Integration of solar thermal systems in existing district heating systems
Journal article, 2017

The integration of large solar heating systems in district heating (DH) networks with large combined heat and power (CHP) plants is rarely considered. This is often due to low costs for heat but also due to subsidies for the electricity by CHP plants. Possible changes in subsidies and requirements in the reduction of fossil fuel based CO2 emissions raise an awareness of improving the operational flexibility of fossil fuelled CHP plants. This paper provides a rather simple but detailed methodology of including large solar heating systems in an existing district heating system, where heat is supplied by a large CHP plant. It uses hourly data of load and temperature patterns as well as radiation data and collector efficiency data to determine collector field size and storage size. The possibility of largely independent operation of sub-networks is analysed, which allows different system temperatures. It is demonstrated that a sub-network can operate without a back-up boiler and that both network parts benefit from the interaction. (C) 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Solar thermal systems

Solar district heating

Thermodynamics

District heating

Energy & Fuels

Author

Carlo Winterscheid

Student at Chalmers

Jan-Olof Dalenbäck

Chalmers, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Building Services Engineering

Stefan Holler

HAWK University of Applied Sciences and Arts

Energy

0360-5442 (ISSN) 18736785 (eISSN)

Vol. 137 579-585

Subject Categories

Energy Systems

DOI

10.1016/j.energy.2017.04.159

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7/2/2019 1