Ricerc@Sapienza

In the last decade, the European Union promoted several directives dealing with strategies and methodologies pertaining to buildings energy demand reduction. To accomplish fixed targets, a different design philosophy has to be adopted for new buildings construction. Additionally, RES (Renewable Energy Sources) have to be integrated as much as possible and non-invasive refurbishment interventions, matching architectural constraints for existing buildings have to be considered.

Climate change is a worldwide recognized problem, and its mitigation identified as one of the most significant challenges. The way to achieve this purpose is to reduce greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions through the energy system using renewables. The change from an energy system based on fossil fuels to renewable sources-based one is necessary on which the world community agrees. A photovoltaic thermal (PV/T) panel is a system that can produce both electricity and thermal energy simultaneously in one integrated system.

This paper deals with the potential role of new hybrid CHP systems application providing both electricity and heat which are compatible with the building architectural and landscape limitations. In detail, three different plant layout options for high temperature heat production along with the electricity generation were investigated and compared each other. To do so, conventional natural gas CHPs and back up boiler, two-stage Electric Heat Pumps (EHPs) and trans-critical CO2 electric heat pump (CO2-HP) have been considered as reference technologies to build hybrid systems.