Solar Water Preheating for Open District Heating Nets - System Integration of Large-Scale Facilities
Abstract
In combined heat and power (CHP) plants with so-called open district heating nets, large quantities of cold water (e.g. 12 °C) are heated to supply temperatures (e.g. 60 °C) using fossil fuels. Such water can be effectively preheated by solar thermal systems before conventional heating to supply temperature. Due to high basic load, low inlet temperature and good climatic conditions in most parts of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), extraordinary solar gains and solar heat generation costs of less than 1 EuroCent/kWhth can be achieved during the frost-free season.