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Power and heating sector coupling through district heating networks for sustainable future

Project description

An innovative solution for district heating networks

With climate change posing an ever-increasing danger to people worldwide, decarbonisation is necessary for all energy sectors. Unfortunately, renewable energy sources like solar and wind represent a challenge in terms of their integration with the energy sector because of their intermittent nature. A possible solution is sector coupling, a connection between multiple energy sectors that allows for balancing loads over time. The EU-funded COUPLE project will study the implementation of this solution in district heating and analyse the exploitation of electric renewables by means of an extensive use of heat pumps. The research team will assess the relevance of this solution on different national energy markets and elaborate on strategies for its replication, thus assisting in lowering greenhouse emissions.

Objective

Urgent decarbonisation of all energy-related sectors is vital in order to reduce climate change impact and secure sustainable growth. To achieve to this goal, increase of renewable energy sources, especially wind and solar, is crucial. Due to their intermittent nature, they are challenging to integrate in the power sector. One of the most recognized solutions is so called sector coupling – connection of various energy sector to achieve balancing of intermittent electricity production from renewable energy sources. District heating, in combination with heat pumps, is more than suitable technology for power and heating sector coupling. In order to secure the role of district heating in future energy systems with high share of variable renewable energy source, the impact of different boundary conditions such as district heating supply temperature, heat pump source temperature and availability, has to be studied. This project will provide systematic analysis of the impact of DH network parameters on the successful integration of variable RES in the power system through sector coupling and utilisation of building thermal mass as a thermal storage option. This will be carried out by developing numerical model capable of assessing opportunities of ancillary services and demand response capabilities enabled by heat pumps in future power markets combined with thermal inertia of buildings’ as the thermal storage. Then, strategies for a large-scale integration of heat pump technologies, in the power markets with a great share of variable renewable energy sources, will be developed. The project outputs will facilitate positioning district heating systems and heat pump technologies as the key component of future energy systems thus, enabling a greater share of RES in the final energy consumption, higher energy efficiency. Consequently, this will result in lower greenhouse gasses (GHG) emissions thus supporting EU energy and climate long-term goals and policies.

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Programme(s)

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Topic(s)

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Funding Scheme

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MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)

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Call for proposal

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(opens in new window) H2020-MSCA-IF-2020

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Coordinator

ACCADEMIA EUROPEA DI BOLZANO
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 171 473,28
Address
VIALE DRUSO 1
39100 BOLZANO
Italy

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Region
Nord-Est Provincia Autonoma di Bolzano/Bozen Bolzano-Bozen
Activity type
Research Organisations
Links
Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 171 473,28
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