Evaluation of solar driven thermal systems for urban buildings

The integration of solar thermal systems, in buildings has been an aim of intense research over the last thirty years. Solar thermal systems have become the most widespread, and certainly the best-known RES system, being a commonly accepted solution for hot water production. Still, the integration of RES in the urban built environment remains limited, despite a series of ambitious demonstration projects carried out in the 1980’s and 1990’s and despite the significant progress monitored in the efficiency and performance of these systems. Furthermore, the impact of tightening energy conservation measures, leads to new standards for the dimensioning of energy provision installations in the field of heating, ventilation and air-conditioning. In this line of thought RES systems can be considered as energy supply utilities and not as energy conservation systems. This approach presupposes a new assessment of the boundary conditions in the market, in order to determine the opportunities presented and to evaluate the feasibility of RES based solutions under the perspectives both of the investor and of the energy user. These aspects will be analysed within the framework of this paper, based on the results of the ATREUS project, which is funded by the European Commission Training and Mobility of Researchers Programme (CEC, TMR). The analysis discussed in the paper is focused on the use of active solar systems for space heating and space cooling of residential and commercial buildings. This was done by assessing the available technologies, as well as by discussing the policies and measures needed to enable and promote the integration of such systems, not only on the level of independent buildings, but also on the level of actions affecting the communities as a whole