Renewable energy systems for building heating, cooling and electricity production with thermal energy storage

This paper introduces the recent developments in Renewable Energy Systems for building heating, cooling and electricity production with thermal energy storage. Due to the needed Clean Energy Transition in the many countries and regions and the goal of closing Net Zero Energy Buildings, it is crucial to provide efficient Renewable Energy Based heating/cooling systems for buildings. The buildings contribute about 40% of total energy consumption, with significant potential for primary energy savings. The application of various Renewable Energy based systems is discussed including: the presentation of Hybrid Renewable Energy bases systems, methodology for their design and methods for the optimisation of Buildings RES. At present, mostly the systems based on heat pumps and photovoltaics are applied in buildings. However, the sources of those energy systems are unstable, and they are influenced by the climate environment. It makes it necessary to combine thermal and electrical energy storage, to achieve high efficiency. The recently developing electrical energy and chemical storage are Battery Energy Storage Systems and Hydrogen Energy Systems, through it is urgently necessary to overcome the difficulties of high cost, relatively low efficiency and demanding storage environment and so on. For the thermal energy storage, Phase Change Materials (PCMs) show great potential for application - with their use the thermal energy can be accumulated at the time of low energy demand or availability and recovered during a high consumption period. This review also presents the recent developments in PCMs for their application in buildings, both for heating and cooling. Finally, it sorts out some challenging issues of the RES today and guides future development.