- Central solar heating
Central solar heating is the provision of
central heating and hot water fromsolar energy by a system in which the water is heated centrally by arrays of solar thermal collectors (central solar heating plants - CSHPs) and distributed throughdistrict heating pipe networks (or 'block heating' systems in the case of smaller installations).For block systems, the solar collectors are typically mounted on the building roof tops. For district heating systems the collectors may instead be installed on the ground.
Central solar heating can involve large-scale thermal storage, scaling from diurnal storage to seasonal thermal storage. Thermal storage increase the
solar fraction - the ratio between solar energy gain to the total energy demand in the system - for solar thermal systems. Ideally, the aim for applying seasonal storage is to store solar energy collected in the summer time to the winter month.Compared to small solar heating systems (
solar combisystem s), central solar heating systems have better price-performance ratios due to the lower installation price, the higher thermal efficiency and less maintenance.Central solar systems can also be used for
solar cooling in the form ofdistrict cooling . In this case, the overall efficiency is high due to the high correlation between the energy demand and the solar radiation.Largest CSHPs
Source: Jan Erik Nielsen, PlanEnergi, DK.
Hereafter you find a plant in Rise (DK) with a new collector producer, Marstal VVS (DK), a plant in Ry (DK), one of the oldest in Europe, a plant in Hamburg and a number of plants below 3,000 m². It may be relevant mentioning, that the island of Ærø in Denmark has three of the major CSHP, Marstal, Ærøskøping and Rise.
History of central solar heating plants
:"The history of CSHP given here is mainly a Nordic-European perspective on the topic."
Sweden has played a major role in the development of large-scale solar heating. According to (Dalenbäck, J-O., 1993), the first steps were taken in the early seventies inLinköping , Sweden, followed by a mature revision in 1983 inLyckebo , Sweden. Inspired by this work,Finland developed its first plant inKerava , and theNetherlands built a first plant in Groningen. These plants are reported under theInternational Energy Agency by (Dalenbäck, J-O., 1990). Note that these plants did already combine CSHPs with large-scale thermal storage.The first large-scale solar collector fields were made on-site in
Torvalle , Sweden,1982 , 2000 m² andMalung , Sweden, 640 m². Prefabricated collector arrays were introduced inNykvarn , Sweden, 4000 m² in1985 . There was from the beginning a strong international perspective and cooperation within this research field, through investigation with the European Communities (Dalenbäck, J-O., 1995) and the International Energy Agency (Dalenbäck, J-O., 1990). Denmark did enter this research area parallel to the Swedish activities with a plant inVester Nebel in1987 , one plant inSaltum in1988 and one in Ry in1989 , taking over the know-how for prefabricated solar collectors of large size by the Swedish company Teknoterm by the dominating company ARCON, Denmark. In the later 1990sGermany andSwitzerland were active among others with plants inStuttgart andChemnitz .Due to cheap land prices, in the Nordic countries the collector arrays could be ground-mounted in agricultural areas. Countries with high ground prices tend to place solar collectors on building roofs, following the 'block plant' variant of CSHPs.
By
1999 40 CSHPs were in operation inEurope generating about 30 MW of thermal power [http://wire0.ises.org/wire/doclibs/EuroSun98.nsf/c1223aa2046dd602c1256927007e9e65/1a880e3f0ced45fcc1256771003045f0!OpenDocument] .Related systems
Central solar heating is a sub-class of 'large-scale solar heating' systems - a term applied to systems with solar collector areas greater than 500 m².
ee also
*
Seasonal thermal store
*District heating
*Solar heating
*Solar cooling
*Solar combisystem
*Solar thermal energy
*District cooling
*Renewable energy External links
* [http://jxj.base10.ws/magsandj/rew/2002_06/share_sun.html Solar District Heating in Europe: Large Scale Solar Heating Systems for Housing Developments]
* [http://wire0.ises.org/wire/doclibs/EuroSun98.nsf/c1223aa2046dd602c1256927007e9e65/1a880e3f0ced45fcc1256771003045f0!OpenDocument European Large-Scale Solar Heating Network Thermie Project]
* [http://web.archive.org/web/20050405104448/http://main.hvac.chalmers.se/cshp/Intro.htm The European Large-Scale Solar Heating Network's former Homepage]
* [http://www.arcon.dk/uk/store_uk.html 17.081 m2 CSHP at Ærø, Denmark]
* [http://www.itw.uni-stuttgart.de/ITWHomepage/Sun/deutsch/public/pdfDateien/04-14.pdf CSHP with an aquifer thermal energy store, Rostock, Germany]
* [http://www.iea-ship.org/upload/5_pauschinger.pdf CSHPs in Germany]Further reading
*"Central Solar Heating Plants with Seasonal Storage: A Status Report",
ISBN 91-540-5201-7, Swedish Council for Building Research, June 1990 [http://www.iea-shc.org/outputs/task07_publist.htm] .
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