The International Energy AgencySolar Heating and Cooling Technology Collaboration Programme is one of over 40 multilateral Technology Collaboration Programmes of the International Energy Agency. It was one of the first of such programmes, founded in 1977. Its current mission is to "advance international collaborative efforts for solar energy to reach the goal set in the vision of contributing 50% of the low temperature heating and cooling demand by 2030.". Its international solar collector statistics Solar Heat Worldwide serve as a reference document for governments, financial institutions, consulting firms and non-profit organizations.
Membership and organization
The IEA SHC's members are national governments, the European Commission and international organizations. Each of the members is represented by one representative in the management body called the Executive Committee. The IEA SHC Executive Committee meets twice per year and is headed by an elected chairman. The IEA SHC currently has 26 members.
Fields of work
Research, development and demonstration
The IEA SHC aims at facilitating international collaboration in the research, development and demonstration of solar thermal energy and solar buildings. Their multi-year projects are conducted by researchers from different countries. Funding is provided by IEA SHC members, who usually pay one or more national research institutions to participate in the work. Research topics include:
solar cooling, e.g. New Generation Solar Cooling and Heating Systems, Quality Assurance and Support Measures for Solar Cooling, Solar Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration
solar buildings/architecture, e.g. Building Integrated Solar Envelope Systems for HVAC and Lighting, Solar Energy and Energy Economics in Urban Environments, Solar Energy in Urban Planning, Solar Renovation of Non-Residential Buildings, Solar Energy and Architecture
standards & certification, e.g. Solar Standards and Certification, Solar Rating & Certification Procedure
resource assessment, e.g. Solar Resource Assessment and Forecasting, Solar Resource Knowledge Management
Task 13
The idea behind Task 13 was to push construction technology towards its limits to achieve the lowest possible total purchased energy consumption. Task 13 was part of the IEA Solar Heating and Cooling Programme, to test the designs and techniques, and to monitor their performance. On average, the houses were designed to require 44 kWh/m², 75% lower than the average 172 kWh/m² that would have been required had the houses been built to normal standards.. The 44 kWh/m² resulted from:
Electricity – 18 kWh/m²
Space heating – 14 kWh/m²
Water heating – 11 kWh/m²
Cooling – 1 kWh/m²
In addition there was an average solar contribution designed to average 37 kWh/m², from a combination of passive solar gains, active solar, and photovoltaics. The buildings were constructed to be airtight, superinsulated to roughly double normal standards, and to minimise thermal bridges. Masonry and several timber framed methods were represented, as well as newly designed steel strengthened polystyrene block walls. The Berlin "Zero Heating Energy House" included a seasonal thermal store. The homes in the programme were:
Ventilation systems could suffer from noise and draft problems
Care was needed to design out summer overheating
Simple installations and systems were easier for the residents to understand
International SHC conference
In 2011, the IEA SHC Executive Committee announced an annual international conference on solar heating and cooling for buildings and industry. The first conference, SHC 2012 took place 9–11 July 2012 in San Francisco,. SHC 2013 on 23–25 September 2013 in Freiburg, Germany., SHC 2014 on 13–15 October in Beijing, China, SHC 2015 on 2–4 December in Istanbul, Turkey. SHC 2013 and SHC 2015 were jointly with the European Solar Thermal Industry Federation, which had previously organized their own conference, ESTEC.
Publications
Apart from the reports and other publications of the research projects, the Solar Heating and Cooling Programme publishes several cross-cutting documents, the most important one being the annual collector statistics Solar Heat Worldwide. The SHC newsletter Solar Update is published twice per year.
