A Solar Academy On-site Training Event

March 8, 2019 | London, United Kingdom

Over the next three years, the UK Government Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) are investing £320m of capital funding into heat networks via the Heat Networks Investment Project (HNIP). Heat networks have the potential to substantially contribute to the UK’s ambition to decarbonise heat, however only if the source of heat for the network is low carbon.

One of the most effective ways of decarbonising a heat network is to use solar heat and we invited to the UK two National Experts from the IEA SHC Task 55 (Towards the Integration of Large SHC Systems into District Heating and Cooling (DHC) Networks) to speak on Solar Heat Networks. They were Jan Erik Nielsen from the renewable energy planning specialist PlanEnergi (Denmark) and Christian Holter from the solar engineering company SOLID (Austria). We also invited three UK experts to speak: Grant Feasey from the solar collector manufacturing company AES Solar; Renaldi Renaldi from Newcastle University; and Edmund Papworth from the small-scale heat network company, Minus 7.

The details of the Solar Academy event were as follows:

  • Title: Solar Heat Networks: Policy, Planning, Design and Performance
  • Time: Friday 8th March 2019 09:30–17:00
  • Location: Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) Conference Centre, London

A copy of the agenda can be found on page 3 in the event report. The following topics were discussed:

  • Introduction to Solar Heat Networks
  • Integration of Solar into Heat Networks
  • Integration of Seasonal Heat Storage into Heat Networks
  • ESCO Models and System Performance