SOLNET

Advanced solar heating and cooling for buildings

2006 – 2010

FP6 Marie Curie Actions – Human Resources and Mobility Project for Early Stage Training

Starting in June 2006, the European Union supported a PhD-network on Advanced solar heating and cooling for buildings (SOLNET). The network consisted of nine university research groups from seven different European countries and several commercial enterprises, working in the fields of civil, mechanical, and environmental engineering, as well as architecture. The program is coordinated by Kassel University, Germany. Ten students receive scholarships and are preparing PhD-thesis in the framework of Solnet. The common scope of the research activities is to contribute to the foundations for a new generation of solar heating and cooling systems with high solar fraction. The project finished in 2010.

Participating universities: 

Kassel University (Germany), TU Lyngby (Denmark), Lund University (Sweden), Högskolan Dalarna (Sweden), University of Applied Science, Stuttgart (Germany), Czech Technical Univerisity in Prague (Czech Republic), Graz Technical University (Austria), Politecnico di Milano (Italy), Lleida University (Spain)

 

General description

SOLNET was the first coordinated international PhD education program on Solar Thermal Engineering:
European expert knowledge and experience in the education field was brought together.
Biannual courses were offered to the network students and other PhD students working in the field.
10 PhD projects were started in 2006 and 2007 in the field of solar thermal energy; each PhD scholarship had a duration of 3 years
PhD students already active in this field were involved in the SOLNET research and training activities as well.
Course material developed were made generally accessible.

The SOLNET consortium consists of nine university research groups from seven different European countries and involves six commercial enterprises as secondment hosts. The research is carried out in the fields of civil, mechanical, and environmental engineering, as well as architecture. In the framework of the EST project ten coordinated PhD-projects are carried out. The common scope of the network research activities is to lay the foundations for a new generation of cost-efficient solar heating systems and of combined solar heating and cooling systems.

 

Course topics and PhD topics were chosen to cover all the relevant fields:

The courses covered system components, innovative materials, system evaluations and optimisation strategies, the overall energy situation in Europe, societal issues and they convey complementary skills. The overall research training project was monitored during project meetings having taken place in the framework of the bi-annual course modules, with student presentations, forums, and project discussions. In annual plenary network meetings, supervisors as well as PhD students and external experts evaluated results of the ongoing research and the network activities.