The District Heating and Cooling and Thermal Energy Storage Technology Panel of the RHC-Platform was launched in July 2018 and it is managed by the DHC+ Technology Platform, c/o Euroheat & Power.
District Heating and Cooling (DHC) is a proven solution for delivering heating, hot water and cooling services through a network of insulated pipes, from a central point of generation to the end user. DHC networks are well suited to supply locally available, renewable and low-carbon energy; solar thermal and geothermal heat, waste heat from industry and commercial buildings, heat from combined heat and power plants. The ability to integrate diverse energy sources means customers are not dependent upon a single source of supply. By aggregating a large number of small and variable heating and cooling demands, District Heating and District Cooling allow energy flows from multiple RES to be combined while reducing primary energy demand and carbon emissions in the community served.
Thermal energy storage (TES) is the solution for a key bottleneck against the widespread and integrated use of RES, since the renewable supply does not always coincide with the demand for heating or cooling, and electricity. Numerous technologies in sensible, latent or thermochemical form can time-shift renewable energy supply to periods of greatest demand, each of them characterised by different specifications and specific advantages. TES contributes to energy system integration, offering flexibility to the wider energy system and storage of variable renewable electricity.
The Technology Panels consists of a pool of experts that provide specific technology input to the research activities of the RHC-ETIP. The structure and personal is as follows:
Management: DHC+ Technology Platform c/o Euroheat & Power
Steering Committee (part of RHC Board):
- Chair: Ralf-Roman Schmidt (AIT, Austrian Institute for Technology)
- Vice-Chairs:
- Adriano Sciacovelli, University of Birmingham
- Abdulrahman Dahash, AIT Austrian Institute
- Members of the TP: 21 selected members
