Why it’s so hard? Exploring social barriers for the deployment of thermal energy storage in spanish buildings

Thermal energy storage (TES) has been a prominent topic of scientific and industrial research for the last decades as TES increases efficiency, reliability and economic feasibility of solar energy systems. Several TES technologies are today feasible and competitive from a scientific-technical, susta...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Palumbo Fernández, Mariana|||0000-0002-9157-0943, Bosch González, Montserrat|||0000-0001-5908-1288, Fernández Renna, Ana Inés, Simó Solsona, Montserrat
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2021
País:España
Institución:Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC)
Repositorio:UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:upcommons.upc.edu:2117/346144
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/2117/346144
https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2021.102057
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Energy storage
Heat -- Radiation and absorption
Heat storage
Thermal energy storage
Mixed methods
Social acceptance
Building
Energy efficiency
Energy retrofitting
Energia -- Emmagatzematge
Calor -- Radiació i absorció
Calor -- Emmagatzematge
Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Edificació::Construcció sostenible
Descripción
Sumario:Thermal energy storage (TES) has been a prominent topic of scientific and industrial research for the last decades as TES increases efficiency, reliability and economic feasibility of solar energy systems. Several TES technologies are today feasible and competitive from a scientific-technical, sustainable and economic point of view. However, the social awareness and acceptance of TES has not followed such a development, as socio-cultural and legal aspects to be considered for their broader implementation hinder it. The main objective of this paper is to analyse social and cultural barriers to TES adoption in the Spanish context. For this proposal, we use quantitative and qualitative data provided from professionals and experts of the building sector. Hereby the main ideas arising from the analysis: the economic crisis of 2008 and the poor condition of the existing building stock prevent the adoption of extensive retrofitting measures including energy efficiency solutions such as TES’ while TES is regarded as an emerging market in Mediterranean climates such as Spanish. The lack of expertise of professionals hinders the transmission of TES benefits to occupants. Besides, there is little dissemination of good practices and professionals are suspicious of the long term performance of such technologies.