Introduction to renewable heating and cooling

G7 and a growing number of other countries globally are aiming to decarbonize the energy sector. Decarbonization is especially needed in the heating and cooling sector, since it is responsible for 50.6% of the final energy demand today, mainly using fossil fuels. Renewable heating and cooling technologies are the key decarbonization technologies with the potential to meet 100% of the heating and cooling demand. They are already available on the market, but due to several barriers, the market share of sustainable renewable energy sources in the heating and cooling sector is only 7% today. Therefore, it is necessary to unlock their potential by intensified research and development and improved market deployment policies

Nachhaltige kommunale Energiesysteme planen und umsetzen auf Basis zeitlich hochaufgelöster Energieszenarien

Climate change and growing risks of our energy supply by increasing energy prices and import dependency induce a growing number of cities and communities to transform their energy systems with the target to achieve a sustainable energy system based on high autonomy and renewable energy sources. Sustainable energy systems are a key element of the »Smart City« concept, which aims to secure the living standard and increase the living quality in cities by modern technologies. Since sustainable energy systems are shaped by fluctuating renewable energy generation and dynamic components like storage, an optimized structure can only be calculated by a temporarily highly resolved simulation of the energy system, which includes all relevant energy sectors and their interdependencies. With »KomMod«, Fraunhofer ISE developed such an optimization tool and calculated by order of the city of Frankfurt am Main, how the city could be supplied by renewable energy sources in an optimal way. The calculation of target-scenarios of energy systems is only one step of a comprehensive plan of procedures developed by Fraunhofer ISE for a systematic approach of cities and communities, which aim to transform their energy system. The plan lasts from target setting and definition of target energy systems up to the development of an implementation roadmap as basis for a sound, efficient and cost-effective transformation of urban energy systems towards sustainability

Alternative PV-module structure with increased optical performances for PV-thermal applications

Photovoltaic-thermal (PV-T) collectors are hybrid collectors converting solar energy into electricity and usable heat at the same time. In this concept, PV modules are integrated as an absorber of a thermal collector. In most of the cases, the hybrid collectors are made by the superposition of a PV module on the thermal absorber of a solar collector. In this paper, another technique is presented. This technique combines the properties of each PV module and solar thermal in order to adapt them to each other. An alternative PV cell lamination was developed with increased optical and thermal performances. An increase of 2 mA/cm2 in terms of current density with our new encapsulation method was obtained compared to a reference glass/EVA module encapsulation