Fourth-largest solar district heating plant globally in the making

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Key Facts
Groningen, Netherlands
Market Segment Solar District Heating Solar Collectors Area 48,000 m² Solar Thermal Capacity 37 MWth Storage capacity 6,000 m³ Land Area 12 hectares Planned date for commissioning 2024 Type of collector/supplier High-vacuum flat plate manufactured by TVP Solar Project Developer Novar Annual Energy Delivery 25,000 MWh CO2 savings Approximately 6 000 tonnes per year

Brief

In 2024, the Dutch university city of Groningen, with its 240,000 inhabitants, commissioned a new addition to its district heating grid operated by the utility company Warmtestad: A 48,000m² solar thermal collector field. Three companies joined forces to develop this ambitious project: Novar (NL), as the project developer, K3 (NL), as the investor, and TVP Solar (CH), as the turnkey provider of the solar field. Together they founded a special purpose vehicle (SPV) – an entity that owns and operates the plant.

Technology

The innovative high-vacuum flat plate technology by TVP Solar produces 25,000 MWh of energy pear year in this solar thermal installation, sufficient to cover 25% of the total heat demand for private and public buildings in the northwest of Groningen. The solar thermal field comes with a 6,000m³ storage tank, ensuring continuous energy supply. Thanks to this project, Groningen is saving around 6,000 tonnes of carbon emissions every year.

Financial Structure

The EUR 23 million CAPEX was partly made available by a loan from the Triodos Bank. The project SPV, as the owner of the solar heat plant, will also receive a feed-in tariff from the Dutch national subsidy scheme SDE++. It supports energy produced over 15 years using a wide range of renewable technologies, including solar thermal. The feed-in tariff is calculated as the difference between the current gas price and a price cap of 85 EUR/MWh. This difference is updated annually and paid over a period of 15 years.

Furthermore, the project SPV has signed a long-term solar heat delivery contract over 30 years with the utility Warmtestad.

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