District heating networks supplied by renewable energy sources (RES) are widely recognised today as one of the most effective ways to decarbonise the heating sector. The EU’s CoolHeating project has been supporting the implementation of small, modular renewable heating and cooling grids for towns in southeastern Europe. Solarthermalworld.org talked to Rok Sunko from one of the project partners, Skupina Fabrika, about current developments and the outlook of RES district heating in Slovenia. There’s a new support scheme which grants up to 55 % on RES district heating projects.

Professor Pavel Kazantsev is an enthusiastic teacher of solar and sustainable architecture at the Far Eastern Federal University (FEFU) in Vladivostok, Russia. He encourages his students during the 3-year course on the Fundamentals of Sustainable Architecture to create eco-friendly designs for residential and commercial buildings. The photo above shows the FEFU campus model created by Natalia Bakaeva.

Urban planning is a highly complex issue, especially if it involves low-carbon living solutions and environmental regulations. The main objective of the international group of researchers working in Task 51, Solar Energy in Urban Planning, has been to “support planners, architects, and local and national authorities in creating urban areas with architecturally integrated solar solutions in mind.” In mid-September, task coordinator Maria Wall and other researchers presented successful case studies and suitable planning and design tools during a webinar.

During an event in Mexico City on 30 August, a collaboration agreement was signed to establish a platform for promoting solar heat in Mexico. The partners in this project are ANES, the national solar energy association; DKTI Solar, the Large-Scale Solar Energy Programme by the German Agency for International Cooperation; and CONUEE, the National Commission for Energy Efficiency. The agreement is intended to result in an inter-institutional platform, to which stakeholders will contribute at their own expense.

There couldn’t be a starker contrast between the market development of two heat segments: Whereas Swiss heat pump sales remained at around 18,400 units per year from 2014 to 2016, collector sales dropped significantly from 117,634 m² in 2014 to 66,699 m² last year. The annual solar thermal symposium on 8 November in Dübendorf near Zurich will provide an opportunity to discuss alternative applications and technologies.

Facades of residential and tertiary buildings offer enough space for daylight control and HVAC systems. Optimising the performance and building integration of active envelope solutions has been one of the main objectives of Task 56 of the IEA Solar Heating and Cooling programme. The researchers will develop algorithms to map the impact of facade-integrated HVAC and lighting components on heating, cooling and light use and incorporate these new modules into existing design tools. The intensive cooperation between scientists and software developers is one of the most fruitful aspects of global research within the IEA SHC.