Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering
Description of field of research:
More than half (~52%) of Australian homes have electric water heaters. These units have thermal energy storage which can be utilized to soak up excess solar generation and help in the adoption of increasing levels rooftop solar. In this project new water heater control strategies and tariffs will be designed to control a large number of electric water heater units, aimed to create savings for energy users, balance supply & demand on the network and alleviate challenges attributed to the integration of high levels of rooftop solar power systems.
School
Research areas
Distributed energy resources (DER) | Demand side management | Energy data-science
Related files
- Research environment
- Expected outcomes
- Our team
- References
The research will be a desktop study using various data-science & thermal energy modelling software. Real-world data will be available from two real world projects: SolarShift (RACE for 2030 project including data from ~3,000 hot water units) and ARENA project (data from ~13,000 hot water units). The ToR researcher will assist the team in various data-science and reporting tasks and will have opportunity to engage with the industry partners of the project (Endeavour Energy, Ausgrid, NSW Department of Planning and Environment, Solar Analytics, International Energy Agency).
ToR researcher is expected to deliver the following outcomes:
- Performance assessment of time-series energy data from solar, households and hot water systems
- Financial assessment of different hot water control strategies
- Producing high quality research outputs
- Contribution to the main project report
- Conference paper (depending on the ToR researcher's available time and motivation)"
- https://www.pv-magazine-australia.com/2021/09/06/unsw-study-channelling-rooftop-pv-into-water-heating-is-a-residential-super-saver/
- https://www.solarquotes.com.au/blog/electric-hot-water-solar/
RACE for 2030 SolarShift and ARENA project links will be available by the end of 2022.