Energy use in buildings represents 40% of the total primary energy used in the EU and therefore developing effective energy alternatives is imperative. Solar thermal systems (STS) will have a main role to play as they contribute directly to the heating and cooling of buildings and the provision of domestic hot water. STS are typically mounted on building roofs with no attempt to incorporate them into the building envelope, creating aesthetic challenges and space availability problems. The Action will foster and accelerate long-term development in STS through critical review, experimentation, simulation and demonstration of viable systems for full incorporation and integration into the traditional building envelope. Viable solutions will also consider economic constraints, resulting in cost effective Building Integrated STS. Additionally, factors like structural integrity, weather impact protection, fire and noise protection will be considered. The most important benefit of this Action is the increased adoption of RES in buildings. Three generic European regions are considered; Southern Mediterranean, Central Continental and Northern Maritime Europe, to fully explore the Pan-European nature of STS integration. The Action consortium presents a critical mass of European knowledge, expertise, resources, skills and R&D in the area of STS, supporting innovation and conceptual thinking. The main objective of the Action is to develop new novel solar thermal systems solutions suitable for building integration, definition of key parameters for their characterisation, modelling, simulation, demonstration and dissemination activities.
Project funding:
COST actions
Project results:
Many of the participants of the Action participated in a wide range of events worldwide such as conferences, forums and symposia. In many of our meetings we also organised special sessions in which people of the local industry were invited. This proved to be a very good way of exchanging views with the people producing these systems and get their opinion on the way we see the market of building integration to develop.
The Action’s two most significant successes were the following: The development of a number (at least 6) different types of new products which demonstrate the building integration of solar thermal collectors. The involvement of the relevant industry and decision makers to special sessions of the different meetings in different countries to explain to them what we were doing and get their feedback. Large number of papers were published by members of this Action in peer reviewed journals.
COST Action Final Achievement Report TU1205: Building Integration of Solar Thermal Systems (BISTS) | |
Memorandum of Understanding for the implementation of a European Concerted Research Action designated as COST Action TU1205: Building Integration of Solar Thermal Systems (BISTS) |
Period of project implementation: 2013-07-03 - 2017-04-04
Project partners: Denmark, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Turkey, United States of America, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Spain, United Kingdom, Canada
