Savosolar has been selected as general contractor to build the largest solar thermal system in Finland to date, on behalf of Suur-Savon Sähkö Oy for its district heating network in Puumala, which supplies households with healthy heating. In this hybrid installation the solar thermal system is producing both, high-temperature heat to district heating supply pipe and also low-temperature heat to improve heat pump plant COP.
Løgumkloster Fjernvarme is a district heating company which annually supplies 35,000 MWh of heat to over 1,500 customers. Heat is produced with a hybrid heating system consisting of a 3 MW pellet boiler, a 1.3 MW hybrid heatpump, a 3 MW absorption heat pump and a solar collector field of 15,300 m2. Additionally, the plant has two gas engines which are capable of producing 7.6 MW of heat and 6 MW of electricity and a 10 MW gas boiler which acts as back-up.
In 2015, Savosolar delivered a 9,700 m2 solar thermal field to Løgumkloster. The second order of 5,600 m2 was delivered and commissioned in the beginning of 2016. The complete field consists of 1030 Savo 15 SG collectors and covers about 20% of the annual thermal energy need of the district heating network. The largest part of the heat demand is covered by the pellet boiler, but Løgumkloster Fjernvarme has plans to change this in the future by extending the solar field and building a large seasonal water storage.
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.
Savosolar’s first commercial solar cooling system was delivered to a school in Ukraine. The entire school was pre-fabricated in Finland and delivered to Ukraine by Elemenco Oy.
Outside of the cooling period, the solar thermal system produces energy for domestic hot water and space heating needs. During the hot summer time, three adsorption chillers cool the building via the air handling unit. The adsorption chillers, which were delivered by Savosolar, are driven by the solar thermal system.
