Mikkeli city, the home of Savosolar received the “Inspiring Solution Award” in 2018 Celsius City Summit for the Ristiina Village project. It is a green district heating energy concept with a clever combination of solar thermal and wood chips.
Savosolar was involved in this award winning project by delivering turn-key solar district heating installation to the Ristiina district heating plant.
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.
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.
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.