Development of comprehensible strategies (building, facilities, renewable energies, management systems) to get NZEB, in other words, highly efficient buildings whose energy demand is mainly satisfied by renewable energies. The following lines must be underlined:

• Hybridisation of renewable systems to implement innovative conditioning systems (high-efficiency aerothermal or geothermal heat pump, biomass, solar, thermal, photovoltaic, small wind systems or other boilers).
• Research on efficient heating and cooling urban system (urban heating or cooling system which uses –at least- 50% of renewable energy, 50% of waste heat, 75% of cogenerated heat or 50% of a combination of these kinds of energy and heat, according to the Directive 2012/27/UE).
• Energy Storage Systems and Self-Consumption.
• High-efficiency Cogeneration Systems.
• Phase Changing Material (PCM) Storage.
• New insulation materials and building solutions.
• Development of strategies on the vernacular architecture based on the building-climate interaction. Evolución de estrategias de la arquitectura vernácula basadas en la interacción edificio-clima. (Systems: collector, inertial, air movement generation, air treatment …).
• Analysis and modification of the building’s thermal behaviour to adapt it to the climate change.
• Accomplishment of test of laboratory equipment, modelling and simulation and technical components and building solutions , analysis of comprehensive solutions and performance of demonstrative projects.

It improves the energy performance of heating, cooling and DHW production systems based on heat pump technology by the following lines of work:

• New refrigerant
• Use of heat from the refrigerant gas and of waste heat.
• Improvement of compressors’ energy efficiency.
• Regulation and control (parameters of performance, refrigerant system expansion device, inclusion of renewable systems to get power generation for the compressor drive and other consumptions, etc.).
• High temperature production (DHW, district heating, industrial uses, etc.).
• Hybridization with other renewable thermal generation systems.

Optimisation of the use of thermal renewable energy sources by the storage of heat and cold for building and district conditioning by the research on the thermal storage optimal solutions according to the kind of building and/or district.

The aim is to reduce the greenhouse gases emissions -linked to the generation of heat and cold- by the increase of the use of renewable energy sources, optimising deseasonalisation between generation and consumption by the research on new refrigerant and accumulation materials, as well as the advanced management of thermal generation and storage.

Deepening research on efficient urban heating and cooling systems which use- at least- 50% of renewable energy, 50% of waste heat, 75% of cogenerated heat or 50% of a combination of this kind of energies and heat according to the Directive 2012/27/UE).
In addition, the following tasks are also accomplished:

• Researching on systems which allow the reduction of the temperature demanded by heating systems in conventional buildings and also in those which can be restored.
• Improving and simplifying the characterisation of the existing heat and cold demands. (Combinable)
• Development of simplified computer tools to pre-test the technical and economic viability of implementing TD and the identification of the best energy generation technologies.
• Research on the distribution systems which allow to increase the energy density of the heat carrying fluid and minimise conveyance losses.
• Increasing the inclusion of RES and waste heat SOURCES in TD.
• Improving intelligent TD management systems as well as the District Heating interoperability with other urban management systems.
• Development of funding mechanisms to promote TD implementation due to the improvement in energy efficiency and maintenance savings it offers.
• Normative development for the correct use/protection of renewable resources which are sensitive to the scale or way in which they are used (Geothermal Technology, Biomass, SUW…).