URBANopt (Urban Renewable Building And Neighborhood optimization) is an EnergyPlus and OpenStudio-based simulation platform aimed at district- and campus-scale thermal and electrical analysis.

This three year project will focus on enhancing URBANopt capabilities for modeling shared thermal systems, supporting integration with grid and distributed energy resources analysis tools, structuring the project as an open-source software development kit that is suitable for integration into commercial products, and piloting the underlying analytics in real world projects.

Eurac Research has been invited to provide their expertise and feedback on the features implemented for modelling and simulating 5th Generation District Heating and Cooling networks.

The project is implemented by National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Colorado University Boulder, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), and is funded by the US Department of Energy.

Find out more about the tool