The immediate challenges of climate change demand that we utilize all of the sustainable technologies afforded to us.
Photo: Federico Beddari on Unsplash
Nearly everything that relies on energy is interconnected; therefore, a System-of-Systems perspective is needed to cope with the growing complexity of the challenges ahead. Legacy systems rely on a one-way flow of energy from producers to consumers, but the future will be filled with networks of active “prosumers”. We need to think beyond the box of technology to realize the full potential of a sustainable society.
Buildings and cities are full of untapped potential, and we aim to help unlock it. Starting with pain points that need solutions, not technologies looking for problems to solve, we analyze energy systems as a whole without missing the detailed behavior of every component inside the system boundary. This leads to the modeling of many types of energy supply technologies, integrated together, interacting with people and markets. For example – how do heating and cooling technologies interact with solar PV, electric vehicles and energy storage at building, district, and city levels? How can heat pumps offer demand flexibility in the future smart grids? How can heat be exported from refrigeration systems (eg. in supermarkets and ice rinks) to neighboring buildings and district heating networks? Or how can we best communicate clear, objective information to nudge homeowners towards sustainable choices?
Our research can dive deep into a single component or up to a city district, from engineering economics to “irrational” human behavior; all aiming to deliver sustainable, integrated energy systems.
The research conducted in this area cover:
Bottom-up Analysis of Energy System at the building, neighborhood, and city level
Building digitalization and application of IoT, AI, Big data in built environment
District heating and cooling
Projects
Below is a list of our active and recently completed research projects:
Building heating solutions in China
Building heating solutions in China: a multi-criteria system analysis based on spatial data.
Modern clean, accessible and affordable building space heating is a key towards future sustainable development of China. For a large country as China, it is impossible to recommend identical building space heating solution for everywhere. Therefore, this project aims at developing a systematic evaluation method to assist relative stakeholders decide at where and under what conditions to choose a certain building space heating solution.
Building state-of-the-art (SotA) supermarket: Putting theory into practice
This project will apply the knowledge accumulated through the research in supermarket energy systems by building a unique demonstration case study is built where today’s most efficient, environmentally friendly and cost-effective supermarket will be designed, installed, monitored, thoroughly evaluated, and well documented.
Combined Heat and Power plants in combination with borehole thermal energy storage (completed)
Many combined heat and power plants in Sweden waste large amounts of heat summer time due to low heat demand and permanent generation of electricity. This project will provide design and decision making tools for including seasonal thermal storages in the ground so that summer time waste heat can be use during the winter.
Cooperation between Supermarkets and Real Estate Owners; Energy Efficiency and Business Models
The overall aim of the project is to demonstrate, using theoretical calculations, modelling, energy measurements, monitoring and business model evaluation, that a collaboration for efficient use of heating, cooling and air conditioning between real estate and supermarkets owners can be achievable for both parties.
A database, which contains operation data from more than 4000 heat pump installations throughout Sweden, can be potentially exploited by end user applications to allow manufacturers, utilities, customers or third parties to perform data monitoring and analysis. However the database suffers from incompleteness, inconsistency, lack of accuracy or sensor calibration issues. To appropriately utilize the database, we will integrate other sources such as models and lab measurements to turn the low quality data into useful information. We will develop a data-driven lab which will act as a virtual platform to improve the control strategies, fault detection and performance degradation.
High-Resolution GIS District Heating Source-Load Mapping
Fossil fuels still account for around 7% of input energy used for the production of district heating (DH) in Sweden. With this study, we will develop a high-resolution Geographical Information System (GIS) platform, which can map the potentials of the renewable and recycled heat sources surrounding cities, and analyse cost efficient modalities of matching the sources and seasonal storages with building heat loads.
Open-source models for holistic building energy system design at scale
Buildings and cities are becoming increasingly integrated into the energy supply system, creating a need for transparent, trustworthy, and holistic information for potential prosumers. This project is building the foundation for easy-to-access and automate building energy models to support distributed decision making and the energy transition.
PARMENIDES – Plug & plAy EneRgy ManagEmeNt for hybriD Energy Storage
Hybrid energy storage systems (HESS) are responding to the evolving nature of energy systems and have the potential of enabling greater flexibility in energy communities (EC). Understanding and leveraging EC members’ energy-related behaviors, preferences, and constraints can enhance this potential. The PARMENIDES Project aims to develop an interoperable and secure ontology-based Energy Management System for HESS (EMS4HESS) suited for ECs with energy storage technologies, with a focus on the electricity and heating domain, so they can offer flexibility services to the grid, while finding a balance between stakeholders’ individual and collective objectives.
Recovery of waste heat from base stations in the mobile network
Waste heat recovery from rooftop BTSs is a new concept whose existing literature and real applications are still rare. The original heat exchangers implemented in the cabinet for storing baseband units (BBUs) were designed for cooling the electronic devices as the sole objective. In order to recover the waste heat and use it for domestic heating, there is a need to redesign the heat exchanger or to implement a heat pump unit to lift the temperature of the waste heat up to a level required by heat supply systems in adjacent buildings. Techno-economic analyses of the integrated heating systems are also needed to deliver cost-effective renovations for the waste heat recovery.
Use of green energy generated by solar and wind power technologies would help contribute to a clean and secure energy future for Sweden compared to conventional fossil energy resources. Along with the EU-directive for renewable energy of July 2009, Sweden declared that its primary national target is at least 50% of its total energy use would be from renewable energy resources by year 2020, and out of that, there would be at least 10% in transport sector.
Solar energy and ground source heat pumps for Swedish multi-family housing (completed)
Ground source heat pumps (GSHP) are common in Sweden, but solar energy systems are not. GSHP could offer an ideal platform to integrate solar energy into the building and national energy systems towards meeting climate goals and increasing the share of renewable energy to 100%.
The project aims at investigating the energy system and innovation process for an upcoming EcoCity in China.
With a growth in urbanization, cities are expected to be at the heart of future innovation in energy efficiency. Wuxi Sino-Swedish EcoCity is a unique project, spanning over an area of 2.4 km 2. The project served to showcase different technological solutions in the area of energy efficiency and sustainability that can be used as a hotbed for innovation development and large-scale implementation.
