Laura Timberlake
The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) has released a report called Promoting the Use of Solar Cooling and Heating in Australian buildings (PUSCH).
The report analyses the status of the solar heating and cooling (SHC) industry in Australia and its suitability for built environment applications. It identifies existing market barriers and opportunities for improving the market uptake of SHC solutions.
The study considers both residential and built environmental sectors, and examines space heaters, hot water heating and cooling opportunities.
Some of the barriers identified in the report include:
- High initial cost of these system installations
- Lack of awareness of benefits and unrealistic expectations of benefits from these technologies
- Supply chain and workforce competitiveness
- Technical and financial risks
- Split incentives.
Some of the opportunities established include that many commercial public buildings have favourable conditions for the installation of solar heating and cooling systems, and that large-scale precinct-level solar heating and cooling provide opportunities for the integration of solar energy generation systems.
Recommendations have been developed across four areas: develop, support, implement and inform. The recommendations propose setting up two exemplar projects for each built environment sector, with each built and monitored using best-practice guidelines.
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