webmaster – RELaTED Project

SMACCs master programme invites the RELaTED Project coordinator to talk about district heating

The coordinator of the RELaTED Project will talk about district heating systems at the SMACCs Master Programme. The University of the Basque Country invites the RELaTED Project coordinator, Roberto Garay, for the second consecutive year, to be part of a seminar organized by the Master Programme in Smart Cities and Communities SMACCs. The seminar will be held from 1st to 4th of December, both included, and it will be a great opportunity for students to learn more about sustainable buildings and solar thermal systems in district heating systems. The programme is designed to educate the next generation of engineers and researchers in Smart Cities and Communities by learning best practice from 4 of Europe’s most prestigious universities (Heriot-Watt University, University [...]

webmaster2020-11-18T17:10:50+00:00November 18th, 2020|News|

Energy meters in District-Heating Substations for Heat Consumption Characterization and Prediction Using Machine-Learning Techniques

The use of smart energy meters enables the monitoring of large quantity of data related to heat consumption patterns in buildings connected to DH networks. This information can be used to understand the interaction between building and the final users´ without accurate information about building characteristics and occupational rates. In this paper, presented at Beyond 2020 digital event, an intuitive and clarifier data-driven model is presented, which couples heat demand and weather variables. This model enables the disaggregation of Space-Heating & Domestic Hot water demand, characterization of the total heat demand and the forecasting for the next hours. Simulations for 53 building have been carried out, with satisfactory results for most of them, reaching R2 values above 0.9 in some [...]

webmaster2020-11-04T13:04:03+00:00November 4th, 2020|Conference and scientific journals, Publications|

Data driven process for the energy assessment of building envelope retrofits

In the paper “Data driven process for the energy assessment of building envelope retrofits”, a novel method is proposed based on whole-building heat load assessment by means of heat meters, and analytical calculations of building envelope transmission heat load coefficients. […]

webmaster2020-10-16T10:40:07+00:00October 16th, 2020|Conference and scientific journals, Publications|

Energy & economic assessment of façade-integrated solar thermal systems combined with ultra-low temperature district-heating

Authors: Roberto Garay, project coordinator of RELaTED and Mikel Lumbreras, researcher at TECNALIA, Basque Research and Technology Alliance (BRTA). This paper, published in the journal Renewable Energy (Volume 159, October 2020, Pages 1000-1014), conducts an energy and economic assessment of District Heating (DH) integrated Solar Thermal (ST) systems. An implementation with building-integrated ST collectors coupled to a Low Temperature District Heating (LTDH) system is studied, with special focus on unglazed collectors. ST heat is exploited in the building through direct use, while excess heat is delivered to the network. A novel control strategy for heat flows in the system is proposed. A meta-analysis of several DH configurations, interconnection schemes and installed ST capacity is performed in three different climates: Sevilla (Spain), [...]

webmaster2020-10-16T10:12:53+00:00October 1st, 2020|Conference and scientific journals, Publications|

RELaTED project will be present at the 8th edition of Sustainable Places 2020 (SP2020)

The workshop 'Integration of renewable energy technologies in district heating and cooling solutions for sustainable living' will bring RELaTED the opportunity to present and demonstrate the RELaTED ultra-low temperature dictrict heating concept. There is a large potential to integrate substantial shares of renewable energy sources in district heating and/or cooling systems, reducing dependency of DHC on fossil fuels and ultimately leading to a more efficient and sustainable energy system. A number of EU funded projects are currently working on this topic. The objective of the workshop is to share WEDISTRICT project concept with other sister projects and interested stakeholders in order to exchange new ideas, lessons learnt from implementation, proposals about the successful integration of renewable technologies in DHC. Sustainable [...]

webmaster2020-10-08T12:28:44+00:00September 10th, 2020|News|

Turning waste into energy for Belgrade’s district heating

The ambitious Belgrade Energy-from-Waste project received the IJ Global European Waste deal of the year 2019 award on 20th July 2020. IJGlobal recognize and reward excellent and exceptional performance across all regions, globally. Vinca Landfill Site october 2018. The project, the first of its kind in Serbia, addresses one of the most urgent environmental challenges in Europe updating the City's existing waste management practices and enhancing Belgrade's renewable power and heat generation capacity. Beo Cista Energija – the joint-venture formed by Suez, Itochu Corporation and Marguerite entered into a 25-year Public-Pivate Partnership with the City of Belgrade to deliver modern waste management infrastructure for its 1.7 million population. The project is intended to closure the existing landfill at [...]

webmaster2020-09-02T17:34:01+00:00September 3rd, 2020|News|

“The global crisis of COVID-19 has highlighted the importance of the sustainable Energy Transition”

Author: Olga Macías, Smart Buildings and Cities Researcher at TECNALIA Research and Innovation. The last few months all the news has been overshadowed by the global crisis of COVID-19. This pandemic has turned the whole world upside down and shaken worldwide economies. Among other consequences, many of us agree that this crisis has highlighted the importance of the sustainable Energy Transition, and the need to search for solutions with technical and economic feasibility that will facilitate this transition. That is why, now more than ever, we believe in the concept of ultra-low temperature, de-carbonized and smart networks developed in the RELaTED project as a solution that allows transforming the current district networks with a greater use of renewable [...]

webmaster2020-06-02T15:41:27+00:00June 2nd, 2020|Editorial, News|

District Heating De-Carbonisation in Belgrade. Roadmap.

The operation temperatures of today’s district heating systems are too high for a massive integration of renewable systems, while the current control systems are no able to properly introduce weather-dependent, distributed heat sources such as solar systems. The district heating strategy for the city of Belgrade (Serbia) addresses these barriers with the focus to de-carbonising the city on a multi-year transition plan, including large investments, greater interconnection levels with large solar thermal plants and waste incineration plants, and the conversion of a power plant into CHP, among others. The size of the Belgrade district heating network, one of the biggest of Europe with >12PJ heat sales only compared to few district heating networks such as Copenhagen’s (>30PJ heat sales) or [...]

webmaster2020-05-21T16:23:59+00:00May 21st, 2020|News|

Demonstration site: the conversion of the district heating network of Iurreta into an ultra-low temperature system

The main aim of Iurreta demonstration site is to tests the possibilities of the ultra-low temperature district heating systems in corporate building complexes. For such purpose, the intervention proposed within the framework of RELaTED project requires the conversion of current district heating network into an ultra-low temperature system, where the operation temperatures are reduced, and additional distributed renewable heat sources are introduced. Current technical barriers to achieve this conversion will be solved by means of installing innovative technologies as building integrated solar thermal systems and reversible heat pumps capable of operating at ultra-low temperatures. This new ultra-low temperature network will allow to increase the efficiency of the existing heat plant by reducing water production temperature in one of the boilers. [...]

webmaster2020-05-14T11:19:46+00:00May 14th, 2020|News|

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