DEVELOPING AND MATURING LARGE SCALE SOLAR THERMAL HEATING PLANTS

摘要

The implementation of large scale solar thermal heating plants have shown to be a way of reducing the installed cost per m2 of collector area by 75% compared with individual solar thermal systems for residential buildings or homes. The technology is fully competitive with other fuels for heating, e.g. gas, oil, straw and wood chips - and this without receiving any kind of subsidies whatsoever. During the past two decades this type of solar plant has developed to be a reliable and economic solution for producing heat to e.g. district heating networks. This has been accomplished through the optimization of the solar collector design, the combination of solar and district heating technology, and the use of absorption heat pumps. By these means it is possible to cover up to 25% of the heating demand (annual solar coverage) in North European cities by solar energy. It has also been possible to increase this solar coverage to about 50% by introducing seasonal storage. This has also been possible under fully commercial conditions, receiving no kind of subsidies.