TEN YEARS OF SWEDISH RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT IN HEAT PUMPING TECHNOLOGY
The Swedish Energy Agency, (STEM), together with Swedish industries and organisations, has for the last ten years been financing a large number of research projects with focus on heat-pumping technologies. This all started already 1994 with the first program “Alternative refrigerants”, followed by “Climate 21”. The third programme, “eff-Sys” (short for “More efficient heat pump and refrigerating systems”), has just finished. Common for the programmes is that they have stimulated the development of state of the art technology for heat pumps and refrigerating systems that utilize energy very efficiently and are commercially and environmentally viable. The three research programmes have had a common objective – to strengthen Swedish industry on a long-term basis through co-operation between universities and the industry, which leads to mutual exchange and transfer of knowledge. Focus has widened during the past ten years – from refrigerants via components to complete systems. But Swedish research in heat pumping technologies is older than that. A strong support with research grants during the earlier years has lead both to a build-up of knowledge at the universities and to Swedish participation in IEA and other international research projects.