Periodic Reporting for period 2 - SunHorizon (Sun coupled innovative Heat pumps)
Reporting period: 2020-04-01 to 2021-09-30
Despite the huge primary energy consumption associated with heating and cooling (H&C) demand in EU building stock, the share of installed renewable H&C solutions is still marginal (i.e. 5%). In order to speed up a transition towards the widespread application of renewable H&C in buildings, innovative solutions must be designed to compete against traditional solutions. In this framework, SunHorizon project aims to unlock the potential for a user-friendly and cost-effective solution based on an optimized design and combination of commercial innovative solar technologies and Heat Pumps (HP). SunHorizon project scope is to demonstrate innovative and reliable HP solutions (thermal compression, adsorption, reversible) which, properly coupled and managed with advanced solar panels (thermal, PVT, PV), provide H&C to residential and tertiary building with lower emissions, energy bills and fossil fuel dependency. Four different TPs are being developed and demonstrated all across EU climates (i.e. Germany, Spain, Belgium and Latvia) and building typologies (small and large-scale residential and tertiary buildings). Cloud based functional monitoring platform will be implemented as well in order to: i) be the “performance data mine” for the development of Data Driven/KPI oriented optimized algorithms and tools for predictive maintenance; ii) optimize the management towards maximisation of solar exploitation; iii) give to the manufacturer inputs for enhancing the design of their components.
Cross-cutting activities among the demo are devoted to solve technical, organizational, legal, regulatory and market-related issues and to evaluate solutions from the economic and business points of view.
Cross-cutting activities among the demo are devoted to solve technical, organizational, legal, regulatory and market-related issues and to evaluate solutions from the economic and business points of view.
During the first eighteen months, the activities within SunHorizon project were mainly focused on the following points: i) baseline evaluation of the eight demos including constraints and needs towards the integration of SunHorizon system ii) general design of the Technology Packages for the eight demos and preliminary evaluation of their performances via a proper set of KPIs iii) monitoring platform architecture definition and algorithms for demand prediction and predictive maintenance iv) social and market acceptance analysis.
For each demo, an energy audit has been performed to evaluate the baseline conditions. Several on-site visits to the buildings were performed by the partners to understand the best integration of SunHorizon system within the existing system. Preliminary conceptual design of the TPs relying on dynamic TRNSYS simulation of the new heating system models were defined. Firstly, dynamic simulations were carried out in reference to the building envelope models that provides H&C energy requirements under weather profiles, and usage profiles. Such baseline energy demand configuration was used to develop and size the new H/C/DHW system and to evaluate the energy consumption. In addition to activities performed in demo sites, transversal activities on the development of the cloud monitoring platform and the control strategies to be applied in the demos have been performed. The prediction models for the demand characterization as well as the pro-active maintenance strategies have been developed. Moreover, a preliminary version of the SunHorizon app for the Thermal comfort evaluation is now ready. A survey have been developed to evaluate the market and social acceptance of SunHorizon technologies among stakeholders’ as well as a macro-market analysis including PESTLE and conceptual business models definition.
For each demo, an energy audit has been performed to evaluate the baseline conditions. Several on-site visits to the buildings were performed by the partners to understand the best integration of SunHorizon system within the existing system. Preliminary conceptual design of the TPs relying on dynamic TRNSYS simulation of the new heating system models were defined. Firstly, dynamic simulations were carried out in reference to the building envelope models that provides H&C energy requirements under weather profiles, and usage profiles. Such baseline energy demand configuration was used to develop and size the new H/C/DHW system and to evaluate the energy consumption. In addition to activities performed in demo sites, transversal activities on the development of the cloud monitoring platform and the control strategies to be applied in the demos have been performed. The prediction models for the demand characterization as well as the pro-active maintenance strategies have been developed. Moreover, a preliminary version of the SunHorizon app for the Thermal comfort evaluation is now ready. A survey have been developed to evaluate the market and social acceptance of SunHorizon technologies among stakeholders’ as well as a macro-market analysis including PESTLE and conceptual business models definition.
The ambition of SunHorizon is to demonstrate modular, high-performance, integrated, affordable components to provide low-carbon heating and cooling in residential and commercial buildings. Considering that solar and HPs are currently very well accepted RES Based H&C technologies, promoting Solar coupled HPs seems to be a turnkey strategy to promote decarbonized H&C appliances. The proposed TPs aim at covering at least 80% of the H&C needs of refurbished and new single/multi-family/tertiary buildings. These results could be achieved thanks to the realization of a first of its kind cloud based functional monitoring platform aim to be the “performance data mine” for the development of Data Driven/KPI oriented optimized algorithms and tools for predictive maintenance, optimize the management towards maximisation of solar exploitation and give to the manufacturer inputs for new installation design. This monitoring platform will also drive smart monitoring end user interfaces to be applied at building level to collect thermal comfort data towards a new thermal comfort driven heating control system. The project is expecting to reduce both the CAPEX of the single technologies as well as the OPEX of the whole system. SunHorizon impacts will be in the short term (2022) derived from i) the technical developments of the H&C components and implementations in the demonstration cases; and in the long term (2030) triggered by ii) the investment plans defined by the industrial partners and iii) the replication potential and follow-up actions at EU level.