In the beginning of May 2014 the world’s largest solar panel facility for district heating has opened in the little town Dronninglund in northern Jutland, Denmark. The knowledge and experience gained in this project can be used worldwide. Already a facility 3 times bigger is projected for 2015 in Vojens, Denmark.
The panels in Dronninglund are covering an area of 6 football fields and are going to provide heating for half of the 1350 district heating customers of Dronninglund Fjernvarme. One of the new interesting technologies used in at the facility is the big water tank containing 62 million litters of heated water. The tank is isolated with earth. In this way it is capable of storing energy for the months in Denmark where the sun isn’t shinning much.
According to plant manager, Johan Frey, the cost of the facility has been 14 million €, but the price of heating for the district heating customers will not increase. As a bonus the price of heating will no longer be as vulnerable to increasing oil prices.
“Several companies has been involved in the project like AEA, Niras, PlanEnergi and Arcon Solar has delivered the solar panels” says Johan Frey. Each company has used existing technology but also developed new things in the process that also can be used in new projects world wide.
The facility is functioning as planned, according to Johan Frey, and Dronninglund Fjernvarme is already starting to plan how the district heating plant in the future can run on 100% renewable energy.
Source: ActNow