On the second day of the 19th Heat Pump Forum, several project developers spoke about heat pump solutions for multi-family houses and neighborhoods. One such project is in Bedburg, western Germany. There, a former sugar factory is to be converted into a modern neighborhood with 1,200 new apartments for up to 3,000 residents, as well as commercial buildings. Because geothermal energy or river water are not available as heat sources for the heat pump, German engineering firm PBS Energiesysteme designed a low-temperature network that draws heat from a large 4 MWp PVT array and integrates three ice storage tanks - one for each heating center.When the heat pump draws heat from the storage tank, the water freezes into ice; when it is charged from the thermal side of the PVT collectors, the ice melts. In general, the ice storage, which is a latent heat storage, has a much higher storage capacity than a hot water storage. The feasibility study by PBS Energiesysteme is supported by funding from the Heat Networks 4.0 program.
Translated from: https://solarthermalworld.org
