Most Promising Markets

The physical location of a solar combi plus system installed defines the amount of solar energy available and to some extent the domestic hot water, space heating and cooling needs of a particular application. The combination of useful energy possibly harvested and overall loads determines the most promising climates for the installation of a solar combi plus application.

Three different locations across Europe have been analyzed in detail regarding heating and cooling loads as well as the available solar radiation. One central European location (Strassbourg, France) with less cooling than heating demand and two southern European locations: Toulouse (France) as an example with roughly equal heating and cooling demand) and Naples (Italy) as an example of a location with much higher cooling than heating demand.

All the investigated locations are suitable under the point of view of the heating demand and potential coverage of the loads through a high fraction of solar energy. Southern countries are obviously more suitable for cooling applications due to the significantly higher radiation, which is available, while passive cooling could be a more adequate solution to cover northern countries requirements.

The technologies used for cooling (ab- or adsorption chillers) and for harvesting the solar energy have to be considered too: as the needed temperature levels increase and the location moves towards the north, more efficient solar thermal collectors shall be adopted. The extra savings obtained with evacuated tube collectors should always be compared with the extra initial system costs. The seasonal demands are also important, i.e. cooling demands can be proportionally lower than the winter ones and the energy increase due to more expensive collectors not very significant.

In an ideal application combined space heating, cooling and DHW loads are encountered. However, it is not possible to identify “most promising market” among the locations analyzed because the actual loads in a particular applications depend so much on the technologies employed (for heating and cooling) as well as for the construction of the buildings. The technology and the economics of the specific application have to be evaluated.

Most promising markets

The complete report on the most promising markets for solar combi plus systems can be downloaded from here.