Munich is saving tons of C0₂ by using solar for heating

The City of München has proven to be a frontrunner when it comes to an innovative climate policy and energy efficiency. Initiatives within this area include the use of hydropower and heat-energy coupling. One of the central initiatives has been the realization of a solar powered district heating system – a so-called “Solaren Nahwärmeversorgung”, which means Local District Solar Heating Supply. This system is scalable and able to provide 340 households with heating – saving up 140 tons of CO₂per year.

One of the current challenges in the city of Munich, as well as its suburbs, is to ensure more power in urban areas with limited square meters. One of the first and most innovative projects to meet this challenge is seen in the residential neighbourhood Am Ackermannbogen, which was constructed between 2005 and 2007 on the site of former military barracks in central Munich.

Here, all dwellings were designed to meet low energy building standards and to limit annual final heat demand to 30-40 kWh/m2. A range of the buildings was selected for heat supply from an array of rooftop solar collectors covering an area of 3,600 m2. The solar system in Am Ackermannbogen satisfies up to half the heat demand of the buildings connected.

In the future, this type of solar system will be met by further needs of higher output and higher efficiency.

Danish solution optimizes the use of solar radiation with less space needed

The Danish engineering company ScandiMir ApS have just released a high-effective, CO₂-reducing and space saving solar system called AURORA. The solar system has been verified as a highly effective solar system by one of the largest engineering companies in the Nordic area, Ramboll, in a report published in June 2019.

”ScandiMir have developed an innovative technology that has proven its effectiveness and advantage by producing sustainable energy while saving land and protecting nature  – not least by preserving biodiversity and reducing CO₂ emissions remarkably. We are very happy that we have been able to develop a solution that requires a minimum of land, which is suitable also for urban areas where square meters are limited and expensive”, said Carsten Boye, CEO of Scandimir.

The area around Munich is ideal for AURORA since the solar system uses 40 percent less land to produce the same amount of energy (MWh) compared to traditional flat solar collectors. Additionally, Ramboll underlines AURORA’s efficiency by concluding that the system has a performance that exceeds the flat solar collectors by approx. 60 percent per m² per ground area. AURORA’s significant advantage is found in its double axis-suntracker, which ensures optimal use of the solar radiation because the sun’s rays are caught perpendicular to the parabolic mirror from sunrise to sunset all year round. It is foreseen that one AURORA unit will generate approx. 25 MWh thermal/year with a constant outlet temperature.

“We have had very high standards for AURORA’s applications to ensure simple and cost reducing workflows and it is a vital reassurance for both us and future users that Ramboll has assessed and verified all features of AURORA before entering the market. We are looking very much forward to experience AURORA’s full potential in the market and hope to see future users be eased by AURORA’s features as the “out-of-wind” and “out-of-sun-functions”, etc.”, said Carsten Boye, CEO of Scandimir.

Future solar projects

On the island of Sylt in Northern Germany, ScandiMir ApS and Energieversorgung Sylt are planning to establish AURORA as a contribution to green energy production as well as a place to showcase the solution for the German market.

In the regions of Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria, Scandimir aims at becoming a strong solution partner on projects similar to the “Ackermannbogen Project” from Munich – and even to optimize existing power plants by combining AURORA with existing technologies to boost efficiency over the year. Generally, AURORA produces significantly more than the flat solar collector produces every month of the year, but the system has extraordinary favorable conditions outside the ordinary season for solar energy, i.e. in November, December, January, and February.

The Access Cities project partner in Munich is going to frame  future urban challenges in the city, and find the right solution providers like ScandiMir to solve them.

For more information on the opportunities in Munich through the Access Cities project contact: Danish Green Hub