Preliminary Assessment of Energy and Environmental Performance of a District Heating and Cooling Network Serving a Micro-Scale Italian Residential District

A centralized hybrid solar heating and cooling system serving a micro-scale district composed of 6 residential buildings located in Naples (southern Italy) is modelled, simulated and analysed by means of the dynamic software TRNSYS over a 5-year period. The plant is based on the operation of a solar collectors field and integrated with a seasonal borehole thermal energy storage in order to address the mismatch between solar energy supply and thermal demand; an adsorption chiller powered by solar energy is adopted for cooling purposes, while a natural gas-fired boiler is used as back-up system to supplement the thermal demand. The primary energy consumption and the equivalent carbon dioxide emissions of the proposed plant are evaluated based on the results of dynamic simulations and compared with those associated to a conventional decentralized heating and cooling assumed as reference with the main aims of assessing the potential energy and environmental benefits.