Marco Bakker1, Jochem Nijs2, Wim van Helden1, Angele Reinders2
1 ECN, Energy Research Centre of the Netherlands, P. O. Box 1, 1755 ZG Petten, The Netherlands,
telephone: +31 224 56 8079, fax: +31 224 56 8966, email: m. bakker@ecn. nl
2 University of Twente, Faculty of CTW, Department of Design, Production and Management,
P. O.Box 21, 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands

Introduction

In 2030, the energy demand of newly built houses will be fully covered with solar energy, according to the vision of the European Solar Thermal Technology platform. Naturally, this should not interfere with the increasing demand for indoor comfort and the need for affordable accommodation. This places a lot of demands on future solar thermal collectors.

With the materials and production technologies that are currently being used, it is not possible to make the transition to a next generation of solar collectors with a strongly improved price/performance ratio. New collector concepts are required, based on new materials, new production technologies, and on increased intelligence of the collector system. In this paper we will illustrate how new concepts for solar collectors have been developed with a focus on implementation in 2030.

Backcasting

Within WAELS, a Dutch national long-term research project, a vision on the solar thermal collector of the future was developed. To start as unbiased as possible, a backcasting method was used. This method starts with a future vision, and describes the developments between then and now that are needed to reach that future.

A series of three workshops was organised to get an overview of the developments in the various sectors related to solar thermal collectors. Experts from a. o. construction, installation, materials science, and information technology were invited to discuss the developments in their fields of expertise. These developments were extrapolated and combined in order to define a set of opportunities (e. g. new materials, sensors, construction technologies, etc.) and boundary conditions (e. g. evolved energy demand, competing technologies, etc.) for solar thermal collectors in 2030.

The main trends that were found as a result of the workshops—aspects that will become increasingly important for solar collectors—were:

•f lexibility: both building and installation can easily adapt to newly added components or to changes in user demands;

• integration: building and installation components are fully integrated and interwoven;

• intelligence: the building can independently adapt its behaviour to the ambient conditions and the user’s demands and behaviour;

• modularity: building and installation components are easily exchangeable;

• independence: the building can provide in its own energy needs.