JR Centre for Linked System Assessment to support sustainable energy supplies

This JR Centre develops assessment methods for the ecological, social and economic sustainability of energy systems and thus contributes to the decarbonisation of the energy sector. The focus is on thermal systems including distribution grids and coupling technologies.

The globally agreed climate targets require a rapid expansion of renewable energies. Thermal grids should make a significant contribution to the decarbonisation of the heating and cooling sector. In Vienna and Burgenland, thermal networks for district heating and cooling are already widely used; they must become more efficient and increasingly utilise renewable energies. However, there is a lack of well-developed instruments for systematically assessing the technical, ecological, social and economic sustainability of such integrated networks, which consider the entire life cycle.

The JR Centre LiSA aims to meet this need by further developing comprehensive assessment methods that are adapted to the specific requirements of thermal energy systems in a renewable energy environment. Three system levels of increasing complexity are considered:

(1) Individual technologies that convert renewable energy into heat, cold or electricity, such as co- and trigeneration processes that can provide heat, cold and electricity in a coupling process and can therefore be operated in a particularly energy-efficient manner.

(2) Thermal distribution networks for heating and cooling. In addition to the classic local and district heating networks, possibilities for a future expansion of the centralised cooling supply and anergy networks are also being investigated. Anergy networks are a promising option for supplying end users with heating and cooling at the same time. They are operated at a low temperature level and can utilise a variety of energy sources (waste heat, solar collectors, geothermal energy, etc.).

(3) Integrated, renewable energy systems with sector coupling or Power2X technologies. Sector coupling refers to the networking of the energy sectors, i.e. heating, cooling and electricity, with the transport sector and industry in order to optimise their joint renewable operation. Power2X refers to technologies that are used to store or utilise momentary overproduction from solar energy, wind energy or hydropower.

In order to comprehensively understand and evaluate these systems, methods for technical simulation as well as ecological, social and economic life cycle analyses are being further developed and general application guidelines for thermal energy systems are being derived.