AEE Intec

December 1, 2020
Hybrid solutions are key to decarbonising industry

Industrial solar heat will be a key element of any strategy to decarbonise the industrial sector. A mid-November workshop organised by partners to the EU-funded INSHIP project explained how industrial solar heat options can become affordable when SHIP systems work in concert with other...
November 21, 2020
Technical and market assessment of solar cooling in the Caribbean

IEA SHC Solar Academy’s first online training sessions on solar heating and cooling in the Caribbean have been well received by those attending the event. About 30 consultants, agencies for energy efficiency and renewables, researchers, manufacturers, grid operator and CCREEE staff...
November 3, 2020
TrustEE standardises project assessment and financing

Any company that wants to be successful in selling industrial solar heat solutions to end users and investors needs standardised project assessment and advanced risk management. To develop such processes is one of the main objectives of the subgroup Guideline to Market of the...
October 27, 2020
Improved design for giga-size pit heat storage

Denmark’s cost-effective, tried-and-true seasonal pit heat storage concept needs to be modified if it is to be implemented across Europe, since district heat temperatures are higher and groundwater may be only 5 to 15 metres from the surface. The members of research platform Task 55 (...
$Solar houses: above 95 % solar fraction is possible$

October 7, 2020
Solar houses: above 95 % solar fraction is possible

Between 2014 and 2019, the Austrian Climate and Energy Fund supported the construction of over 100 solar-heated houses, 19 of which were monitored following completion. Regardless of whether it was a lightweight or a brick house that was put up, the rooftop or facade collector system...
October 5, 2020
Benefits of 4G and 5G heat networks

Fourth-generation heat networks, which operate at about 60 °C, reduce heat losses, extend pipe life and create the best conditions for clean energy use. The photo shows one of these grids, which has been running in a neighbourhood in Villach, southern Austria, since the beginning of 2018....
September 19, 2020
Thermal storage for flexible sector integration

In his keynote speech at Eurosun 2020, Dr Andreas Hauer talked about the different roles that heat storage could play as part of a whole systems approach to energy policy. Thermal energy storage, or TES, can reduce energy consumers’ dependence on volatile heat sources and align heat with...
July 1, 2020
Fact sheets show 30 operational PV-thermal systems

PV-thermal installations are extremely versatile systems, and their manufacturers can cater to a wide variety of customers, single- and multi-family building owners, hotels, swimming pools and even production facilities among them. To illustrate how far PVT technology has come in recent...
June 4, 2020
Global perspective on solar heating and cooling

Solar thermal is increasingly used to provide district heat around the world. In 2019, the market grew by about 170 % in Denmark but also expanded in other countries, such as China and Germany, mainly because the technology became more cost-competitive. Another factor driving growth was...
February 14, 2020
Solar Energy Buildings to make cities fit for the future

Buildings account for around 40 % of the world’s primary energy consumption. Hence, they are the number one cause of resource consumption on earth. Because not every urban neighbourhood all over the world can be connected to district heating, local governments and building owners may need...
February 4, 2020
Role of life-cycle costs in NZEB projects

How much does it cost to construct, run and maintain a Nearly Zero Energy Building? What energy efficiency and renewable options could work best for a given project? Answering these and other questions is the aim of ...
December 26, 2019
Christoph Brunner: Solar heat for water purification and metal recovery in industry

Water and energy are the most important resources globally. The term ‘water-energy nexus’ underlines their close connection, and the phrase has become increasingly popular with international environmental organisations. In the interview carried out at the SHC 2019 conference in Santiago de Chile,...