Large solar heating facility proposed for Porvoo

Heating for 6,000 residents with Zero carbon dioxide emissions

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By Samuli Laita
     
      The energy utility Porvoon Energia plans to heat in the energy-efficient Skaftkärr residential area using solar energy. Under the plans, solar collectors are to be set up in an area covering 6-12 hectares, the equivalent of approximately as many football pitches.
      The heating energy produced by the collectors is calculated to be sufficient for the year-round heating of the homes of the projected 6,000 residents.
      The utilisation of solar energy would produce no carbon dioxide emissions.
      If it is implemented, the solar collector park would be unique, even on the European scale. The closest equivalent solar plant, which is significantly smaller, is in Denmark.
     
“A completely new project, and a surprisingly big one”, says Olli Laitinen, an expert on renewable energy from Motiva, a company that promotes energy efficiency.
      The solar collectors spread out over an area of six hectares would collect about 20 gigawatt hours worth of electricity a year.
      The same amount of heat energy could be generated by a relatively small heat centre fired by conventional fuels with an output of about eight megawatts, says development engineer Mikko Ruotsalainen of Porvoon Energia.
      “But our aim is to be Finland’s greenest energy producer.” Porvoon Energia is owned completely by the City of Porvoo.
     
During the sunny half of the year the installation would produce twice as much energy as is needed for providing heat and hot water. The surplus heat would be fed into an ordinary district heating network, if a technical solution is found, Ruotsalainen says.
      In the winter months, the Skaftkärr area would get its heat from the Tolkkinen power plant, which uses renewable fuels, such as wood chips, as its energy source.
      Ruotsalainen says that according to present calculations, the solar collector park would cost less than EUR 12 million, 40 per cent of which could be paid out of state investment subsidies for alternative energy.
     
Porvoon Energia has not made any detailed profitability calculations yet, but Motiva’s Laitinen believes that the collector park could actually show a profit.
      It is likely that energy prices will rise in the future, which means that a power installation whose output would cost practically nothing, would serve a good purpose.
      Laitinen feels that Porvoo’s plans are quite interesting, and that if they succeed, they would serve as an example of a “viable option”.
      Ruotsalainen says that solar energy in itself would not lead to higher energy prices in Porvoo.
      “Our goal is not to maximise profit, but rather to produce energy at a competitive price.”
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 24.3.2010


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Finland´s largest office complex utilising solar energy to be erected in Vantaa (14.1.2008)
  Bakery aims at zero greenhouse gas emissions (25.10.2009)

Links:
  Motiva

SAMULI LAITA / Helsingin Sanomat
samuli.laita@hs.fi