For a few years the biggest plant with adsorption chillers world wide is there in operation, consisting of 3 refrigerating machines each with 500 kW cooling capacity. The coldness is used to chill the office building and a computer centre of the company. Festo decided for adsorption technology to be able to use the waste heat of compressors. The remaining heat needed is provided by natural gas-/oil-boilers.
To this existing plant a solar system will be integrated as third heat source. The solar system consists of 1218 m² vacuum tube collectors and two buffer storages with each 7 m³ volume. When no cooling is needed, the solar heat will be used to heat the buildings. Due to the integration of the solar system approx.500 MWh of primary energy will be saved yearly and thereby a perceptible contingent to the climate protection and the spare of resources.
At the moment the University of Applied Sciences Offenburg monitors eight solar thermal systems in the framework of the support program Solarthermie2000plus. In detail are this six plants for domestic hot water in Freiburg, Mindelheim, Singen, Baden-Baden and Waldbronn, a solar assisted district heating network in Holzgerlingen and the solar assisted air conditioning in Esslingen described above.
The most important aim is it to establish the scientific/technical and legal/organizational conditions through pilot- and demonstration projects accompanied by research, that solar thermal systems can provide a significant bigger part to the heat market. The efficiency of solar heat should be improved through further reduction of the costs.
To reach these aims at the moment partners are wanted, who want to build such a solar power plant with a collector area of at least 100 m². At present 50% of the investment costs will be subsidized if the conditions are fulfilled. The measurement will be subsidized by 100%