Promoting Use of Solar Cooling and Heating in Australia (PUSCH)
- $399k Funded by ARENA
- $875k Total project cost
Summary
This project is about capacity building and knowledge sharing, to support the Australian building industry to adopt solar cooling and heating technologies through training, Australian case studies and various knowledge dissemination activities. This project delivered an industry roadmap to overcome barriers and assist with market transformation.
Need
Solar Cooling and Heating technologies remain underutilised in the Australian building sector, despite space heating and cooling being responsible for 7% of Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions and up to 50% of Australia’s electricity infrastructure peak demand.
This project, through its capacity building activities, provided inputs towards addressing the skills, industry awareness and knowledge barriers associated with increased market uptake of SCH technologies.
Project innovation
Solar Cooling and Heating system performance and energy efficiency opportunities are not well understood within the wider industry. Monitoring of three case study sites addressed this need and provided better understanding of operational benefits of solar heating and cooling technologies.
The project activities were monitored through a steering group and an industry expert group. These expert groups included industry representatives, building industry representatives, solar thermal industry representatives and consultants.
Benefit
The outcomes of the project provide the Government and industry with a better understanding of the strengths, weaknesses, risks and potential investment opportunities within the Solar Cooling and Heating industry. The outputs have resulted in specific activities that resulted in capacity building, skills development and knowledge dissemination to relevant industry stakeholders.
The project activities have generated more awareness in the HVAC industry sector about renewable based heating and cooling technologies for built environment applications. Documentation of operational system performance (through case study brochures) will reduce the risk perception of renewable based heating and cooling technology installations in the built environment. Industry roadmap recommendations, once implemented, have the potential to increase the uptake of solar heating and cooling technologies in the near future. All the project outputs have been made publicly available through the industry partner AIRAH website.
