This solar thermal plant, the largest in Europe for industrial process, will deliver on average 4,000 MWh/year of heat. It will cover nearly 32% of the heated water need for the steam generation in the local paper mill. With the very high solar yield – more than 1,000 kWh/m2 – this solar thermal field is the first of its kind in the world due to Savosolar high efficiency solar collectors installed on a single-axis tracking system, manufactured and installed for Savosolar by Arcelormittal, Project Exosun. 66 tilting structures, each carrying four 16 m2 collectors, follow the sun from morning to evening and maximize the heat production.
The project was developed and financed by NewHeat and Savosolar acted as the EPC contractor. Meaning, Savosolar designed the whole system, delivered the solar collectors, and realized the installation with local French companies. This installation will be a reference for the huge growing market of heat-as-a-service for industrial clients in France and world-wide.
Ystad Arena is located in the southern Swedish city of Ystad, and is the home arena of Ystad IF HF which is one of the country’s top handball teams. On its roof, 36 collectors from Savosolar were mounted during spring 2017. The system is owned and maintained by the municipality owned energy company Ystad Energi AB, and feeds its district heating network with clean thermal energy. Ystad Energi AB is working towards the goal of becoming fossil fuel free by 2020 and currently produces ca. 160,000 MWh of thermal energy annually, of which 97-99% are based on bio-fuels.
As much as 89% of the thermal energy for the district heating network is produced by four wood chip burners between 3 and 10 MW capacity and the rest is produced from straw, rapeseed, gas and oil. Ystad Energi AB has ca. 1,850 customers, of which ca. 1,300 are single family homes.
Swimming halls are very well suited for solar thermal production. Typically, their heat consumption is big and the required temperature level tends to be relatively low. In such cases solar thermal collectors are operating with a very high efficiency.
However, quite often swimming halls are closed some time of the year and summertime closure may mean extra challenges for solar heat supply.
For Hämeenlinna swimming hall Savosolar solved this issue by feeding surplus solar energy in summer to the nearby district heating network. Thus, the solar system is producing heat all days and depending on the swimming hall’s actual heat demand, the facility is either a district heating provider or a consumer.
This solar district heating system of 941 m2 in Cadaujac is an innovative and eco-friendly project, first of this type in France, develop by our customer AbSolar. The solar production is linked to a geothermal seasonal storage which lead this new neighbourhood to received 100% of renewable heat for their need in heating and hot water.
Savosolar has been responsible of the main part of the solar plant as part of an EPC contract, including the design and then the supply and installation of the solar field, the piping and the solar station with its automation system, as a turnkey solution. The 510 MWh of annual solar production allow to avoid around 100 tons of CO2 emission for such a heating need. With this project, Savosolar maintain is leading position on the French market in the supply of turnkey solar thermal plant for district heating.
This disruptive technology develops and handle by AbSolar is a forerunner project showing the possibility to reduce significantly our carbon footprint for the daily needs of heat and should help us to fight climate changes, while ensuring a mainly fixed cost of energy over 20 years for the inhabitants of this kind of residential district.
