On 15 March, the excavators began their work for Denmark’s largest solar district heating project so far. The collector field in the town of Dronninglund, about 30 km northeast of Aalborg, will have an area of 35,000 m², but installing the collectors will only be the last step. First, there is the seasonal pit heat storage - a hole in the ground filled with 60,000 m³ of water. In combination with the seasonal heat storage, the solar plant is said to achieve a yield of 15,000 MWh per year and to provide 40 % of the heat for the local district heating network with its 1,350 customers. In the long run, the collectively owned district heating company Dronninglund Fjernvarme plans to provide all of its heat through renewable energies to keep heat prices stable, albeit there have not yet been any details on how to accomplish this task. Currently, the heating network’s supply is based on four combined gas-based heating plants (7 MW_el and 12 MW_th total) and two biofuel boilers (15.1 MW total).
Photo: ARCON Solar

Good news from Germany for Canadian air collector manufacturer Enerconcept: The company has completed its collector tests for the Lubi wall and the roof-mounted Luba GL at the Fraunhofer ISE institute in Freiburg. The collectors meet all of the requirements by the German Federal Office of Economics and Export Control (BAFA) and are now eligible for grants. Enerconcept’s German partner, GoGaS Goch, which will sell the air collectors together with its energy-efficient solutions for heating and process heat, is delighted with the success of the combined systems. Solarthermalworld.org met François Brizard, Development Engineer at Enerconcept (left), and Heiko Schneider, Managing Director of GoGaS Goch, at the ISH fair in Frankfurt, Germany.
Photo: Stephanie Banse