Vinery in Banyuls
France: Support Scheme for up to 30 Solar Heating and Cooling Systems
One of the successful show cases of solar cooling applications in France: The vinery in Banyuls, in the south of France, where 130 m2 of vacuum tube collectors supply an absorption chiller with 52 kW cooling capacity since 1991.
Photo: Tecsol
Daniel Mugnier from Tecsol was satisfied when French solar industry association Enerplan and the French Environment & Energy Management Agency Ademe jointly announced the beginning of the French Solar Heating and Cooling Development Programme in January this year. For the last years, the engineering company Tecsol had been after a support scheme for solar cooling applications. It was first promised to the engineers that Fonds Chaleur would support this kind of technology, a grant scheme for renewable heating systems launched in December of 2008. The final regulations, however, did not include solar cooling as an eligible technology.
After one year of intense consultation and planning, Mugnier is now satisfied with the new scheme supporting 15 to 30 large solar heating and cooling systems during the next two and a half years. ”In close cooperation within the Emergence working group and with international experts of Task 38, we developed a very promising method of how to select well-performing demo installations,” Mugnier explains in the attached presentation designed for European level dissemination and with the support of EU R&D programs, such as SOLAIR. Task 38 is part of the Solar Heating and Cooling Programme (SHC) by the International Energy Agency (IEA). Members of the Emergence working group were, among others, the French utilities EDF and GDF, Enerplan, the National Institute for Solar Energy (Ines) and Ademe.
In his statement, Mugnier refers to a newly developed check-list including 20 questions and a scoring method, which is thought to give a clear picture of whether the project may be realistic and has a chance of success. “Since the beginning of 2009, we adjusted the questions, weighted the answers and therewith extracted warning messages about non-realistic projects,” the Tecsol employee explains. You can order the English version of the check-list at: romain@tecsol.fr.
A score above 10 points means the project will be approved for the support scheme’s feasibility studies and may receive grants throughout all phases of planning and realization (if confirmed at the feasibility stage), as well as for the initial investment costs and the monitoring system.
Approval of the first projects is expected for June 2010.
More information:
Tecsol SA
Mr Romain SIRÉ
+33 (4) 68 68 16 40
romain@tecsol.fr
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Country / region |
France |
|
Name of programme |
French Solar Heating and Cooling Development Programme |
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Type of incentive |
Grants |
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Eligible technologies |
Solar Heating and Cooling Demonstration Systems with a nominal solar cooling power between 5 and 200 kW |
|
Applicable sectors |
Priority target group:
|
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Maximum incentive for the feasibility study |
50 to 70 % of the fees for the feasibility study – depending on the region concerned (maximum rate is decided for each case separately). |
|
Maximum incentive for the investment costs of the system |
The investment incentives are paid for 50% at the beginning of the project, 30% are paid at the commissioning of the installation and 20% after 2 years monitoring. The last payment will be delivered if the installation has reached the minimum monitored energy requirements listed below. The total amount of incentive is a percentage of the system investment cost to be calculated case by case and it is limited by European maximum grant levels for renewable energy demo projects, which depend on the target group:
|
|
Maximum incentive for monitoring |
50 % of monitoring material is covered, albeit only up to EUR 10,000 50 % of the monitoring work in the first two years in covered, albeit only up to EUR 15,000 |
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Requirements for system |
|
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Requirements for installation |
Engineering company: a minimum of 2 references related to large solar thermal installations of more than 30 m², as well as a French OPQIBI certification |
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Finance provider |
Ademe, in cooperation with the regional administrations |
|
Total funds |
Granted for 15 to 20 installations during a 4-year period: 3 to 5 systems in 2010 and 3 to 5 to 10 in each 2011, 2012 and 2013 |
|
Funding source |
Public funds |
|
Effective date |
January 2010 (after 12 months of preparation) |
|
Expiration date |
December 2013 |
|
Website |
http://www.solaire-collectif.fr/index.php?pid=7 |
|
Last review of this tabloid |
February 2013 |
|
Contact |
Enerplan |
