Brief

The town of Salaspils, home to 17,842 people, is located in one of the coldest regions in Europe, making heat supply a crucial topic. The town’s district heating operator Salaspils Siltums started planning the solar thermal system after a neighbouring cogeneration plant was shut down.

Technology

In 2019, district heating operator Salaspils Siltums inaugurated a 21,672m² solar field composed by flat plate collectors and a wood chip boiler, put up in the middle of the woods near the town of Salaspils to meet 90 % of the demand from the local district heating network.

Ina Berzina-Veita, Managing Director of Salaspils Siltums, shared insights into the project’s inception at the moment of the inauguration, stating, “We embarked on this journey after attending the solar district heating conference in Billund, Denmark, in 2016, held under the H2020 Project SDHp2m. Our goal was clear: to reduce our carbon footprint and diminish reliance on fossil fuels.” Thanks to their efforts, Salaspils has already managed to decrease its heat-related emissions by 88%. Future plans include using heat pumps to integrate waste heat from data centres into the district heating network.

Financial Structure

Following a comprehensive feasibility study in January 2017, the utility successfully secured EU funding in February of the same year.

The EU’s Cohesion Fund has contributed EUR 2.73 million to the EUR 7.08 million invested in the solar field, the storage tank and the 3 MW biomass boiler.