Excursion: Solar-thermally supported district heating World's first solar thermal system made of insulating glass flat-plate collectors

The insulating glass collectors are part of naturstrom AG's district heating network in Marktschorgast.

Dr. Christoph Trinkl, who heads InES together with Prof. Schrag, presented the challenges of the flexLAC research project.

The excursion group was welcomed at the Marktschorgast site by Marc Benker (1st Mayor of Marktschorgast) and Christian Schubert (Operations Manager, naturstrom AG) for a tour.

Marc Benker (1st mayor and board member of the cooperative), who was actively involved in the development of the district heating network, explained the heating technology used in Marktschorgast to the participants.

Prof. Tobias Schrag, head of the W³ project, welcomed the excursion participants in Eggolsheim and opened the agenda topic "Technical presentations and discussion", in which presentations were given by naturstrom AG (Ulrich Weidner, Head of the Classic Heat & Technical Management division) and InES (Fabian Feuchter and Tobias Reum, research assistants).

Ulrich Weidner presented the company naturstrom AG and its various local heating projects. After the presentations, participants had the opportunity to discuss their questions with all the speakers.

Rebecca Schneider (Head of Heating Grids, front left) and Ulrich Weidner (Business Unit Manager) from naturstrom AG gave the participants a tour in Hallerndorf.

Aerial view of the visited plant in Hallerndorf (Source: naturstrom AG)

The project "Transfer Cluster Heat Pump & Heat Network - Shaping the heat transition intelligently" (W³ in short), which organised the excursion, is supported by InES and co-financed by the European Union.

Solar thermal systems offer an opportunity to decarbonise heating networks. This is an important building block for the heating transition to replace fossil fuels and invest in a sustainable future. This excursion offered interesting insights into two district heating networks and their operating experience.

The Institute of new Energy Systems (InES) at THI and its network partner naturstrom AG organised a full-day excursion to Upper Franconia region with three interesting stops as part of the W³ project on Wednesday, 13 November 2024. Two different district heating networks were visited – each one in the towns of Marktschorgast (in the district of Kulmbach) and Hallerndorf (in the district of Forchheim). The specialist event was rounded off with scientific presentations and discussions.

During the on-site visit, the operator naturstrom AG was able to explain the plant technology at both sites to around 50 participants from business, science and the specialised public. 
The Marktschorgast site relies on a combination of a combi boiler (for pellet or wood chip firing) with a CHP unit to cover the base load and a gas boiler for redundancy. Solar thermal energy is also integrated, which is realised both roof-mounted and as a ground-mounted system. A special feature of the system is the integration of the world's first solar thermal system made of insulating glass flat-plate collectors (see Picture 1), which was developed by the flexLAC research project at the Institute of new Energy Systems (InES) and built in cooperation with naturstrom AG in 2023.

At the Hallerndorf site, 4 wood chip boilers are operated in conjunction with a 1,304 m² ground-mounted solar thermal system with evacuated tube collectors and generate around 3 million kWh of heat per year in total. Using a central 85,000 litre storage, the system achieves a solar fraction of around 20% over the course of a year.


The "Heat Pump & Heating Grid Transfer Cluster - Shaping the heating transition intelligently" project (W³ in short), which organised the excursion, is supported by InES and co-financed by the European Union. It aims to optimise the grid service operation of heat pumps, promote the networking of players from different areas and the targeted implementation of research results in practice. Further information on the W3 project and future events: www.w3-waermewende.de  
 

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