In 2001 the Italian Ministries of Environment and Justice signed an agreement addressed to the Italian jails for the installation of up to 5,000 m2 (3.5 MWth) of solar thermal collectors. Goals of the "Solar Jails" program are the reduction of the energy consumption in jails, as buildings owned by public authorities with high and constant annual DHW demand, and the encouragement of the use of solar heat at large scale. However, besides the environmental and technical aspects addressed, the most challenging purpose of the initiative is the empowerment of the prisoners trained to install and to maintain the plant. In particular, the professional qualification gained on solar are expected afterwards to increase the reemployment opportunities. The programme, after one pilot project in the Rebibbia jail of Rome, foresees the "solarization" of more 14 jails all over Italy by 2010. Currently two jails has been already solarized and six more are implementing the program procedures. Jails, not only in Italy, are usually located in buildings with large surfaces suitable for installation and without strict aesthetical requirements for the architectonic integration. Those characteristics, coupled with the very high and continuous annual DHW energy demand, show clearly the huge potential for the repeatability of this initiative.
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