C15 - Applications of Large Solar Heating Systems

Date: April 2^nd – April 9^th, 2016
Host: University of Kassel

Large solar heating systems are decisive to cover a major part of European low temperature heat demand by solar energy and to meet European policy aims. However, today only a negligible share of solar heating systems installed in Europe are large units due to manifold technical and socio-economic obstacles. Aspects covered during the course are, for example:

• How to reduce the large planning efforts (requiring expert knowledge) for system integration into existing heating systems for new applications, especially for industrial processes
• How to optimize complex hydraulics in terms of flexibility to serve variable loads, overall collector efficiency, pressure drop and safety of collector stagnation for different boundary conditions
• How to optimize operation strategies of the respective solar heating systems
• The integration of process heat collectors in industrial processes in a temperature range between 100°C and 200°C
• Adsorption and absorption processes in closed loop or as open desiccant systems, which are investigated within the SHINE project with numerical and experimental means
• How to improve the performance of sorption materials via chemical modification and combination of fluid solid hybrid materials.

Lectures on Applications of Large solar heating systems (April 4^th, April 5^th and April 9^th, 2016)

The three day course will cover the topics of the three work packages composing the European PhD-network SHINE, i.e. Solar District Heating, Solar Assisted Industrial Processes and Sorption Processes and Materials.

Workshop on Planning of Large Solar Heating Systems (April 6^th, 2016)

After two days of lectures, a workshop on planning large solar heating systems will take place. The planning task includes an assessment of the energy consumption that needs to be provided by the solar heating system and an optimization of design and operation, the function control and a selection of suitable system parameters. A planning method according to German design guidelines will be introduced that is based on simple estimations instead of detailed calculations. Furthermore, the participants will use (rather simple) simulation tools and carry out an economic analysis.

Excursion on Solar Heating Systems (April 8^th, 2016)

Details on the solar heating systems and companies visited, can be found on the Technical Tour - Kassel site.

Workshops on soft skills (April 2^nd and April 3^rd, 2016)

Before the start of the PhD course, the SolNet network offered two workshops on soft skills: A workshop on “Leadership Competences” (April 2nd, 2016) and a workshop on “Proposal Writing” (April 3rd, 2016) to the members of the SHINE project.

Internal Shine Meeting (April 7^th, 2016)

The internal meeting for students and supervisors of the shine programme took place on April 7^th, 2016.