1.9MWth solar district heating plant, Denmark

Aalborg CSP investigated the potential to use solar heating to reduce the Danish district heating plant Solrød Fjernvarme's natural gas dependency as well as to stabilize the energy prices towards the consumers. 

Harvesting energy from the sun in the most efficient way

To match the client’s energy requirements at the lowest possible cost, the system is designed as a 2,569m² flat panel system combined with a 1,250m³ heat storage accumulation tank. With a capacity of 1.9MWt, the solar heating system is capable of producing 1,226 MWh annually covering approx. 28% of the town's heat demand. The solar field consists of both single- and double-glazed collectors. The single-glazed solar collectors are placed in the beginning of the rows, followed by the double-glazed collectors. The purpose of using single-glazed collectors in the beginning of the rows is to get as much energy into the collectors as possible and thus harvest more energy. Single-glazed collectors absorb more energy than double-glazed collectors, but have a greater heat loss. When changing from one to two layers of glass, less energy is absorbed. However, double-glazed collectors have a lower heat loss.