Carlo Winterscheid, Autor bei Solar District Heating

Sun meets 90 % of district heat demand in Tibet

Sun meets 90 % of district heat demand in Tibet

Carlo Winterscheid2019-07-25T12:00:47+02:00Dec 17th, 2018|

After the Solar Academy of the IEA SHC Programme in Lianyungang (China), District Heating experts visited the newly constructed solar district heating plant in Tibet

The high point of the international SDH gathering was the tour of a solar district heating installation that had been planned by Chinese-Danish joint venture Arcon-Sunmark Large-Scale Solar Systems Integration. At Sunrain’s invitation, 18 task members flew to Tibet to take a look at the solar district heating plant in Langkazi, a town in the south of the region, where the venture has been installing 22,275 m2 of flat plate collectors and 15,000 m3 of pit storage. The entire system would be finished soon and be up and running before the end of the year, said Leo Holm, who works at Arcon-Sunmark and guided the Task 55 members around the site.
It is supposed to contribute 90 % of the heat to the new district heating network in Langkazi. Via a 65 °C supply line and a 35 °C return line, the grid reportedly supplies thermal energy for 100,000 m2 of residential floor space. The joint venture has manufactured and delivered the collectors and supervised the installation of the SDH plant. A 3 MW electric boiler guarantees backup energy in times of low irradiation.
The facility is part of a larger endeavour to popularise renewable heating in Tibet. Feasibility studies have been conducted in over 20 of the region’s counties and cities, and Tibet’s local government has approved funding for five of them.

Image: Solites

Source: Bärbel Epp

Latvian city invests in solar district heating

Latvian city invests in solar district heating

Carlo Winterscheid2019-07-23T14:25:41+02:00Nov 14th, 2018|

The first half of 2019 will mark the launch of a milestone project on solar district heating in Eastern Europe. The public utility which serves the Latvian town of Salaspils, near Riga, plans to install 21,672 m² of collector area (15 MW_th) to provide heat for its modernised, efficient district heating network.

The solar field will be connected to an 8,000 m³ water storage tank, from which thermal energy will be injected into the network. The project, which will also include a wood-chip boiler with 3 MW_th of capacity, had been planned jointly by Arcon-Sunmark, a Danish supplier of solar thermal devices, and Filter, a heating and cooling company based in Latvia. Salaspils Siltums provides 85 % of the town with a population of about 17,000 people with district heat. A 7 MWth wood-chip boiler is currently the main source of 60,000 MWh of thermal energy a year. The plans for the 15 MW_th solar system state that it is expected to contribute 12,000 MWh or 20 % of the total at some point between July and September next year. Reportedly, the utility will receive funding from the European Union for buying the system.

“We have been working on this project since we attended a district heating conference in Denmark in 2014. The objective is to reduce our CO₂ footprint and become more independent of fossil fuels,” Ina Berzina-Veita, who is a Member of the Board of municipal utility Salaspils Siltums, was quoted as saying in a press release which Arcon-Sunmark sent out in the middle of October.

Over the last years, the utility has optimised its district heating network. It replaced underground pipes with pre-insulated ones and revamped the central boiler. The current supply and return temperatures of 65 °C and 45 °C, respectively, will make for a highly efficient flat plate collector array, the operation of which will be very effective.

Image: Arcon Sunmark

Source: Bärbel Epp

Manual on public participation models for solar district heating

Manual on public participation models for solar district heating

Carlo Winterscheid2019-07-23T14:08:08+02:00Nov 13th, 2018|

The Austrian federation on solar thermal systems has published a manual on public participation models for solar district heating.

Within the photovoltaic sector it is not uncommon to innitiate public participation in large projects. The now published manual shall support similar projects in the solar thermal sector and was supported through the “Klima- und Energiefonds” project GZ B770444 “K&E Leitprojekt – Bürgerbeteiligungsmodelle für Solare Nahwärme”.

Please click here for the download (the english document can be found at the end of the page).

Solare Wärmenetze in der Wohnungswirtschaft

Solare Wärmenetze in der Wohnungswirtschaft

Carlo Winterscheid2018-12-07T09:55:11+01:00Nov 5th, 2018|

Am 29. Oktober fand beim Verband Norddeutscher Wohnungsunternehmen in Hamburg der Workshop „Solare Wärmenetze in der Wohnungswirtschaft“ statt. Vorangegangen war im April 2018 eine Umfrage des Gesamtverbands der Wohnungswirtschaft unter rund 300 Mitgliedsunternehmen.

Die Umfrage lieferte interessante Ergebnisse: Zahlreiche Wohnungsunternehmen verfügen über eigene Wärmenetze und es besteht Interesse an der Integration großflächiger Solarthermie. Rund 25 Teilnehmende folgten der Einladung des vom BMWi geförderten Projekts Solnet 4.0 und diskutierten im Workshop Praxisbeispiele sowie Möglichkeiten, um solare Wärmenetze vermehrt in der Wohnungswirtschaft umzusetzen.

Im Gespräch wurde deutlich, dass die Realisierung von neuen solaren Wärmenetzen in der Wohnungswirtschaft hohe Anfangshürden überwinden muss: Zwar gibt es in vielen Wohnungsunternehmen ein generelles Interesse, den Energieverbrauch ihrer Immobilien weiter zu senken, jedoch stehen Themen wie bezahlbare Mieten, hohe konjunkturbedingte Baukosten und niedrige Erdgaspreise einer personalaufwendigen Projektentwicklung häufig entgegen. Auch der Respekt vor immer komplexer werdenden Anlagensystemen wurde als Vorbehalte auf Seiten der Wohnungswirtschaft diskutiert. Stadtwerke und Contractoren wurden daher als potenziell wichtige Partner der Wohnungswirtschaft identifiziert, wenn diese eine faire Preisgestaltung anbieten.

Ein weiterer wichtiger Diskussionspunkt lag in der Frage der energetischen Bilanzierung: Die bestehende Bilanzierung auf der Basis von Primärenergiefaktoren sowie die gebäudebezogene Betrachtung erschien zahlreichen Teilnehmern überholt. Diskutiert wurde der Bedarf nach neuen Methoden zur Bilanzierung von Quartieren oder Wohnungsbeständen, die Abkehr vom System der Primärenergiefaktoren hin zu CO₂-Bilanzierungen und die Einführung von Herkunftsnachweisen für Erneuerbare Wärme.

Auch die Frage der Flächenverfügbarkeit für große solarthermische Anlagen wurde thematisiert. Während in Großstädten das Flächenangebot aufgrund der hohen Grundstückspreise aus Sicht der Workshop-Teilnehmer stark begrenzt ist und daher (mit entsprechend höheren Kosten) auf Dachflächen sowie Flächen weiter außerhalb der Städte ausgewichen werden muss, sind im Umfeld kleiner Städte auch Freiflächenanlagen denkbar. Dabei ist die Flächeneffizienz der Solarthermie vergleichsweise hoch, wie Thomas Pauschinger vom Steinbeis Forschungsinstitut Solites betonte: Um 15% des heutigen Fernwärmebedarfs solarthermisch zu erzeugen ( d.h. ca. 12 TWh/a), wäre bundesweit lediglich eine Fläche von rund acht mal acht Kilometern nötig; das entspricht lediglich rund 20% der bereits heute mit Fotovoltaik-Freiflächen-Anlagen belegten Fläche.

Der Workshop wurde auch von der Hamburgischen Investitions- und Förderbank unterstützt.

Meldung und Foto: Hamburg Institut

Leitfaden Bürgerbeteiligungsmodelle für solare Nahwärme

Leitfaden Bürgerbeteiligungsmodelle für solare Nahwärme

Carlo Winterscheid2018-12-07T09:59:24+01:00Nov 1st, 2018|

Der Österreichische Solarthermieverband Austria Solar hat zusammen mit einer Reihe verschiedener Projektpartner einen Leitfaden zur Bürgerbeteiligung beim Bau von Solarthermieanlagen veröffentlicht.

In der Photovoltaikbranche sind Bürgersolarkraftwerke nichts Neues. Der neue Leitfaden soll nun ähnliche Projekte für die Solarthermie unterstützen. Der Leitfaden wurde im Rahmen eines vom Klima- und Energiefonds geförderten Projekts „K&E Leitprojekt – Bürgerbeteiligungsmodelle für Solare Nahwärme“ erstellt. Der Leitfaden kann hier herunter geladen werden.

Thüringer Solarrechner und Servicestelle Solarenergie

Thüringer Solarrechner und Servicestelle Solarenergie

Carlo Winterscheid2018-11-15T14:46:45+01:00Oct 19th, 2018|

Seit Mai 2018 ist der Thüringer Solarrechner verfügbar. Mit Hilfe dieses kostenlosen webbasierten Tools können mit wenigen Klicks Berechnungen zu Ertrag und Wirtschaftlichkeit einer Photovoltaik- oder Solarthermieanlage entweder auf einer Dach- oder auch auf einer Freifläche in Thüringen angestellt werden.

In Ergänzung zu den bisherigen Aktivitäten ist bei der Thüringer Energie- und GreenTech Agentur ThEGA, die zum Beispiel für Thüringer Kommunen zum Thema Erneuerbare Energien und Energiemanagement Unterstützung anbietet, auch die Servicestelle Solarenergie eingerichtet worden. Diese richtet sich an potentielle Nutzergruppen des Thüringer Solarrechners wie private Gebäudeeigentümer, Bürgerenergiegenossenschaften, Betreiber von Gewerbegebieten und andere Unternehmen oder Kommunen und deckt inhaltlich die Themenbereiche Photovoltaik und Solarthermie umfassend ab. Sie bietet fachliche Beratung zu Potenzialen, Nutzungsmöglichkeiten und Fördermitteln zum Einsatz der Solarthermie und der Photovoltaik an und nutzt themenübergreifend die gesamte Kompetenz der ThEGA und der Thüringer erneuerbare Energien-Netzwerke bei der Erstbewertung und Begleitung von Projekten in die Realisierungsphase.

Weitere Informationen unter: www.solarrechner-thueringen.de, www.thega.de/solar

SWR-Kurzvideo “Solarthermie – Energie ohne Umwege”

SWR-Kurzvideo “Solarthermie – Energie ohne Umwege”

Carlo Winterscheid2018-12-07T10:21:48+01:00Sep 19th, 2018|

Im Hunsrück wurde nun, nach Neuerkirch-Külz, in Ellern eine weitere Solarthermieanlage gebaut. Der SWR hat diese Anlage mit 1245 m² Kollektorfläche in seiner Sendung “natürlich!” näher angeschaut. Das Video ist in der ARD-Mediathek online verfügbar.

Zur ARD Mediathek gelangen Sie hier.

Außerdem wurde von der ferchnerMEDIA GmbH ein Kurzfilm über die Energiewende im Hunsrück mit dem Namen “Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis – Heimat der Energiewende-Vormacher” erstellt. Zum Kurzfilm auf Youtube gelangen Sie hier.

SDH seminar and study visits in Sweden

SDH seminar and study visits in Sweden

Carlo Winterscheid2018-10-15T17:20:05+02:00Sep 18th, 2018|

About 70 stakeholders attended a seminar and two study visits targeted at solar block heating plants and hosted by Svensk Solenergi and EKSTA, in Kungsbacka, Sweden, within the SDHp2m project.

The participants represented municipal energy advisers, consultants, solar system contractors, municipal housing and district heating companies. The seminar comprised presentations about the development of SDH in Europe, an IEA study about the available areas for collector arrays in connection to DH cities and recent Swedish feasibility studies.

Furthermore, the new plant at Ystad Arena (2017) was presented before EKSTA (municipal housing company) ended the seminar with their strategy and experiences related to solar heat as an introduction to the study visits: the solar heated residential area in Vallda Heberg (2013) and the new solar heated multifamily buildings connected to district heating in Tölö Ängar (2018). EKSTA has extensive experience from solar block heating with more than 10 plants with roof integrated solar collectors in combination with wood pellet boilers, the oldest in operation since the 1980’s.

Text and photo: Jan-Olof Dalenbäck

How to identify suitable areas for SDH

How to identify suitable areas for SDH

Carlo Winterscheid2018-10-02T10:15:25+02:00Sep 14th, 2018|

Though the availability of areas for large solar district heating plants remains a major point of contention, there are ways to expand the market. They include detailed local heat plans, the use of unconventional, e.g., polluted or contaminated, areas, and awareness raising among public and private stakeholders. A webinar organised as part of the Horizon 2020 project SDHp2m…from Policy to Market puts a spotlight on these topics. A recording of the session is available online.

Denmark: area is not an issue

“We don’t have a space problem,” PlanEnergi’s Per Alex Sørensen said, emphatically. “There is enough suitable land for solar district heating.” Denmark aims at 8 million m² of solar district heating, or SDH, in 2030, which would require 2,800 hectares for collector installations. “That could not be an issue, since we have around 62 million hectares of farmland,” Sørensen said. To provide a vivid comparison, he added: “Even today, golf courses require about 10,000 hectares.” Likewise, he said: “Solar thermal acts as a corridor between green areas. It is much better than farming in terms of preserving biodiversity.”

During his presentation, he offered some best practice guidelines on land management, as part of an eight-step approach based on the lessons learned in Denmark. First, he said, it was more beneficial to evaluate multiple sites to stimulate competition between landowners, so the price for leasing or acquiring land would not be too high.

Additionally, it was crucial to inform neighbours of any installation in advance to receive feedback concerning its visual impact and its effects on the landscape. And it avoids complaints if solar fields were protected by fences and three rows of trees.

Possible sites would then be evaluated according to local planning rules and project approval granted in compliance with heat network regulations.

Germany: protecting the landscape is a challenge

“Germany’s network of gas pipelines means there is no awareness that you need land for heat supply,” said Christian Maaß, Hamburg Institut Consulting, Germany, who also underlined that the solar energy industry and farmers had been fighting over land for several years because of the development of large ground-mounted PV systems. Germany required a case-by-base assessment of suitable SDH sites, he said, as there was no top-down planning at regional level, in strong contrast to the wind energy where privileged areas for wind parks were identified in local planning. The situation was made even more complicated by the fact that landscape planners were usually reluctant to accept ground-mounted solar plants and 30 % of Germany’s territory had been designated as protected landscape.

To install SDH on farmland, Maaß suggested not going the route via privileged land use, as in the case of power lines, for which one typically obtains building permission. Since it was uncertain whether SDH could become part of that category, it would be more promising to look for areas zoned for specific purposes.

France: more than one approach

Mathieu Eberhardt, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Énergie Environnement, the energy agency for the namesake region, said that the rules to govern ground-mounted SDH in France should be derived from the ones on photovoltaic systems. Anyone intending to build a plant measuring above 1,500 m² and 1.8 m in height should apply for a building permit and agree to an environmental impact assessment and a public consultation. Since agricultural land could not be used for energy production, installing an SDH plant on an area like that should require a permit for land use change, unless the collectors would be installed on a structure such as a greenhouse.

Jan-Olof Dalenbäck, who works at Chalmers University of Technology and heads CIT Energy Management, shared with the audience an interesting rule of thumb regarding the distance from the solar array to the district heating connection: A 1-km line for each 10,000 m² of solar was always economically feasible, he said. He explained: “The extra costs and losses incurred for 1 km compared to, say, 0.3 km of pipe connection to a 10,000 m² collector array are a small, acceptable addition to the solar heat price.”

Simona Weisleder, Hamburg Institut Consulting, emphasised that – besides agricultural land – there were several unconventional areas for a collector installation. They included the large roofs of shopping centres and parking garages, polluted or contaminated land, patches along traffic routes, as on acoustic barriers, or other large infrastructure components, such as sewage treatment basins. Of course, the installation itself could be more expensive than on a green meadow.

Text: Riccardo Battisti, Ambiente Italia (Rome, Italy)
Chart: Hamburg Institut
Webinar video

SDH prefeasibility studies in Bosnia and Croatia

SDH prefeasibility studies in Bosnia and Croatia

Carlo Winterscheid2018-10-02T10:01:21+02:00Sep 14th, 2018|

In early 2016, the EU-funded CoolHeating project began using the know-how acquired during best practice projects in Austria, Denmark and Germany to help with the implementation of small modular renewable heating and cooling grids in southeastern Europe. In mid-March, the CoolHeating partners published seven prefeasibility studies of district heating and cooling across five municipalities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Serbia and Slovenia. Because of geographical features, most projects favoured biomass, but solar thermal does play a crucial role in the proposals created for the Bosnian town of Visoko (see map) and the Croatian city of Ozalj.

“In the Balkans, renewable energy projects have yet to become as commonplace as in central and western Europe,” said Dominik Rutz, Project Manager of CoolHeating at Munich-based WIP Renewable Energies. In Austria, Denmark and Germany, several operators have already integrated solar thermal or wood chips, or both, into their DHC networks while the market in southeastern Europe is still in its infancy. “In cooperation with local CoolHeating partners, we’ve tailored the systems to the geographical, meteorological, technical and economic potential of each site,” Rutz explained. It was for this reason that the studies of all seven sites in the five communities were drafted individually, resulting in distinctly different installations.

Visoko: Average heat price of 45 EUR/MWh, no connection charges

In Visoko, in Bosnia, the SDH system would consist of a 5,000 m² collector field and 13,500 m³ of seasonal pit storage. Along with 6.3 MW of water-to-water heat pumps, this system would meet the baseload of a new network. A 3.1 MW gas boiler would provide backup at peak demand and an 800 kW_p PV generator would supply solar-sourced electricity. The authors of the prefeasibility study based their calculations on a connection rate of 100 % regarding public buildings and 80 % in the case of single-family houses.

Turnover would come from the sale of thermal energy and solar electricity, with the former contributing 88 % and the latter 12 % to the overall amount. The base price proposed for heat supply was 45 EUR/MWh. There would be no charge for connecting to the network, but it has been suggested that each customer should be required by contract to buy at least 3,500 kWh per year. Implementing the idea would mean that, over a maximum of 10 years, heat consumers would have to pay 51.13 EUR/MWh for each year they fail to fulfil the requirement.

Ozalj: EUR 21.6 million for biomass-solar DH system

In Ozalj, amidst a sea of trees, the global horizontal irradiation exceeds 1,200 kWh/m²/a, making the town particularly suitable for a system combining biomass and solar. The study’s authors suggested a 10 MW_th biomass-fired CHP unit, an 18,000 m² collector field and 20,000 m³ of seasonal pit heat storage, plus a 26 MW gas boiler for peak loads. There was enough space to set up the installation close to the city’s industrial area, they stated.

The EUR 21.6 million system would be feasible if calculated at consumer prices of 70 EUR/MWh for heat and power. The business plan put the internal rate of return at 12 % and the payback period at 9.7 years, based on a 15-year simulation.

Until the end of this year, the preliminary project proposals need to be finalised, after which it will be up to the mayors and city councils to implement them. Provided they have or can get a solid funding base to invite tenders, those projects could also be of interest to solar thermal companies in western Europe. Rutz is hoping for many to be realised, as each implemented project could serve as a showcase to promote small, modular renewable heating and cooling grids in the Balkans.

Source: CoolHeating
Text: Frank Stier, Sofia

About Carlo Winterscheid