Zero-carbon building technology solutions for solar energy-rich areas (1): Regional building complexes

The Qinghai-Xizang Plateau is the region with the richest solar energy resources in China, possessing the prerequisites for leading in the realization of zero-carbon operation of buildings with solar energy as the support. This paper focuses on regional building complexes, surveying several towns, counties, and community building complexes on the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau, along with their energy usage characteristics. It particularly analyses the current status of heating and electricity supply technologies for these building complexes. Based on whether the building complexes have centralized solar heating, two scenarios are distinguished, and four types of solar energy zero-carbon building complex technical solutions are proposed: 1) existing centralized solar thermal for heating and centralized photovoltaic (PV) for heating and power supply; 2) existing centralized solar thermal for heating and distributed PV for heating and power supply; 3) existing distributed solar thermal for heating and centralized PV for heating and power supply; 4) newly added centralized PV providing zero-carbon electricity to meet the heating and power needs of the building complexes. The paper discusses the key issues that need to be addressed in implementing these technological solutions and conducts case studies.