IEA-SHC Task 45: Large Solar Heating/Cooling Systems, Seasonal Storage, Heat Pumps

Large solar thermal systems have proven to be cost effective in several cases - and the combination of a large solar system with long term storage and also heat pump seem to be very attractive in an efficient modern energy system due to:
• flexibility when supplying combined heat and power production in a liberal market for electricity
• potential for obtaining very high solar and renewable fractions of supply.The use of solar thermal in connection with district heating is far behind (relatively only one tenth of) the use of solar thermal in individual houses - even though it is in most cases much cheaper to supply solar energy centrally to a district heating network, than to supply solar energy to individual houses.In Denmark right now “an explosion” in numbers of large scale solar district heating systems is seen. Not because of special subsidy schemes - but simply because the systems in many cases are competitive with gas and biomass based district heating systems.The main overall objective of the IEA-SHCi Task 45 is to assist in a strong and sustainable market development of large solar heating and cooling systems. The task will focus on the “MW-size” systems for district heating and cooling applications.The general outcome of the Task will be increased use of cost effective, well designed and well operated large scale solar thermal systems throughout the world - and a strong network of experts and professionals in the field.Main deliverable will be a “Design Handbook for Large Solar Heating/Cooling Systems”