Dear reader,
As SDHp2m partners we are proud to present our well-known, but completely renewed and now relaunched website www.solar-district-heating.eu with this newsletter. The website relaunch brought also a new format for our SDH newsletter and, as many other companies and organization, we needed to ask reconfirmations of newsletter subscriptions based on the new EU data protection legislation. The fact that so many of you renewed their subscription and that numerous new subscribers joined during the last months shows the sustainable interest in SDH and motivates us to continue informing you with news from the SDH markets and projects.

We wish you good reading and a sunny autumn!

Your SDH-Project Team

Under the well-known web address www.solar-district-heating.eu, the partners of the SDHp2m project present a completely renewed information portal for solar district heating. A highlight of the new website is the knowledge database with a lot of sector expertise. Read more...

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is now funding feasibility studies under a programme called Renewable District Energy in the Western Balkans, or ReDEWeB for short. Town and city governments, and project developers, can send applications to the bank’s headquarters in London to receive grants for renewable energy systems at either new or existing district heating plants. In the case of ReDEWeB, renewable district energy systems are defined as producing heat or cold from solar thermal, biomass, biogas, geothermal, waste heat or heat pumps or the sea, lakes or rivers. Read more...

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. Read more...

A new fact sheet of the SDHp2m project describes how the SDH development, especially in emerging markets, can be monitored over time. It includes recommended information to gather, the process of collecting it and a proposed definition of what to include in the category ‘SDH’. Read more...

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. Read more...

Once a large solar field is set up at its designated location, what tests can be conducted to show that it performs as expected? Soon, the IEA Solar Heating & Cooling Programme may have an answer to this question, as it is working on internationalising Denmark’s testing procedure. No decision has been made on whether the procedure will become part of a full-fledged standard or be turned into a technical specification. Read more...

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. Read more...

In February 2018, Alcalá Ecoenergías signed a deal to construct a district heating system powered by solar and biomass in Alcalá de Henares, a city in Spain. The agreement between the local company and the municipal government will lead to one of the country’s first-ever large-scale solar district heating systems for supplying 12,000 homes with renewable heat. Read more...

An expert training session has been organized on the 5th and 6th of June 2018 at the French National Institute for Solar Energy. More than 30 participants working in engineering offices, district heating operators, city technical services or project developers took part in this event. Regarding the success of this training, a second session is planned for the end of 2018. Read more...

Solid has been developing a concept for supplying up to 25% of district heating of Graz with solar thermal energy and a seasonal storage in late 2015. Read more...

The world market leader for solar district heating systems, Arcon-Sunmark, has now installed its first solar thermal system for a German district heating system in Berlin-Köpenick. Read more...

China is the world’s largest market for DH, in addition to being the largest solar thermal market – a promising combination. In 2017, the Chinese central government conducted SDH feasibility studies in more than 20 counties and cities in Tibet, where many houses lack space heating, and awarded funding for two sites. Read more...

70% of the heating and domestic hot water boiling in the ‘Kaysieva Gradina’ district in Varna, Bulgaria, could be provided by solar thermal energy by applying the SDH technology. To all the residents of Varna this is a huge opportunity to switch to clean heating, to end without using fossil fuels and to get rid of the fine particulate matter in the air. It is also crucial for achieving independence from the fuel imports. This is the conclusion of a recent survey performed by the Institute for Zero Energy Buildings in Sofia, Bulgaria. What’s more important is that the same number is relevant to all the medium and big cities in Bulgaria. Read more...

Ystad Energi was awarded the “Solar prize” for their solar heating plant on Ystad Arena. The plant, with just more than 500 m2 of flat plate collectors, is designed to feed solar heat into Ystad district heating system. Read more...