Solar Update
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
S LAR UPDATE NEWSLETTER OF THE INTERNATIONAL ENERGY AGENCY SOLAR HEATING AND COOLING PROGRAMME • NO. 35 DECEMBER 2000 Solar Combisystems for a Sustainable Energy Future ince December 1998, 25 experts and 11 solar industries Denmark, Germany and Switzerland, the demand for solar com- from 9 countries have been collaborating to further devel- bisystems is increasing rapidly (see figure 1). Sop and optimize solar combisystems for detached single- family houses, groups of single-family houses and multi-family houses. This project, which is part of the Solar Heating and What is a Combisystem? Cooling Programme, is working to standardize the classification Solar combisystems are solar heating systems for combined and evaluation of solar combisystems with the overall objective domestic hot water preparation and space heating. They are sim- of developing recommendations for the international standard- ilar to solar water heaters in that they use solar energy and trans- ization of combisystem test procedures. port the produced heat to a storage device. The major difference is that the installed collector area is generally larger for com- bisystems, as there are two heat loads to meet. Also, a combisys- Why Solar Space Heating? tem uses at least two energy sources to supply hot water and Throughout the world, hundreds of thousands of domestic solar heating—a solar collector and an auxiliary energy source. The hot water systems are demonstrating the possibilities of this auxiliary energy source could be biomass, gas, oil or electricity. renewable energy source. Due to the success of these hot water The key design challenge is how to integrate the different systems, more builders are turning to solar energy for space requirements of the heating source and the heating loads into a heating. The heating requirements of a single- or multi-family single, cost-effective, durable and reliable heating systems while dwelling can be met at acceptable costs by combining solar heat- achieving the most benefit from each installed square meter of ing systems with short-term heat storage and well-insulated collector. buildings. And in several European countries, such as Austria, The complexity of solar combisystems has led to the devel- opment of a large number of different system designs. These designs do not necessarily reflect local climate or practice. For IN THIS ISSUE example, several systems on the market can be used in a variety of geographical locations. It is for Solar Combisystems this reason that collaborative work for a Sustainable to analyze and optimize combisys- Energy Future tems is important if these systems 1 are to reach a more wide spread market. Advancing Daylighting Technologies and How Combisystems Can Daylight Conscious Contribute to a Cleaner Environment Building Design The increasing concentration of 4 greenhouse gases in the atmo- sphere and the potential global MarketPlace warming and climatic change asso- 7 ciated with it, represent one of the greatest environmental dangers of New Publications our time. The reason for this 6 Solar combisystem provides 60% of the space heating demand to six terraced impending change in the climate In Brief houses in Austria. (Source: AEE) can, for the most part, be attributed 5 continued on page 2 1 Solar Combisystems Share of Solar Combisystems in Selected Countries - 1997 continued from page 1 to the combustion of fossil fuels and the associated emission of )s 2 CO2. The effective protection of the climate, according to many experts, will require at least a 50% reduction in the anthro- pogenic emission of greenhouse gases over the next 50 years. As a result of the climate conferences over the last decade and the discussions on sustainable development, the European Commission has set goals for the future development of renew- able energy sources in the White Paper “Energy for the Future: In 1997 Installed collect or area (m Renewable Sources of Energy.” In the Commission’s White Paper the following is mentioned as a strategic goal: “... to increase the market share of renewable sources of energy to 12% by the year 2010.” The White Paper estimates that a 20% annual increase in the installed collection area in EU countries Figure 1. Installed combisystems and collector area for 1997 in selected countries. is needed. Thus, solar heating systems in operation in the year 2010 would correspond to an overall installed collector area of 100 million m2 (see figure 2). Increase in the installed collector area in the EU If solar heating is to make a relevant contribution to the energy supply then solar technologies that do more than domes- tic hot water preparation must be developed and widely dis- tributed. A realistic approach would be to assume that in the next ten years about 20% of the collector area installed annually in the European Union would be used for solar combisystems. This means that EU countries would need to install approxi- mately 120,000 solar combisystems with 1.9 million m2 of col- lector area per year. Million Square Meters Combisystem Designs The solar contribution of combisystems varies from 10% up to 100% depending on the size of the solar collector surface, stor- Figure 2. Installed collector area goals until 2010 in European Union member age volume, hot water consumption, heat load of the building, countries. and climate. As mentioned before, there are a variety of systems ) 2 Solar Radiation (W/m Solar combisystem for a single-family house in Sweden. (Source: SERC) Figure 3. Solar radiation on a horizontal plane in Zurich, Switzerland. 2 on the European market. The difference Solar Energy in the systems is partly due to the condi- Availability tions prevailing in the individual coun- Installed systems clear- tries. For example, the “smallest sys- ly show that solar space tems” in terms of collector area and stor- heating is possible even age volume are located in those countries under mid- and northern where gas or electricity is primarily used European climatic con- as the auxiliary energy source. In the ditions. The solar ener- Netherlands, for instance, a typical solar gy available in summer combisystem consists of 4-6 m2 of solar is more than twice that collector and a 300 litre storage tank, and available in winter, therefore, solar energy meets a relatively which is practically the small share of the heating demand. opposite of the demand In countries such as Switzerland, for space heating. Austria and Sweden where solar com- Unlike hot water prepa- This French house uses a solar floor heating system to meet hourly and bisystems are typically coupled with a ration, the heating load overnight variations in the solar energy supply. (Source: Clipsol) biomass boiler, larger systems with high is dependent upon the fractional energy savings are installed. outside temperature. Measurements of ing) or the storage mass of the Common systems for a single-family solar radiation and temperature in the building. house consist of 15 m2 up to transitional periods ■ If little or no solar radiation is avail- 30 m2 of collector area and a (September-October and able for several days, a small buffer 1-3 m3 storage tank. The March-May) clearly show storage volume can be used to make share of the heating demand The solar that solar radiation avail- up the difference in solar radiation. In met by solar energy in these contribution of ability is relatively high at this case, heat storage may be com- systems is between 20-60%. combisystems varies the beginning and the end of bined with domestic hot water storage In contrast to the Dutch sys- from 10% up to the space heating season. or an additional storage tank used for tem described above, which Even on winter days, energy hot water. uses DHW to store heat for 100% depending on demand and solar radiation ■ Seasonal variations in the solar energy subsequent delivery to the the size of the solar are partially related. supply can only be compensated for space heating loop, these collector surface, Figure 3 shows the by using seasonal storage. Several systems store heat for space storage volume, hot solar radiation on a horizon- systems show that it is possible to heating in the water of the tal plane in Zurich, Switzer- store summer heat in large water space heating loop itself. water consumption, land. It can be seen that, reservoirs (60 -130 m3) for use later In addition to systems heat load of the under this latitude, there are on in winter. Systems in Sweden, for one- or two-family hous- building, and not only strong seasonal Denmark and Germany provide inter- es, there are systems for climate. variations in radiation esting examples. multi-family houses and ter- throughout the year, but that raced houses. These larger solar radiation varies widely For more information on this Task con- systems also have shown promising on a daily and even hourly basis. tact Werner Weiss, SHC Task 26 Operat- results over the years. In Gleisdorf, Aus- In order to make efficient use of the ing Agent, e-mail: [email protected] and tria, a system was installed in 1998 for an available solar energy supply, it is neces- fax: +43-3112-588618, or visit the SHC office building and six terraced houses. sary to even out the fluctuations using web site. The collectors have been integrated into storage systems so that hot water can be A colored brochure, "Solar the roofs of the winter gardens and cover supplied continuously and a constant Combisystems in Austria, Denmark, Fin- 80% of the hot water and 60% of the room temperature can be guaranteed. To land, France, Germany, Sweden, Switzer- space heating demand. The remaining balance out the variations in energy sup- land, the Netherlands and the USA – energy needs are provided by a biomass ply and demand, the following options Overview 2000," can be ordered from: boiler, and a local heating network that are available: Büro n+1, Postfach 130, CH-3000 Bern connects the houses to the central 14 m3 16, e-mail: [email protected] and fax: +41- storage tank.