The 12th IEA Heat Pump Conference 2017, Rotterdam

The 12th IEA Heat Pump Conference 2017 will be held in Rotterdam with the theme: ‘Rethink Energy, Act NOW!’

The Conference will start with workshops and will continue after a plenary opening session with three days of presentations. Keynote presentations will open each morning and afternoon session.

The workshops on the first day of the Conference will be on:

• Nearly Zero Energy Buildings for renovation
• Smart Communities and District Heating
• Ground sources
• Air Conditioning
• Industrial Heat Pumps and Waste Heat
• Combination of Heat Pumps with Solar Energy

These workshops are organized as a mix a short presentations from the various IEA programs and challenging discussions with experts focusing on how the Conference theme can be set into action.

In the plenary opening session invited speakers from all continents will give their vision:

• Mr Micheal Taylor from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) will focus on the ‘Act Now’ question.
• Prof. Dr. Hans-Martin Henning from Fraunhofer ISE in Germany, presents on the position of heat pumps as key technology already on short term in the energy infrastructure.
• Prof. Kensuke Fukushi from Tokyo presents on the effect of Climate change on technologies
• Mr Denis Tanguay, Chairman for Canadian Heat Pump Association presents a Fundamental Economic Analysis of Ground Source Heat Pumps Markets in North America

The results and recommendations of these workshops will be presented at the final plenary session of the conference.

Further on in the Conference program other key note speakers will present their vision, to name some of the speakers:

• Prof. Neil Hewitt – Ulster University – UK
• Prof. Stephen Harrison – Queens University – Canada
• Prof. Kiyoshi Saito – Waseda University Tokyo – Japan
• Prof. Xu Wei – Chairman of China Committee of Heating Ventilation & Air Conditioning (CCHVAC) – China
• Prof. Dr Burkhard Sanner – Geotrainet
• Mrs Christine Lins – Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century
• Dr. Karim Amrane, Ph.D. Senior Vice President, Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI) – USA
• Dr. Bruno Michel – IBM – Switzerland
• Dr. Ron Domitrovic – Program Manager, Energy Efficiency, Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) – USA
• Dr. Walter Mittelbach – CEO SORTECH – Germany
• Jan Grift M.Sc.– Energy Matters – Netherlands
• Mr. Thierry Nille – Association Française pour les Pompes à Chaleur (AFPAC)
• Thomas Nowak – General Secretary European Heat Pump Association
• Alexander Cohr Pachai – Johnson Controls – UNEP – Denmark

After the plenary opening session the Conference will continue in four parallel tracks of presentations. The very successful call for papers have generated more than 200 high quality papers. The Conference has the unique opportunity to present, in these four main conference tracks, topics directly related to the work under the IEA program for Heat Pumping Technologies in the now ten running international collaboration projects (Annexes) and two new ones under development.

You will get sessions on:

• Track 1: Supermarkets, Cold Climate Heat Pumps, Nearly Zero Energy Buildings, Multi Family Buildings and Domestic Hot Water.
• Track 2: Hybrid Heat Pumps, Smart Grids, District Heating, Storage and Ground Sources
• Track 3: Air-Conditioning, Industrial Heat Pumps and Waste Heat
• Track 4: Working Fluids, Sorption Technologies, Gas Driven Heat Pumps and Non Vapour Systems

Each of these tracks will have up to 40 oral presentations and a large number of poster presentations. There will be an Award for the Best Poster that will be handed at the plenary closing session.

The track on Nearly Zero Energy Buildings is showing more and more practical solutions, with domestic hot water becoming the key factor in the overall energy demand and renovation as the main challenge. The presentations will next to R&D also show project examples, as NZEB’s are mandatory in 2020 according to European legislation for new buildings.

In the draft program the track on Smart Grids, District Heating will focus on the important link between smart grids, hybrid solutions, storage and district heating as part of an integrated community energy supply system for residential as well as commercial and industrial areas. Ranging from presentations on business models for contracting the flexibility of residential heat pumps to a virtual energy storage network providing flexibility for the power system. But also presentations on the testing of smart heat pump controllers and hybrid heat pumps providing demand flexibility with hybrid heat pumps in combination with district heating. As for Smart Grids storage will be the game changer there are presentations on storage systems and domestic hot water as a solution.

Fairly unique at this conference are the tracks on Industrial Heat Pumps/Waste Heat and Sorption and Gas Technologies. For each of these tracks over 45 abstracts were submitted. These sessions will be held for a full day. The interest from industry in heat pumps is growing as High Temperature application are getting into the market and industry can benefit from fluctuating electricity prices by using CHP during high rates and heat pumps and vapour recompression at low electricity rates . This hybrid energy supply leads to a robust energy supply system whereby companies are less vulnerable to fluctuations in the electricity market. A number of presentations in the track on industrial heat pumps and the sessions on working fluids is focusing on these developments.

During the conference an exhibition will be held in the main hall of the World Trade Centre. Suppliers and manufacturers can and will showcase their products. The venue of the World Trade Centre is located in the central heart of Rotterdam, this location offers a full-service concept.

This conference is the perfect forum to learn from and communicate with industry and research experts from all over the world. With participants from over 30 countries, the event is a key event for policymakers, executives and representatives from industry, utilities and the public sector, R&D managers and technology supporters, energy managers, planners, consultants, etc. This is the place to be for all those who wish to learn about the market trends and the future applications of heat pumps.

Time to prepare for an extraordinary 4-day meeting in Rotterdam!