Residential solar pre-cooling and pre-heating

H1 Opportunity Assessment

Residential solar pre-cooling and pre-heating Report at a glance

Final Report RACE for Homes Program Research Theme H1: Residential solar pre-cooling Project Code: 20.H1.A.0089 ISBN: 978-1-922746-10-8 November 2021 Project team University of Technology Sydney

University of NSW

Kerryn Wilmot Wendy Shiqiao Wang Jay Rutowitz

Simon Heslop Iain McGill Anna Bruce

CSIRO

University of South Australia

Dong Chen Stephen White

Queensland University of Technology

Tim Lau Frank Bruno John Boland Michael Evans

Wendy Miller Yunlong Ma Connie Susilawati Fitri Arlinkasari

What is RACE for 2030?

The Reliable Affordable Clean Energy for 2030 Cooperative Research Centre (RACE for 2030 CRC) is a 10-year, $350 million Australian research collaboration involving industry, research, government and other stakeholders. Its mission is to drive innovation for a secure, affordable, clean energy future. https://www.racefor2030.com.au

Project partners

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Residential Solar Pre-cooling

Report at a glance

Theme H1: Residential Solar Pre-cooling and Pre-heating Opportunity Assessment What is the report?

This opportunity assessment presents a research roadmap of solutions for cost-effective residential solar pre-cooling and pre-heating (SPC/H). SPC/H technologies shift solar energy from when it is abundant (times of low demand for the grid) to when energy is required for heating and cooling (times of peak demand for the grid).

Why is it important?

Over the last decade, significant rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity has been added in Australia.

Furthermore, residential air conditioners are the biggest contributors to residential peak demand in the NEM, as they are responsible for 1/3 of the total peak demand from residential customers. SPC/H technologies play an important role as a customer-driven demand response strategy, resulting in economic benefits for customers and power networks. They are also expected to increase the grid’s capacity to host additional rooftop PV. What did we do?

We analysed knowledge gaps on SPC/H, barriers for households implementing SPC/H technologies and benefits from grid-load smoothing via SPC/H for households and power networks. Specifically, the project team: • described the current state of research on SPC/H and existing SPC/H adoption in industry • described the factors consumer attitudes towards SPC/H for residential customers • modelled the effects of SPC/H under different scenarios and homes and quantified a range of economic benefits for various stakeholders • analysed barriers and enablers for SPC/H adoption • designed a research roadmap to inform on needed priorities What difference will it make?

Residential SPC/H will allow residential consumers equipped with solar panels to become increasingly important contributors to the energy transition by just turning their AC on. In particular, the technology contributes to smooth customers’ residential load profiles, which in turn smooths-out extreme peaks and throats of the power grid’s demand (“grid load smoothing”). The extent of the smoothing depends on the degrees of adoption of the technology, region in Australia, and season. The findings show that peak electricity demand from air conditioning can be reduced by up to 40%. The expected impacts are: reduced household bills – including households that do not have rooftop solar installed, reduced network costs, reduced GHG emissions, new jobs created and increased solar hosting capacity.

What next?

The research roadmap consists of 46 research activities comprising modelling exercises, pilot programs, and demonstration projects. These activities aim to address the knowledge gaps and barriers identified in the report. The overarching goal of the roadmap is to render residential SPC/H an attractive, user-friendly technology for grid-load smoothing that is also viable and cost-effective.

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Residential Solar Pre-cooling

www.racefor2030.com.au

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