OR-10-044 -- High Solar Combi Systems in Europe

Solar thermal heating for sanitary hot water and space heating has grown considerably over the years and is well established in several countries, while solar cooling is an emerging market with a huge growth potential. A combination of solar heating and cooling systems is an ideal solution that has the potential to lead to both high solar fractions and economical systems due to the continuous (annual) exploitation of the solar collector field and other system components. This paper reviews the various options for exploiting solar thermal systems for sanitary hot water and space heating (solar combi systems), solar cooling, and combined solar space heating-cooling and sanitary hot water) systems (combi-plus) in Europe, summarizing their main design, operational and performance characteristics, in order to derive some practical guidelines. The paper also includes an overview of high combi-plus solar systems that aim to develop solar thermal heating and cooling systems with high solar fraction, combining different technologies and components to optimize performance, as a result of an ongoing European research and demonstration project.

Units: Dual