A Finnish district heating company Elenia Lämpö Oy invested in Savosolar solar thermal system to produce CO2-free energy for their customer, which in this case is a nursing home located in Hämeenlinna. The heat is used for domestic hot water and pool heating.
The installation is the biggest operational solar thermal system in Finland.
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.
Savosolar was happy to sign its so far largest delivery contract with Grenaa Varmeværk in 2018. Savosolar’s highly efficient Savo 15 premium collectors are installed right next to an existing solar collector field which had been commissioned in 2014.
In this turn-key project Savosolar acts as the main contractor enlarging the solar fraction of the district heating network. Its operator, Grenaa Varmeværk, is producing about 146,000 MWh of heat per year. By using solar thermal it has managed to keep their customers´ heat price among the lowest in the whole of Denmark.
The new solar field with Savosolar collectors will increase the overall solar yield and ensure lowest energy production costs also in the future.
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.