Renewable and Highly Efficient Energy Systems Through Innovative Combination of Solar Thermal and Heat Pump Systems

Solar thermal heat and heat pumps are key technologies to increase the share of renewable energy in industry and to facilitate an independent energy supply. Within the Austrian research project "Renewable process heat - integration of solar thermal energy and heat pumps in industrial processes" (short EnPro) 12 industrial case studies were performed and have shown the high potential for combined solar heat and heat pump systems in industry on supply as well process level integration. Based on the assessment of different combination concepts from a technical and economic point of view, standardised integration concepts for the combination of the two renewable technologies were developed. Thereby, a high multiplication potential can be realised for industrial applications. For a maximum impact, an easy-to-use tool was developed to identify and evaluate the potential for increasing energy efficiency and the integration of solar thermal heat and/or heat pump systems in industry.