IEA Solar Heating & Cooling Programme

2 0 0 7 TABLE OF CONTENTS

3 Note from the Chairman The Solar Heating and Cooling Programme was one of the CURRENT MEMBERS

ﬁrst IEA Implementing Agreements to be established. Since 1977, Australia 4 Advanced Storage Concepts for its members have been collaborating to advance active solar and Austria Solar and Low Energy Buildings passive solar and their application in buildings and other areas, such Belgium as agriculture and industry. 7 Solar Heat for Industrial Canada Processes Denmark A total of 41 Tasks have been initiated, 32 of which have been European Commission completed. Each Task is managed by an Operating Agent from one 10 Testing and Validation of New Zealand of the participating countries. Overall control of the program rests Building Energy Simulation Germany Tools with an Executive Committee comprised of one representative from Finland each contracting party to the Implementing Agreement. In addition France 12 PV/Thermal Solar Systems to the Task work, a number of special activities—Memorandum of Italy Understanding with solar thermal trade organizations, statistics Mexico 14 Solar Resource Knowledge collection and analysis, conferences and workshops—have been Netherlands Management undertaken. Norway

16 Advanced Housing Renovation Portugal with Solar and Conservation Spain Sweden 18 Solar Air-Conditioning and Switzerland Refrigeration United States

20 Polymeric Materials for Solar Thermal Applications

22 Net Zero Energy Solar Buildings

24 Compact Thermal Energy Storage: Material Development for System Integration

2 IEA Solar Heating & Cooling Programme 2007 Total Capacity in Operation INTRODUCTION

160 148

This report highlights the recent accomplishments of the IEA Solar Heating 140 Total capacity in operation [GW] 2006 128 and Cooling Programme. Produced Energy [TWh] 2006 120 heat power As illustrated throughout the booklet, the SHC Programme’s work Souces EPIA, GEWC, EWEC, EGEC, RENC1and IEA SHC 2008 100 continues to be driven by our vision of increasing the use of solar designs 77 and technologies in the built environment, and for agricultural and 80 74 industrial process heat. 60 52

40 Solar technologies can supply energy for all building applications—heating, Produced Energy [TWh el], th], 2006 Total Capacity in Operation [GW el], th] and cooling, hot water, light and electricity—without the harmful effects of 20 9 7 7,7 greenhouse gas emissions created by conventional energy sources. 0,8 2 0,3 0,4 0 Solar Thermal Heat Wind Power Geothermal Power Photovoltaic Solar Thermal Ocean Tidal Power Solar technologies are appropriate for all building types—single-family Power homes, multi-family residences, ofﬁce and industrial buildings, schools, hospitals, and other public buildings—and are applicable anywhere in the Source: IEA SHC Solar Heat Worldwide should put year of publication, 2008 Edition. world. Active solar technologies can also be used for agricultural and industrial process heat applications. Solar thermal’s impact continues to grow—at the end of 2006, the solar thermal capacity in operation globally reached 127.8 GWth, that is 182.5 million square meters of collector area. Compared with other forms of renewable energy, solar heating’s contribution in meeting global demand is, besides the traditional renewables like biomass and hydropower, second only to wind. By highlighting our work and collaborating with others, the SHC Programme hopes to increase awareness of solar thermal energy‘s potential to contribute signiﬁcantly to the future supply of energy worldwide. Doug McClenahan SHC Chairman

3 IEA Solar Heating & Cooling Programme 2007 Advanced Storage THE ISSUE fractions in buildings, up to 100% a simple device made of fabric was Market demand for low energy in a typical 45N latitude climate. developed and tested in Denmark. Concepts for Solar houses (homes that use 40- The Task’s overall goal was to It has exhibited promising results and Low Energy 45 kWh/m2 per year for space integrate advanced storage compared to the current devices. heating) that include solar for concepts in a thermal system Does a stratifier make a difference? Buildings heating is growing exponentially. (solar, heat pump or boiler) to use Denmark investigated three 32 Examples flourish in Germany in low energy buildings rather than combisystem configurations with the “Passiv Haus” concept, in develop new storage systems. with the only variation being Switzerland with “Minergie”, and the stratification scheme in the Task 32 was a five-year project that in France with the “building with water tank. The system using two ended in December 2007. positive energy” concept. stratification devices, one for the solar loop and one for the return However, an efficient and cost KEY RESULTS loop, performed best— a 20% effective means to store solar Water Tank Storage improvement in the annual solar energy for heating during the Water tank storage is the state- energy delivered to the load in winter months and for cooling of-the-art choice for solar the best case compared to the no during the summer months remains combisystems, but improvements stratifier scenario. a challenge. are needed in tank efficiency and in the overall performance of water- Storage with Phase Change OUR WORK based combisystems. Materials (PCM) The objective of SHC Task 32: SHC Task 32 demonstrated that PARTICIPATING COUNTRIES Advanced Storage Concepts for One technology used to improve PCMs used in a water storage Austria Solar and Low Energy Buildings was tank efficiency is a stratifier. This tank can improve the overall Denmark to investigate new and advanced technology is used to improve the annual performance of a solar France solutions for storing thermal overall temperature of hot water combisystem. Sodium acetate Germany energy to use in the heating and in a tank so that less auxiliary with graphite is a good candidate Netherlands cooling of buildings. To do this, the heat is needed. There are several due to its transition temperature Spain Task participants contributed to the devices currently on the market, at 58º C. However, at this time Sweden development of advanced storage but all are fairly complicated and the improvement to the system’s Switzerland solutions to reach high solar expensive. As part of SHC Task 32, performance by using sodium

4 IEA Solar Heating & Cooling Programme 2007 Detailed simulations from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) demonstrated that the best acetate is not great enough to an 8 m3 storage volume would be solution in a Zürich climate was cover the higher investment cost. enough for 70% of the heating clearly the double stratifier. load of a low energy house. A labo- Other materials such as ratory prototype will deliver more commercially available PCMS, with information in 2008. a temperature change around 35º C placed in the bottom of a tank were The Swiss Federal Laboratories for found to be even more interesting Materials Testing and Research than sodium acetate, but requires (EMPA) built a storage unit further investigation. prototype based on sodium hydroxide desorption at 150º Sorption Storage C. First results show that the This type of storage technology material can dry in the summer is based on the ability of sorption even better than anticipated (65% materials to release water vapor concentration reached) reducing when heated and to release heat the needed charging temperature when the water vapor is adsorbed to 120ºC. It is anticipated that a10 or absorbed. For example, during m3 storage unit could deliver all the summer the heat produced by the heating needs of a low energy solar collectors would dry up the house during the winter, but the material, and in the winter water process requires a low grade would be put back onto the surface temperature heat source such as of the material to release the heat a borehole in the ground. The pilot for use. installation is being monitored over the next two years. A new method for using extruded solid zeolite with air channels The fabric stratifier for water tank Storage with Chemical Reactions showed interesting properties in storage developed by the Technical A combisystem with a water storage tank filled The high density of storage with the laboratory at the Institute of University of Denmark (DTU). with bottles of PCM was tested and simulated at chemical reactions makes this Thermal Engineering in Germany. HEIG-VD in Switzerland. topic attractive, however, before a Simulations demonstrated that

5 IEA Solar Heating & Cooling Programme 2007 product is available commercially many barriers must be overcome.

The choice of an adequate reaction

has kept the attention of the

Energy Research Centre of the

Netherlands (ECN). A promising

material is magnesium hydroxide

The monosorp storage concept from seven hydrates, which could 3 the Institute of Thermal Engineer- theoretically store 777 kWh/m ing (ITW, University of Stuttgart) in at 122ºC, a factor 10 compared to The principle of a NaOH / H O storage system 3 Germany. 2 the 77 kWh/m for water between

tested at EMPA in Switzerland. 30ºC and 100ºC. The principle is to

dry the material in summer with

solar heat and in winter re-hydrate

it to deliver back the energy. Work

with this material and its ability to

de-hydrate and re-hydrate is only

at the beginning stage.

Project Date: 2003-2007

Sketch of a future chemical heat store system with its Project Leader: Jean-Christophe Hadorn o of Groupe Berney - BASE three vessels proposed by ECN of the Netherlands. Consultants SA, Switzerland, e-mail: [email protected]

Publications: http://www.iea-shc.org/task32/publications/index.htm l

6 IEA Solar Heating & Cooling Programme 2007 Solar Heat THE ISSUE EU25 countries alone is 100-125 KEY RESULTS The industrial sector has the highest GWth. Potential for Solar Process Heat for Industrial energy use in OECD countries at and Existing Plants about 30%, closely followed by the OUR WORK Processes As illustrated in the table, the prime transport sector. At this time, the The objective of SHC Task 33: Solar areas for solar heat plants are in use of solar energy in this sector is Heat for Industrial Processes was the food and beverage industries, 33 nominal, but the potential is high. to build solar thermal plants for the textile and chemical industries, industrial process heat. To reach this The major share of the energy and the simple cleaning industries goal, studies on the technology’s needed by commercial and indus- such as car washes. These are key potential were conducted in the trial companies for their production industries because they require low participating countries, medium- processes and the heating of their processing temperatures (30°C - temperature collectors were factories is below 250°C. The many 90°C), and therefore flat-plate solar developed for the production of applications requiring temperature collectors can be used to not only process heat up to temperature levels below 80°C can easily be provide the process heat, but also to levels of 250°C, and solutions met using solar thermal collectors heat the production halls. were sought to the problems of already on the market. For those integrating the solar heat system To provide heat for industrial applications requiring higher tem- into industrial processes. In processes in the temperature range peratures up to 250°C will require addition, demonstration projects of 80°C - 250°C, three categories the development of high perfor- were realized in cooperation with of process heat collectors are being mance solar collectors and system PARTICIPATING COUNTRIES the solar industry. developed and tested: Australia components. Task 33 was a four-year ‣ Improved flat-plate collectors Austria At this time, there are about 90 collaborative project with the IEA’s with double anti-reflecting glass Germany solar thermal plants for process SolarPACES Programme that ended and noble gas filling, Italy heat reported worldwide, with a in October 2007. ‣ Low concentrating flat-plate Mexico total installed capacity of about 25 Portugal 2 collectors (CPC collectors), and MWth (35,000 m ). The potential is Spain ‣ High concentrating collectors like much greater though – according small parabolic trough collectors to a Task study the potential for the or linear Fresnel collectors.

7 IEA Solar Heating & Cooling Programme 2007 Plant & Country Application Installed Capacity & Monitoring Data Integration of Solar Heat into Collector Type Available Industrial Processes A challenge for this technology is to integrate the solar heat into Contank, Spain Container washing 357 kWth (510 m²) Yes flat plate collector the industrial process itself. To do this, the temperature of the available heat, the variability of ROBUR, Italy Cooling 65.5 kWth (132 m²) Yes Fresnel collector solar radiation, and the heat profile required by the industrial process must all be considered. Seawater desalination Gran Seawater desalination 70 kWth (100 m²) Yes Canaria, Spain anti-reflective double glazed flat plate collector To address this challenge, more than 20 system concepts and a “matrix Seawater desalination plant, Seawater desalination 50.4 kW (72 m²) Yes th of indicators” were used to create Jordan flat plate collector a comprehensive database to serve as a decision support tool for solar Fruit juices Gangl, Austria Pasteurizing bottle washing 42 kW (60 m²) Yes th experts. flat plate collector In addition, Task worked focused Sunwash, Austria Car wash 30 kWth (43 m²) No flat plate collector on the reuse of the excess heat generated during production. The Moguntia Spices, Austria Cleaning and washing 152 kWth (217 m²) No processes flat plate collector computer program Pinch Energy Efficiency (PE²) developed within Task 33 can calculate the heat Brewery Neuwirth, Brewing process 14 kWth (20 m²) Yes Austria anti-reflective double glazed flat recovery potential and design plate collector

New Energy Partners, Cooling 50 m² parabolic trough collector Australia Yes

8 IEA Solar Heating & Cooling Programme 2007 Capac ty instal ed (kWth) Number of plants

10000.00 25

20 1000.00

15 a technically and economically ‣ Potential of solar heat for 100.00 10

feasible heat exchanger network industrial processes, Number of plants 10.00 to optimise the heat recovery for ‣ Process heat collectors, Capacity installed (kWth) 5

1.00 0 a given process. The remaining ‣ Design guidelines for space Food Wine and Paper Tanning Malt Transport Chemistry Other Desalination Texti e Beverage equipment heat demand is then partially or heating of factory buildings, and completely met using solar thermal ‣ Pilot projects for solar thermal Solar industrial process heat plants by industry sector. energy. plants in industry. In addition, a CD was published Demonstration Plants with: To demonstrate solar’s contribution, ‣ A demo version of the Pinch nine pilot systems were designed Energy Efﬁciency - PE² computer and installed in close cooperation program, and with industry. ‣ The matrix of industrial process Three of the 12 process heat indicators. Publications collectors that were developed The ﬁnal Task results are or investigated within SHC Task summarized in four booklets: 33. Round Robin tests were carried out at three test centers in Germany and Portugal.

Project Date: 2003-2007 Contank plant for container washing, Barcelona, Spain. Installed capacity: 357 kWth. Project Leader: Werner Weiss of AEE, Institute for Sustainable Technologies, (Source: Aiguasol Engineering, Spain). Austria, e-mail: [email protected] Publications: http://www.iea-shc.org/task33/publications/index.html 9 IEA Solar Heating & Cooling Programme 2007 Testing and THE ISSUE innovative low-energy buildings. Research Innovative low-energy buildings Activities included the development The Task’s tool evaluation research Validation of attempt to be highly energy of analytical, comparative and is linked to the needs and Building Energy efficient by using innovative empirical methods for evaluating, recommendations of the world’s energy-efficiency technologies diagnosing and correcting errors leading building energy analysis Simulation Tools or a combination of innovative in building energy simulation tool developers. A recent study 34 energy efficiency and solar energy software. comparing 20 whole-building technologies. To determine the energy simulation tools indicated Task 34 was a four-year collaborative estimated energy savings and that 19 of the 20 tools reviewed project with the IEA’s Energy reduction in CO emissions, had been tested with at least 2 Conservation in Buildings and estimates are often evaluated using one of the SHC’s IEA BESTEST Community Systems Programme building energy simulation tools. As procedures; 10 of the tools had that ended in December 2007. with any software tool, accuracy is been tested with more than one of critical. the BESTEST procedures. The study KEY RESULTS also indicated that test procedures OUR WORK Software developed by the SHC Programme PARTICIPATING COUNTRIES The objective of Task 34: Testing This work has led to direct dominated the set of available Australia and Validation of Building improvements in software tools tests. Belgium Energy Simulation Tools was to used for evaluating the impacts of Canada undertake pre-normative research energy efficiency and solar energy Codes & Standards Denmark to develop a comprehensive technologies commonly applied in National and international building France and integrated suite of building innovative low-energy buildings. energy standards organizations Germany energy analysis tool tests that Specifically, the Task identified 63 have used test cases developed in Ireland could provide software quality results disagreements that led to this Task and earlier SHC Tasks to Japan assurance. To accomplish this, 58 software fixes. This improved create standard methods of tests Netherlands the Task participants investigated accuracy in simulation models has for building energy analysis tools Sweden the availability and accuracy of increased confidence in their use by used for national building energy Switzerland building energy analysis tools architects and engineers who rely code compliance. Examples include: United Kingdom and engineering models used on building energy simulation tool ‣ ANSI (American National United States to evaluate the performance of calculations to perform their work. Standards Institute) and

10 IEA Solar Heating & Cooling Programme 2007 ASHRAE (American Society of checked with IEA BESTEST. Heating, Refrigeration, and Air ‣ CEN used IEA BESTEST to check Conditioning Engineers) adopted their reference cooling load SHC software validation work calculation general criteria. into their standards. ‣ Australia and New Zealand ‣ Several EU countries, as part of referenced IEA BESTEST in their the building energy performance codes and standards. assessments under the ‣ Researchers translated previous European Community’s Energy IEA BESTEST work into Dutch, Two of the Task’s test facilities, the EMPA Test Cells in Performance Directive, use German, and Japanese. Duebendorf, Switzerland (on the left) and the Aalborg software tools that have been University Double-Skin Façade Test Facility in Aalborg, Denmark (on the right). A Noteworthy Quote from a Participant/Software Developer Jeff Thornton, President of Thermal Energy System Specialists (TESS) in Madison, Wisconsin, U.S. – a private-sector company that develops and sells TRNSYS and does consulting work using TRNSYS – published the following comment in his modeler report for one of the subtasks within this Task: “Without this IEA subtask for ground coupling, we would have had no means to check the results from our model, nor had a reason to make improvements to our model. There should be no question that the IEA subtask has improved the TRNSYS ground coupling model and, in doing so, has also provided energy modelers a greatly increased sense of conﬁdence when modeling heat transfer to the ground.”

Project Date: 2003-2007 Project Leader: Ron Judkoff of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, United States, e-mail: [email protected] Publications: http://www.iea-shc.org/task34/publications/index.html

11 IEA Solar Heating & Cooling Programme 2007 PV/Thermal THE ISSUE to internationally accepted be integrated into a building and Solar collectors that combine standards on performance, testing, provide a more uniform appearance Solar Systems photovoltaic (PV) panels and solar monitoring and commercial than a side-by-side system. thermal collectors to produce characteristics of PV/thermal solar both thermal and electric energy systems in the building sector. Collector Testing

are called PV/thermal solar The testing of existing PV/T Task 35 was a three-year 35 collectors (often referred to as PV/T collectors has increased collaborative project with the collectors). By combining these two understanding of the collectors’ IEA’s Photovoltaic Power Systems technologies, PV/T systems are able performances, and provided a basis Programme that ended in to generate more energy per unit for suggesting standard methods December 2007. surface area than side by side PV for testing the characteristics and panels and solar thermal collectors. durability of PV/T collectors. KEY RESULTS Calculations made by ECN in the A series of collector tests were Netherlands show that by using Survey conducted at the University of PV/T collectors instead of side- Sixty-ﬁve architects and solar Padova in Italy: by side-systems, it is possible to dealers from Canada, Denmark, PARTICIPATING COUNTRIES ‣ Flat plate glazed liquid PV/T reduce the collector area by 40% Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, and Canada collector from PVTWINS in the and still generate the same amount the USA were interviewed to learn Denmark Netherlands (previously tested of energy. what affects the design, purchase, Hong Kong at the Danish Technological supply and installation of PV/T Israel Institute) OUR WORK projects. The main conclusions Netherlands ‣ Prototype COGEN from Ecosolar The objective of SHC Task 35: PV/ of the survey were that both Sweden Engineering, DTG in Italy Thermal Solar Systems was to architects and solar companies are Thailand ‣ Unglazed liquid/air PV/T collector catalyze the development and very interested in PV/T (e.g., for MSS from Millennium Electric in market introduction of high quality generating publicity and additional Israel and commercial competitive PV/ business) and that this technology thermal solar systems, to increase can be used when roof space is In addition, a transpired air general understanding of the limited, can reduce costs due to PV/T collector from Conserval technology, and to contribute lower installation costs, and can Engineering in Canada, previously

12 IEA Solar Heating & Cooling Programme 2007 tested at the National Solar Test Facility in Canada, was tested at the Danish Technological Institute. The University of Lund in Sweden also conducted tests on a variety of PV/T collectors.

PV/T test stands at the University of Padova in Italy.

Front and back views of two SolarWall® PV/T transpired air collectors, one thermal reference and one PV reference in the test stand at the Danish Technological Institute.

Project Date: 2005-2007, reports will be available November 2008. Project Leader: Henrik Sørensen of Esbensen Consulting Engineers Ltd., Denmark, e-mail: [email protected] Publications: http://www.iea-shc.org/task35/publications/index.html

13 IEA Solar Heating & Cooling Programme 2007 Solar Resource THE ISSUE The objective of this work is to organizations with each other Knowledge of the solar energy provide the solar energy industry, as well as with highly-qualified Knowledge resources in a geographical area is the electricity sector, governments, ground data sets. Specific Management critical when designing and building researchers, and renewable energy procedures based on RMSE, MBE successful solar water heating organizations and institutions with and Kolmogorov-Smirnov statistics systems, concentrating solar the most suitable and accurate have been established by Task team 36 power systems, and photovoltaic information on solar radiation members. systems. However, good quality resources at the Earth’s surface Figure 1 provides an example measurements of the solar resource in easily-accessible formats and of how one database, NASA’s are often expensive and scarce, and understandable quality metrics. The worldwide Shortwave Surface are time-consuming and costly to scope of solar resource assessment Radiation Budget, is being acquire. So scientists from around information includes historic benchmarked against a well-known the world are devising ways to data sets, currently-derived data and scientifically validated surface assess the solar energy resources products using satellite imagery monitoring network known as the using other data sources, such as and other means, and short-term Baseline Surface Radiation Network weather satellite data. and long-term solar resource PARTICIPATING COUNTRIES (BSRN). Austria forecasts OUR WORK The National Solar Radiation Canada Task 36 is a five-year collaborative The participants in Task 36: Solar Database for the U.S has been European Commission project with IEA’s SolarPACES Resource Knowledge Management, updated (see Figure 2). This data France and Photovoltaic Power Systems who represent research institutions base makes use of satellite-derived Germany Programmes that will be completed and private consultancies from solar assessment techniques Spain in June 2010. Switzerland around the world, are engaged in that will be included in the Task producing information products 36 benchmarking procedures. United States KEY RESULTS on solar energy resources that will In addition, the database will greatly assist policymakers as well “Benchmarking” Solar be offered through a web- as project developers in advancing Assessments based interactive portal that renewable energy programs Work is underway to benchmark is underdevelopment as a key worldwide. satellite-derived solar data component of Task 36. sets developed by different

14 IEA Solar Heating & Cooling Programme 2007 Figure 1. Intercomparison of the NASA Surface Radia- tion Budget Products for total ground irradiance versus the Solar Radiation Data developers and the manufacturing BSRN precision measurements. The PVGIS website, established by industry. The applications are (Source: Zhang & Stackhouse, the Task participant - Joint Research based on the Google Maps NASA-LaRC). Center in Ispra, Italy, which is an interface and provide several easy-to-use interactive application different formats of information, that provides free access to solar including the estimated accuracy resource data for Europe, Africa, of the calculations. Web-based and southwestern Asia, as well estimates for single sites can be as ambient temperature data for accessed through the following Europe. The PVGIS site also provides URL: http://re.jrc.ec.europa.eu/ assessment tools that calculate pvgis/apps3/pvest.php. In addition, solar radiation for ﬁxed and sun- grid formatted data sets at tracking systems, calculations of approximately 10-km by 10-km energy output for grid-connected resolution can also be accessed. An PV systems, and the performance example of the PVGIS interface is of stand-alone PV systems (Africa shown in Figure 3. Figure 2. The U.S. 1991-2005 National Solar Radiation Data Base, released in 2007. The only). Tools on the web site left panel shows the location of the 1454 ground stations for which hourly solar radiation provide the user with key overview were developed. The right panel shows hourly satellite-derived solar radiation data for the information on investment years 1998-2005 at a 10-km grid resolution, developed by the State University of New York/ decisions to support project Albany for NREL.

Figure 3. Example page from the PVGIS web site (courtesy of Thomas Huld, Marcel Šúri, and Project Date: 2005-2010 Tomáš Cebecauer of the Joint Research Centre, Ispra, Italy). Project Leader: David Renné of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, United States, e-mail: [email protected]

Publications: http://www.iea-shc.org/task36/publications/index.html 15 IEA Solar Heating & Cooling Programme 2007 Advanced Housing THE ISSUE potential. Examples of building KEY RESULTS Buildings are responsible for segments are year of construction, Twelve SHC Task 37 demonstration Renovation with Solar up to 35% of the total energy type of building, type of envelope projects show energy reductions and Conservation consumption in many of the IEA and components. Within these from 62-95%, with the average countries. And, housing accounts segments important topics for being 75%. Many of these projects for the greatest part of this energy discussions are ownership and include a solar heating system for 37 use. Renovating existing housing decision structures, inhabitants and domestic hot water and/or space offers an enormous energy saving their characteristics, and actual heating. potential, and it is the only strategy groups of retroﬁt market players. that can achieve a substantial In parallel, exemplary renovation reduction in energy use in the projects achieving substantial housing sector in the short-term. primary energy savings while creating superior living quality are OUR WORK being analyzed. Important aspects The objective of SHC Task 37: are the energy performance and Advanced Housing Renovation PARTICIPATING COUNTRIES the owner’s motivations behind the with Solar and Conservation is to Australia renovation. Austria develop a solid knowledge base Canada on how to renovate housings to Insights from this international Denmark a very high energy standard and collaboration will be shared France to develop strategies that support nationally with end users in a Germany the market penetration of such deliberate strategy to increase the Italy renovations. SHC Task 37 focuses market penetration of advanced Mexico on both technical R&D and market housing renovations. implementation. Portugal Task 37 is a four-year collaborative Spain The Task has begun to analyze the project that will be completed in Switzerland building stock in order to identify December 2009. building segments with the greatest duplication and energy savings

16 IEA Solar Heating & Cooling Programme 2007 Belgium Rowhouse Henz-Noirfalise This 150 year old house needed a thorough renovation. The exterior was insulated with cellulose and new triple glazed windows were installed. The building is heated with solar collectors and a pellet stove. The primary energy use was reduced by 95%.

Germany Apartment Building Freiburg The renovation of two apartment buildings built in 1961 included additional insulation, new windows, and the addition of solar water heating systems. Primary energy use was reduced by 87% in one building and 80% in the other.

Switzerland Apartment Building Staufen The renovation of this apartment happened in two stages—ﬁrst the building envelop and then the technical systems. System renovations included the addition of an air-water- heat pump, and a 110 m2 PV installation on Project Date: 2006-2009 the roof with a nominal output of 14.7 kWp to be amortized in 20 years. Primary energy Project Leader: Fritjof Salvesen of KanEnergi AS, Norway, use was reduced 65%. e-mail: [email protected] Publications: http://www.iea-shc.org/task37/publications/index.html

17 IEA Solar Heating & Cooling Programme 2007 Solar Air-Conditioning THE ISSUE and system concepts. Participants adsorption with a solid sorption Today, solar assisted cooling is are working in the areas of pre- materials, and even thermo- and Refrigeration most promising for large buildings engineered systems for residential mechanical processes (the novel with central air-conditioning and small commercial applications, Rankine cycle). systems. However, the growing custom-made systems for large demand for air-conditioned non-residential buildings and Small-Scale Solar Heating and 38 homes and small office buildings industrial applications, modeling Cooling Systems is opening new sectors for this and analysis, and market An increasing market for small- technology. In many regions of the dissemination. scale solar heating and cooling world, air-conditioning represents systems can be found for air- the dominate share of electricity Task 38 is a three-year conditioning residential houses consumption in buildings, and will collaborative project that will be and small offices. Task 38 will only continue to grow. The current completed in August 2009. monitor and comparatively technology, electrically driven evaluate these systems. To date, chillers, unfortunately do not offer KEY RESULTS 18 systems in a range of climate a solution as they create high regions have been identified to PARTICIPATING COUNTRIES Small-Scale Water Chillers electricity peak loads even if the monitor. Australia Over the past eight years, a system has a relatively high energy Austria number of small-scale water efficiency standard. Large Non-Residential Buildings Canada chillers have been developed by and Industrial Refrigeration Denmark various manufacturers in different OUR WORK Solar air-conditioning technology France countries. To better understand The objective of SHC Task 38, Solar can also be applied in large non- Germany the current market, Task 38 has Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration residential buildings and industrial Italy produced an overview of the is to improve conditions for the refrigeration. For this category Mexico available machines, the major market introduction of solar air- of systems, Task 38 will carry out Portugal technical data and the status of conditioning and refrigeration a monitoring campaign. To date, Spain development. The machines use systems for residential and small 11 systems have been identified Switzerland different technologies for cold commercial buildings. This work to investigate and evaluate. production, such as absorption will be achieved through activities Technologies in these systems with a liquid sorption material, focused on improved components include both closed water chillers

18 IEA Solar Heating & Cooling Programme 2007 and open sorptive cycles – also known as desiccant systems – for direct treatment of fresh air (temperature and humidity control).

These are two examples of the novel small-scale thermally driven cooling machine. On the left is the adsorption chiller from Sortech in Germany. On the right is the water chiller with integrated thermo-chemical storage from Climatewell in Sweden.

Project Date: 2006-2009 Project Leader: Hans-Martin Henning of Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems, Germany, e-mail: [email protected] Publications: http://www.iea-shc.org/task38/publications/index.html

19 IEA Solar Heating & Cooling Programme 2007 Polymeric Materials THE ISSUE OUR WORK seasonal heat stores and advanced The economic viability of solar The objectives of SHC Task 39, components. It also includes for Solar Thermal systems for domestic hot water Polymeric Materials for Solar product data sheets and general Applications (DHW) production is strongly Thermal Applications are twofold articles. linked to the cost of the system. to access the applicability and An attractive approach to reduce the cost reduction potential of Standards, Regulations and 39 system costs is to replace the polymeric materials and polymer- Guidelines glass and metal parts with less based novel designs in solar The existing test standards expensive, lighter weight polymeric thermal systems and to promote and problems associated with components. increased consumer confidence polymer-based systems are under in these products by developing discussion by Task participants. Polymer R&D has lead to numerous and applying appropriate methods Those active in this work are from new materials, components and to assess their durability and prominent test institutions, such manufacturing technologies over reliability. as Arsenal Research in Austria, the past decades. However, their Fraunhofer ISE and ITW-Stuttgart application in solar technologies is SHC Task 39 is a four-year in Germany, INETI in Portugal, and PARTICIPATING COUNTRIES still very limited due to uncertainty collaborative project that will be SPF in Switzerland. In addition, Austria in their application and their completed in September 2010. several experts have participated France durability. R&D is needed to realize in ‘norm committees‘. Both these Germany the full potential of polymers to KEY RESULTS create an excellent starting Norway reduce life-cycle solar energy State of the Art Report: point for influencing revisions of Portugal conversion costs. Polymeric “Polymeric Materials in Solar norms which disfavor polymeric Sweden materials can play a key role in Thermal Applications” collectors/materials. Already Switzerland the future development of solar A state-of-the-art overview of Task experts have participated energy systems because they polymeric materials in solar thermal in and shared actions from the offer potentially lower costs, applications is available at this time Solar Keymark II meeting and the easier processing, lighter weight, to participants in SHC Task 39. The 10th plenary meeting of CEN/TC and greater design flexibility than database includes polymeric pool 312 Thermal Solar Systems and materials currently used. collectors, glazed collectors, small- Component. and medium-size heat stores,

20 IEA Solar Heating & Cooling Programme 2007 Polymer solar thermal system.

Conventional solar thermal system.

Project Date: 2006-2010 Project Leader: Michael Köhl of Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems, Germany, e-mail: [email protected] Publications: http://www.iea-shc.org/task39/publications/index.html

21 IEA Solar Heating & Cooling Programme 2007 Net Zero Energy THE ISSUE building policies, programs and settlements. By analyzing existing Energy use in buildings worldwide industry adoption. examples innovative solutions will Solar Buildings accounts for over 40% of primary be developed to be incorporated energy use and 24% of greenhouse OUR WORK into the Task’s demonstration gas emissions. Energy use and The objectives of Task 40, Net Zero buildings. emissions include both direct, Energy Solar Buildings are to study Task 40 is a five-year collaborative 40 on-site use of fossil fuels as well current net-zero, near net-zero and project with IEA‘s Energy as indirect use from electricity, very low energy buildings and to Conservation in Buildings & district heating/cooling systems and develop a common understanding, Community Systems Programme. It embodied energy in construction a methodology, tools, innovative will begin in October 2008 and end materials. solutions and industry guidelines. in September 2013. The planned outcome of the Task is Given the global challenges related to support the conversion of the net to climate change and resource EXPECTED RESULTS zero energy building (NZEB) concept shortages, much more is required The Task’s results will be targeted from an idea and a “slogan” into than incremental increases in to and designed for the building practical reality in the marketplace. energy efficiency. Currently, a industry (building manufacturers, A source book and data sets prominent vision proposes so called manufacturers of components and developed during the Task will “net zero energy”, “net zero carbon” systems), housing companies and provide realistic case studies of how or “EQuilibrium” buildings. Although building developers, architects, NZEBs can be achieved. these terms have different meaning building engineers and utilities. and are poorly understood, several The scope of the work will include Specific results will include: IEA countries have adopted this major building types (residential and ‣ Technical reports on a harmonized vision as a long-term goal of their non-residential, existing and new) methodology and definition and building energy policies. in the climatic zones represented guidelines for monitoring and by the participating countries. What is missing is a clear definition verification of NZEBs and on Participants will link the Task work and international agreement on the the market potential of NZEBs to their national activities and measures of building performance including impacts on grids. will focus on individual buildings, that could inform “zero energy” clusters of buildings and small

22 IEA Solar Heating & Cooling Programme 2007 ‣ Overview of market available and Ecoterra EQuilibrium near market NZEB components and Near-Net-Zero Home of systems for different building types Alouette Homes in Quebec, and climates. Canada ‣ Suite of NZEB tools including a data base and user manual. ‣ NZEB source book covering the methodology, technologies, tools, case studies and demonstration Greenstone Low Energy projects. Building in Whitehorse, Yukon, ‣ Solution sets and designs for Canada national demonstration projects.

Candian Centre for Housing Technology in Ottawa, Canada.

Project Date: 2008-2013

Project Leader: Mark Riley of Natural Resources Canada, e-mail: Tsuchiya Twoby Net-Zero-Energy [email protected] Home in Sapporo, Japan Publications: None at this time.

23 IEA Solar Heating & Cooling Programme 2007 Compact Thermal THE ISSUE and what can be provided by the Other applications will include By improving the effectiveness new SHC Task, is a way to bring cogeneration and tri-generation Energy Storage of thermal storage, the together the ongoing work on and heat pumps, building cooling, effectiveness of all renewable materials and applications. district heating, industrial waste energy technologies that supply heat, and concentrated solar power. heat can be improved. For solar OUR WORK Task 42 is a four-year collaborative 42 thermal systems, it is necessary The overall objective of Task 42, project with IEA‘s Energy to store heat (or cold) efficiently Compact Thermal Energy Storage: Conservation through Energy for longer periods of time in order Material Development for System Storage Programme. It will begin in to reach high solar fractions, Integration, is to develop advanced January 2009 and end in December and at this time cost-effective materials and systems for the 2012. compact storage technologies compact storage of thermal energy. are not available. For high solar A secondary objective is to create EXPECTED RESULTS fraction systems, hot water stores an active and effective research The Task’s results will be targeted are expensive and require very network for the collaboration of to and designed for experts and large volumes of space. Alternative researchers and industry working in organizations in the materials storage technologies, such as the field of thermal energy storage. and applications sectors. For the phase change materials (PCMs) materials sector, the results will and thermochemical materials The Task’s scope will cover provide a better understanding (TCMs), are still in the research and advanced materials for latent and of existing and new materials development stage. chemical thermal energy storage, for thermal energy storage, new excluding materials related to Around the world, different methods and procedures for sensible heat storage. Seasonal groups are working on thermal material and system performance solar thermal storage will be a energy storage materials or on improvement, and a comprehensive primary focus, but as there are applications. However, these overview of the possible many more relevant applications activities are not sufficiently linked. applications for this class of for TES and materials research The current activities are either materials. can not be limited to only one limited to specific applications or to application, the Task will focus specific materials. What is needed, on multiple application areas.

24 IEA Solar Heating & Cooling Programme 2007 For the applications sector, the Thermochemical material results will provide a better (magnesium sulphate hepta- understanding of the potential and hydrate) being researched barriers of compact thermal energy at the milligram level. storage materials and systems for their application.

Speciﬁc results will include: ‣ Materials database with material properties and relations, materials safety data sheets, and samples of new materials for material testing. ‣ Inventory of production technologies and materials pricing datasheets. ‣ Long-term stability test protocols for several classes of material. ‣ Test procedures for model validation and validated numerical Thermal energy storage is essential for models for all applications. a 100% solar house (Source: ESTIF). ‣ System testing methods. ‣ Case studies and a ﬁeld test of a least one application.

With seasonal storage, the Project Date: 2009-2012 summer's solar heat can be used to meet heating Project Leader: Wim van Helden of the Energy Research Center of the demand in winter. Netherlands, e-mail: [email protected] Publications: None at this time.

25 IEA Solar Heating & Cooling Programme 2007 SHC Projects & Task 1 Performance of Solar Heating and Cooling Systems, 1977-83 (Denmark) Lead Countries Task 2 National Solar R & D Programs & Projects, 1977-84 (Japan) Task 3 Solar Collector and System Testing, 1977-87 (Germany and United Kingdom) Task 4 Insolation Handbook and Instrumentation Package, 1977-80 (United States) Task 5 Existing Meteorological Information for Solar Applications, 1977-82 (Sweden) Task 6 Evacuated Tubular Collector Performance, 1979-87 (United States) Task 7 Central Solar Heating Plants with Seasonal Storage, 1979-89 (Sweden) Task 8 Passive Solar Low Energy Homes, 1982-89 (United States) Task 9 Solar Radiation and Pyranometry, 1982-91 (Canada and Germany) Task 10 Solar Materials R & D, 1985-91 (Japan) Task 11 Passive Solar Commercial Buildings, 1986-91 (Switzerland) Task 12 Solar Building Analysis Tools, 1989-94 (United States) Task 13 Advanced Solar Low Energy Buildings, 1989-94 (Norway) Task 14 Advanced Active Solar Systems, 1990-94 (Canada) Task 15 Advanced Central Solar Heating Plants, not initiated Task 16 Photovoltaics for Buildings, 1990-95 (Germany) Task 17 Measuring and Modeling Spectral Radiation, 1991-94 (Germany) Task 18 Advanced Glazing Materials, 1991-97 (United Kingdom) Task 19 Solar Air Systems, 1993-99 (Switzerland) Task 20 Solar Energy in Building Renovation, 1993-98 (Sweden) Task 21 Daylight in Buildings, 1995-99 (Denmark) Task 22 Building Energy Analysis Tools, 1996-03 (United States) Task 23 Optimization of Solar Energy Use in Large Buildings, 1997-02 (Norway)

26 IEA Solar Heating & Cooling Programme 2007 Task 24 Solar Procurement, 1998-03 (Sweden) Task 25 Solar Assisted Air Conditioning of Buildings, 1999-04 (Germany) Task 26 Solar Combisystems, 1998-02 (Austria) Task 27 Performance of Solar Facade Components, 2000-05 (Germany) Task 28 Solar Sustainable Housing, 2000-05 (Switzerland) Task 29 Solar Crop Drying, 2000-06 (Canada) Task 30 Solar Cities, not initiated Task 31 Daylighting Buildings in the 21st Century, 2001-05 (Australia) Task 32 Advanced Storage Concepts for Solar and Low Energy Buildings, 2003-07 (Switzerland) Task 33 Solar Heat for Industrial Processes, 2003-07 (Austria) Task 34 Testing and Validation of Building Energy Simulation Tools, 2003-07 (United States) Task 35 PV/Thermal Systems, 2005-07 (Denmark) Task 36 Solar Resource Knowledge Management, 2005-10 (United States) Task 37 Advanced Housing Renovation with Solar & Conservation, 2006-09 (Norway) Task 38 Solar Air Conditioning and Refrigeration, 2006-09 (Germany) Task 39 Polymeric Materials for Solar Thermal Applications, 2006-10 (Germany) Task 40 Net Zero Energy Solar Buildings, 2008-13 (Canada) Task 42 Compact Thermal Energy Storage: Material Development for System Integration,

Notice: 2009-12 (Netherlands)

The Solar Heating and Cooling Programme, also known as the Programme to Develop and Test Solar Heating and Cooling Systems, functions within a framework created by the International Energy Agency (IEA). Views, ﬁnd- ings and publications Solar Heating and Cooling Programme do not necessarily represent the views or policies of the IEA Secretariat or of all its individual member countries.

27 IEA Solar Heating & Cooling Programme 2007 www.iea-shc.org

To ﬁnd Solar Heating and Cooling Programme publications and learn more about the Programme visit www.iea-shc.org or contact the SHC Executive Secretary, Pamela Murphy, e-mail: [email protected].