Analysis of the potential of solar-assisted heat pumps: technical, market and social acceptance aspects

Solar-assisted heat pumps have the potential to increase the share of renewables in the energy systems for several cases, or to increase the flexibility of smart grids and integrated thermal-electric grids. The development of such systems requires a comprehensive approach in which technical, market and social acceptance are all tackled at the same time. Such a holistic approach is the main objective of the present review paper. To do so, the investigation is performed by categorizing the integration approaches reported in the literature, exploiting the solar source either as low-temperature evaporator source or supporting the condenser during heating operation. Furthermore, hybrid integration schematics and dual source approaches are discussed. Market and social aspects complete the analysis, with the aim of finally identifying the current status, the main drivers and challenges to be addressed. The reported results confirm that the exploitation of solar thermal energy can increase the achievable performance of heat pumps in a broad range of climates. A favourable regulatory/financial framework and informative campaigns for businesspersons and the wide public have been identified as the main solutions to maximize the deployment of the technology in the next years. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.