Swimming halls are very well suited for solar thermal production. Typically, their heat consumption is big and the required temperature level tends to be relatively low. In such cases solar thermal collectors are operating with a very high efficiency.
However, quite often swimming halls are closed some time of the year and summertime closure may mean extra challenges for solar heat supply.
For Hämeenlinna swimming hall Savosolar solved this issue by feeding surplus solar energy in summer to the nearby district heating network. Thus, the solar system is producing heat all days and depending on the swimming hall’s actual heat demand, the facility is either a district heating provider or a consumer.
As a general contractor, Savosolar built a solar thermal system on behalf of Fernwärme Ettenheim GmbH for the largest possible solar feed-in into the existing district heating network. 112 pieces Savo 15 SG-M large collectors generate fuel-free healthy heat, which is temporarily stored in two 100 m³ buffer storage tanks.
This also allows the operating hours of the CHP and the biomass boiler to be optimized. The scope of delivery included the fence and video surveillance system, as well as the creation of a meager meadow to enrich local biodiversity.
The construction work was temporarily interrupted due to the COVID19 restrictions. All system hydraulics were completely housed in a container. The keys were handed over in October 2020.
A PV system still to be built on the east side will generate the electricity for the pumps in the future.
The picture on the left shows the boiler house and the buffer storage tank. Handover of keys from Jari Varjotie, CEO Savosolar Oyj, to Peter Blaser, managing director of the customer.
With this new solar thermal plant for newHeat, Savosolar add a new leading reference in the French market of solar district heating. This approximately 3,000 m2 solar thermal field (aperture), will allow to replace 2,410 MWh of former gas heated heat by renewable heat on Narbonne’s city network, manage by a subsidary of Dalkia.
Savosolar, on the behalf of newHeat, built mainly the whole solar plant, from the solar collector’s field until the outlet of the heat exchanger to the storage thermal tank, ie: solar field, piping and solar station. More then 200 of our Savo 15 SG-M collectors, ensuring a high energy yield while reducing 510 tons of CO2 emissions per year from the district heating system of the city. The production of solar field during winter will even allow an increasing of the yield of the existing biomass boiler.
This solar district heating system of 941 m2 in Cadaujac is an innovative and eco-friendly project, first of this type in France, develop by our customer AbSolar. The solar production is linked to a geothermal seasonal storage which lead this new neighbourhood to received 100% of renewable heat for their need in heating and hot water.
Savosolar has been responsible of the main part of the solar plant as part of an EPC contract, including the design and then the supply and installation of the solar field, the piping and the solar station with its automation system, as a turnkey solution. The 510 MWh of annual solar production allow to avoid around 100 tons of CO2 emission for such a heating need. With this project, Savosolar maintain is leading position on the French market in the supply of turnkey solar thermal plant for district heating.
This disruptive technology develops and handle by AbSolar is a forerunner project showing the possibility to reduce significantly our carbon footprint for the daily needs of heat and should help us to fight climate changes, while ensuring a mainly fixed cost of energy over 20 years for the inhabitants of this kind of residential district.