Recent Developments in Heat Pump Technology to Achieve the Goals of Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plans

Future energy scenarios focus on electricity as the main energy vector, because of its easier management and flexibility, in conjunction with the reduced use of carbon fuels. In such a context, also Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plans (SECAPs) are promoting electricity-based technologies also in services usually relying on fossil fuels, such as ambient heating and domestic hot water preparation (DHW), by means of heat pumps. Moreover, heat pumps both fit perfectly with the Zero Energy Building (ZEB) perspective and offer major opportunities in a regional and urban perspective, since they offer many ways to optimize the exploitation of renewable energy sources (RESs). This paper shows quantitative analyses on possible applications of heat pumps in combination with the most typical RES in urban contexts, i.e. solar photovoltaics (PV).