Abstract
The built environment is responsible for 35% of the greenhouse gas emissions and 85% of the buildings in Europe are older than 25 years. It is therefore a big task to reach a 100% renewable heated and cooled built environment. This White Paper describes how clean heating and cooling technologies and thermal energy storage can enable the uptake and utilisation of renewable energy and be integrated seamlessly in all buildings. The technologies concerned are heat pumps, solar thermal energy technologies, thermal storage, micro-cogeneration, and district heating & cooling.
For every technology, the present state of development and market maturity is introduced, and a short inventory made of the barriers to further implementation. Targets are formulated that can help to define further research, development and demonstration programmes and topics and can aid in tracking the progress.
For heat pumps, that already supply a considerable part of the buildings with heating and cooling, work is to be done in guaranteeing a safe and efficient operation, in novel technologies to supply heat at higher temperatures, in smart control systems and in the further simplification of the installation process.
District heating and cooling has clear advantages in densely populated areas and has large growth opportunities. Developments are needed in increased flexibility, increase the share of renewable energy sources that feed into the systems, in developing skills and qualifications of the work force, in increased flexibility and digitalisation and in enhanced policies supporting the expansion of district heating and cooling systems.
Micro cogeneration of cold, heat and power can provide the three energy forms in an effective, distributed way. The technologies must be adapted to the switch from fossil fuels to renewable fuels. Flexible, dual fuel technologies for either gaseous of liquid fuels are needed, and the operational concepts should be flexible, playing an increasingly important role in distributed, flexible sector coupling.
Thermal energy storage technologies offer flexibility and an increased use of intermittent renewable energy sources, from the single household scale to the district heating grid scale. In general, with the transforming energy landscape, novel business cases for thermal energy storage are needed. Technology development needs are broad, resulting from the large variety of thermal energy storage technologies: storage material improvement from a basic science to applied level, component development, system integration, interface standardisation, experts network development, training programs and further demonstration to accelerate the uptake of novel technologies and applications.
Solar thermal and PVT technologies are increasingly applied to provide heat and electricity on a local but also district scale. Work is needed to further reduce the cost by pre-fabrication and plug-and-play solutions, and to find standardised solutions for easier integration, especially in building renovation.
A significant challenge arises from the variety of clean heating and cooling technologies used in buildings. The integration and combination of these technologies pose development challenges in the areas of defining appropriate sets of assessment parameters, in smart system design using building information models, in the implementation of life cycle assessment techniques, in realising guidelines for safety, energy efficiency and sustainability, in practical cost-benefit analysis methods and in the creation and use of open databases enabling the further use of digital tools from design to operation and maintenance.
These areas are not isolated, and attention is also needed for other areas that are coupled to clean energy technologies and thermal energy storage in the built environment: measures to decrease the energy consumption of buildings through novel building materials and better design and construction of buildings; the coupling with other elements of the energy systems like industry and mobility; social acceptance and legal aspects and of course financial aspects. These external areas are partly covered by other white papers of the Implementation Working Group 5 and partly by the activities of other SET Plan elements.
For every technology, the present state of development and market maturity is introduced, and a short inventory made of the barriers to further implementation. Targets are formulated that can help to define further research, development and demonstration programmes and topics and can aid in tracking the progress.
For heat pumps, that already supply a considerable part of the buildings with heating and cooling, work is to be done in guaranteeing a safe and efficient operation, in novel technologies to supply heat at higher temperatures, in smart control systems and in the further simplification of the installation process.
District heating and cooling has clear advantages in densely populated areas and has large growth opportunities. Developments are needed in increased flexibility, increase the share of renewable energy sources that feed into the systems, in developing skills and qualifications of the work force, in increased flexibility and digitalisation and in enhanced policies supporting the expansion of district heating and cooling systems.
Micro cogeneration of cold, heat and power can provide the three energy forms in an effective, distributed way. The technologies must be adapted to the switch from fossil fuels to renewable fuels. Flexible, dual fuel technologies for either gaseous of liquid fuels are needed, and the operational concepts should be flexible, playing an increasingly important role in distributed, flexible sector coupling.
Thermal energy storage technologies offer flexibility and an increased use of intermittent renewable energy sources, from the single household scale to the district heating grid scale. In general, with the transforming energy landscape, novel business cases for thermal energy storage are needed. Technology development needs are broad, resulting from the large variety of thermal energy storage technologies: storage material improvement from a basic science to applied level, component development, system integration, interface standardisation, experts network development, training programs and further demonstration to accelerate the uptake of novel technologies and applications.
Solar thermal and PVT technologies are increasingly applied to provide heat and electricity on a local but also district scale. Work is needed to further reduce the cost by pre-fabrication and plug-and-play solutions, and to find standardised solutions for easier integration, especially in building renovation.
A significant challenge arises from the variety of clean heating and cooling technologies used in buildings. The integration and combination of these technologies pose development challenges in the areas of defining appropriate sets of assessment parameters, in smart system design using building information models, in the implementation of life cycle assessment techniques, in realising guidelines for safety, energy efficiency and sustainability, in practical cost-benefit analysis methods and in the creation and use of open databases enabling the further use of digital tools from design to operation and maintenance.
These areas are not isolated, and attention is also needed for other areas that are coupled to clean energy technologies and thermal energy storage in the built environment: measures to decrease the energy consumption of buildings through novel building materials and better design and construction of buildings; the coupling with other elements of the energy systems like industry and mobility; social acceptance and legal aspects and of course financial aspects. These external areas are partly covered by other white papers of the Implementation Working Group 5 and partly by the activities of other SET Plan elements.
| Original language | English |
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| Publisher | IWG 5 Buildings |
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| Number of pages | 25 |
| Publication status | Published - 2024 |
