Pipe-Soil Interaction in Solar Thermal Heating and Cooling Plants
Abstract
Currently positive circumstances for the expansion of solar thermal heat can be observed in Europe. Because of climate change and the connected wish to reduce CO2-emissions and because of doubts on the security of nuclear power generation the broad use of renewable heat sources are supported by the European Union. A very promising technology in this field is heating and cooling of urban areas with large solar thermal plants connected to a district heating pipe network. Coupled with seasonal storages and other efficient district heating technologies this technology can be integrated in the heat supply concept of European municipalities (Huther et al 2011). Nevertheless the integration of large solar thermal plants is a special technical challenge. In solar thermal plants large collectors provide the heating of water by solar radiation. These collectors (Fig. 1) are usually connected to a storage and a district heating network.