower than designed due respectively: 1. To bad settings of the parameters; 2. To a hurried commissioning that did not reveal the mistakes in the design of the plant; 3. To a failure of a single component over time

Activities in thermal driven cooling at Fraunhofer Umsicht

Part of: Thermally driven heat pumps for heating and cooling. – Ed.: Annett Kühn – Berlin: Universitätsverlag der TU Berlin, 2013 ISBN 978-3-7983-2686-6 (print) ISBN 978-3-7983-2596-8 (online) urn:nbn:de:kobv:83-opus4-39458 [http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:83-opus4-39458]Thermally actuated cooling processes have reached a promising maturity to offer an environmentally acceptable solution to the growing demand for air conditioning. Using solar thermal energy, district heating or waste heat from cogeneration or industrial processes avoids the large electricity of conventional compression chillers, prevents grid overloads in summer and helps to save primary energy. Several thermal driven refrigeration processes have been investigated and realized by Fraunhofer UMSICHT since the 1990s, with cooling capacities of 1 to 1000 kW. Some examples of steam jet ejector chillers, an adsorption system set up in Egypt and a novel membrane-absorption process as well as thermal storage with PCS/PCM are presented

Detailed Monitoring Analysis of two Residential NZEBs with a Ground-Water Heat Pump with Desuperheater

Two new, residential, and high performance buildings were constructed according to Passive House standard in Innsbruck, Austria (with cold winters and mild summers). The two multi-family houses consist of 26 apartments - 16 in the north and 10 in the south building. The goal of the project was to achieve net zero energy building (NZEB) standard, which was defined in this project as the annual balance between the electricity consumed for heating and ventilation (excluding household appliances), and the electricity produced by renewable sources. Thus, a heat pump, solar thermal collectors, photovoltaics (PV) and ventilation units were installed. The two stage ground water source heat pump with a power of 58 kW (at W10/W35) includes desuperheater. The available roof space of the north building was covered by a solar thermal system with 74 m2 and PV with 52.5 m2 (8.5 kWp). An additional PV system of 99.8 m2 (16 kWp) was placed in the roof of the south building. The ventilation units were centralized (three in total) including heat recovery. In combination with floor heating and a heat exchanger in each flat for domestic hot water (DHW), a four pipe distribution system was used to minimize the distribution losses; two pipes for the DHW (flow temperature of 52°C) and two pipes for the space heating (with flow temperature of 35°C). Therefore, stratification was obtained in the 6000 liter storage to improve energy performance, since the heat pump can operate at a low sink temperature for supplying space heating. A detailed monitoring system was installed consisting of 58 temperature sensors, 12 humidity sensors, 2 pressure sensors, 37 signals (e.g. controllers, valves, pumps, etc.), 22 heat meters, 7 electricity meters, and 2 volume flow meters. The main focus was the energy performance of the HVAC systems. The thermal comfort of the south building was monitored, too. The operation of a monitoring system has started in November 2015. In this paper, results of monitoring of three heating seasons are highlighted and discussed. The energy performance of the technical system and each subsystem is presented in detail. The performance of the heat pump with respect to the two compressors and the desuperheater is in the focus. Supplementary to the monitoring data, simulations were performed aiming to optimize the system, and support the monitoring results. In addition, the importance of quality assurance control e.g. with monitoring is highlighted. The present study enhances the discussion about evaluation of NZEBs with a monitoring example from central Europe, and contributes to improve the knowledge with respect to the use of desuperheater in a heat pump via a comprehensive analysis

Survey of EPA facilities for solar thermal energy applications

A study was done to assess the feasibility of applying solar thermal energy systems to EPA facilities. A survey was conducted to determine those EPA facilities where solar energy could best be used. These systems were optimized for each specific application and the system/facility combinations were ranked on the basis of greatest cost effectiveness

Developing the system of collecting, storing and processing information from solar collectors

В данной статье представлена новая методика управления системой сбора, хранения и обработки информации от солнечных коллекторов, которая может применяться для обогрева промышленных и бытовых отсеков для горячего водоснабжения. Наиболее выгодное использование солнечных коллекторов в промышленности - замена помех от человека сетями беспроводных датчиков. Стандартная система солнечного коллектора потребляет в среднем 30% тепла из-за плохого управления и конфигурации. Наша система контроля и управления позволяет повысить производительность обогрева производственных и бытовых помещений с помощью солнечного коллектора для горячего водоснабжения

SHC Task 48 B2 – Three GOOD Practice Examples of Solar Heat Driven Desiccant Evaporative Cooling Systems☆

Abstract Within the activity B2 of IEA SHC Task48, an exhaustive report on GOOD Practice examples of existing solar heat driven desiccant cooling (SDEC) systems was written. Three SDEC systems from Austria, Australia and Italy are well documented from the design phase to the operational phase. The authors of the GOOD Practice SDEC systems belong to research entities and the selected SDEC projects were scientifically accompanied by these partners from the very beginning on. The energy performance of all three SDEC systems in operation is indicated by monthly energy fluxes and key performance indicator as a result from measurement data of a scientific monitoring campaign. The GOOD Practice SDEC report on each system closes with findings and lessons learned in order to guide next projects by answering; What quality and support measures lead to a successful SDEC system implementation with high energy performance figures, high quality of indoor comfort and high user friendliness for facility manager? The SHC Task48 B2 report is published on the official SHC Task48 website

An experimental comparison between commercial hybrid PV-T and simple PV systems intended for BIPV

The idea of combining both thermal and photovoltaic collectors in hybrid photovoltaic-thermal (PV-T) modules actually shows a great potential for integration on facades and rooftops of buildings, mainly because of the reduced available space and the benefits of the on-site electricity and thermal generation. The objective of this work is to compare the real performance (experimental data obtained under real sun during a year) of a commercial hybrid PV-T system vs. a simple PV system using microinverters, assessing the suitability of one-unit hybrid PV-T systems vs. two separated units – PV systems + Thermal systems – for building integration. The combined efficiency over the span of a full day could reach values up to 80%, but this apparent high value needs to be analysed in detail. From the experimental results, it can be observed that both systems, PV and PV-T, have a good electrical performance. But the PV-T system output does not benefit from the lower module temperatures that it should achieve from the active cooling in its back, presenting the same performance as the simple PV system. Regarding the microinverters configuration performance, it has been very positive working with high efficiencies above 96%, justifying its use in this type of applications. In conclusion, the commercial PV-T system has not performed as expected, showing problems with the integration of the active cooling in the back of the PV modules. At this moment, and despite the potential of PV-T systems for BIPV due to space limitations, commercial PV-T systems are still far from PV and Thermal systems using separately