Onnelanpolku nursing home, which was built in 2013, is a so-called near zero energy building. To achieve this classification, the building needs to be well insulated and some of the consumed energy needs to be produced locally. A hybrid heating system for DHW and space heating was realized with the combination of solar thermal collectors and district heating.
Savosolar delivered 240 m² of collector area, which is used to cover 20–30% of the total thermal energy need of the building.

As a general contractor, Savosolar built a solar thermal system on behalf of Fernwärme Ettenheim GmbH for the largest possible solar feed-in into the existing district heating network. 112 pieces Savo 15 SG-M large collectors generate fuel-free healthy heat, which is temporarily stored in two 100 m³ buffer storage tanks.
This also allows the operating hours of the CHP and the biomass boiler to be optimized. The scope of delivery included the fence and video surveillance system, as well as the creation of a meager meadow to enrich local biodiversity.
The construction work was temporarily interrupted due to the COVID19 restrictions. All system hydraulics were completely housed in a container. The keys were handed over in October 2020.
A PV system still to be built on the east side will generate the electricity for the pumps in the future.
The picture on the left shows the boiler house and the buffer storage tank. Handover of keys from Jari Varjotie, CEO Savosolar Oyj, to Peter Blaser, managing director of the customer.
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.
The solar thermal plant of Verdun will supply 8 GWh of decarbonized heat for the Lacto Serum factory nearby. With an area close to 15,000 m2, it became the largest solar thermal installation for industrial process heat in Europe, exceeding Issoudun’s plant, commissioned in 2021 by Savosolar, with a few hundreds m2.
This plant is the property of Newheat and Savosolar has been chosen to realize the solar thermal field as a turnkey project.