Incorporating heat storage inside twin-walled evacuated tube solar collector

Project aim

The aim is to combine heat storage and a solar thermal system. This can store and provide heat whenever little or no solar energy is available which will improve the utilization of the collected solar energy. Also, the efficiency will be increased, allowing oversizing and so contributing to space heating without increasing the hot water cylinder size.

Project background

While government policies have encouraged the deployment of environmentally-friendly power-producing plants, decarbonising heating systems have remained one of the greatest challenges. The UK set a target of 11% of heat being generated by renewable sources by 2020. However, the seasonal variation in heat demand is remaining a large challenge. Thus, future energy systems will require the integration of renewable electricity and heat with either short and/or long-term storage to satisfy the daily and seasonal mismatch.

Against this background, the main aim of this project is to develop low-cost thermal energy storage for the solar thermal system, the evacuated tube solar collector type for domestic sector use. The project studies evacuated tube collectors, in particular, in the context of solar water heaters, aiming to open up this technology for space heating and therefore reduce the reliance on fossil fuels to heat our homes.