Development of comprehensive strategies (building, facilities, renewable energy, management systems) for the decarbonization of cities and the achievement of PEB buildings, that is, buildings that produce more energy than they consume, thanks to sustainable construction and generating systems of clean energy. The main lines of research are:

• Hybridization of renewable energy production systems.
• Urban District Heating & Cooling systems.
• Energy storage and self-consumption systems.
• High-efficiency Cogeneration Systems.
• Thermal storage in phase change materials (PCM).
• New solutions and construction materials.
• Vernacular architecture strategies based on the building-climate interaction.
• Building thermal resilience.
• Advanced modeling and simulation of PEBs and development of pilot projects.
• Indoor air quality.
• Residential hydrogen generation and consumption systems.

EnergyLab’s main lines of research in the environment of energy communities focus on the development of:

• New management systems focused on the active control and monitoring of energy communities, both in the generation systems and the accumulation and demand of electrical and/or thermal energy from consuming facilities, with the aim of optimizing management and production.
• Management tools focused on the governance and administration of the energy community itself.
• Specific software for the implementation of intelligent DSF (Demand Side Flexibility) strategies.
• Renewable District Heating & Cooling (DH&C) systems.

Improvement of the energy performance of air conditioning and DHW production equipment based on electrically driven heat pump technology, through the following lines of work:

• New refrigerants.
• Use of sensible heat from refrigerant gas and residual heat.
• Improvement of the energy efficiency of compressors.
• Artificial Intelligence (AI) to increase energy efficiency and optimize the generation of thermal energy through the development and adaptation of regulation and control algorithms (such as GA, ANN, SVM), taking into account the most critical variables of the process (parameters of operation, refrigeration circuit expansion device, integration of renewable systems for electrical generation to drive the compressor and other consumption, etc.).
• Production of thermal energy at high temperature.
• Hybridization with other renewable thermal generation systems.

Use and improvement in the management of renewable energy generation sources through their transformation and conservation for subsequent use in air conditioning systems:

• Diabatic and adiabatic compressed air systems (CAES – Compressed Air Energy Storage).
• Batteries and other electrochemical systems.
• Molten salts and oils with high calorific capacities that store sensible heat by increasing or decreasing their temperature.
• PCM (phase change material) or phase change materials, which store latent heat to transfer the energy absorbed or released during their phase change.