District Heating, Cooling & Power with on-site renewable energy

The Energy Hub is a collaborative European project, part funded under the Seventh Framework Programme, which aims to demonstrate the full potential of renewable energy by providing 100% on-site renewable energy within an "Energy Hub District".

The Energy Hub is a mechanism for exchanging energy via the grids between its members (households, renewable energy plants, offices, businesses), who may be both consumers and suppliers. The members are concerned with energy generation within the built environment, district heating, cooling and power, energy conversion and storage, and sharing energy resources. The members exchange information on their energy production and energy needs with the Energy Hub and may exchange heat and cooling via a heat sharing network. The Hub then distributes the available energy in the most efficient way.

Renewable energy may be generated by individual members (e.g. from heat pumps, solar thermal panels or PV on residences) or by central means (from ground source energy or a large combined heat and power plant) located within the district that may be fuelled by solar energy, biofuel or hydrogen.

Central to the E-Hub project is the Multi Commodity Matcher: this smart controller allocates energy dynamically to its most demanding members from the most efficient sources of supply.

The aim is to design systems and mechanisms to achieve low energy districts and, ultimately, zero energy districts.