with this third newsletter of our Intelligent Energy Europe Project on Solar District Heating we would like to inform you about recent sector developments and project results. We hope to awake your interest in our activities. Don't hesitate to get in touch with us for any further information.

Your SDH-Project Team
July 2011

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Denmark continues the very progressive development of solar district heating in virtually the entire country. The development is partly due to the political desire for significantly more renewable energy and phasing out fossil fuels.

The new underground heat storage in Czech Republic is being constructed in the rock environment with the intention of testing reactions of the rock environment on different heat and time regimes. This storage may lessen energy consumption for heating and air conditioning purposes.

On top of the fair halls in Wels, Austria on May 12th a solar thermal plant of nearly 3,400 m² and a thermal power of approx. 2 Megawatt went into operation. This is the largest CPC-ETC installation at the moment for supporting a district heating network system worldwide. In summer, the heat utilities are able to save temporarily over 50 percent of natural gas.

A common plant, with 10 000 sqm solar collectors, will gain close to 4 GWh/a of heat to be distributed via the district heating network. “This is better than to build small solar systems on all our buildings.”, states Börje Göransson, managing director of Finnvedsbostäder and the initiator of the project.

According to the amended German directive to support renewable energies in the heat market (15th March 2011), solar collectors which feed into district heating networks are explicitly supported for the first time.

The recently adopted Italian legislation (No. 28/2011), implementing EC Directive 28/2009, foresees a comprehensive revision of the supporting measures for renewable heat, among which solar thermal. A combination of a feed-in tariff and “White Certificates” is expected.

For the first time in Salzburg and Styria new building regulations are in force requiring the use of solar heat or other renewable sources for water heating in new buildings. An alternative option is the purchase of renewable district heat.

Smart solar district heating is developing in Denmark. Smart solar district heating combines large solar collector fields, heat pumps, seasonal heat storage and CHP units. Such systems allow to ‘utilize’ (read earn money on) the very dynamic electricity prices (due to the high ‘wind fraction’) in Denmark.

The inhabitants of the residential area at the Olympic Park are supplied with solar heat for heating and domestic hot water also during winter time. For this purpose a seasonal hot water storage with a capacity of 5.7 million liters works in combination with a heat pump.