Brief
The student village of Kringsjå in Norway has undergone a lot of renovations in the last years. These are motivated by the answers from a survey carried out among all residents of Kringsjå in 2017, where a strong wish for more environmentally friendly and economic energy solutions was expressed. A recent addition is an innovative solar thermal installation coupled with geothermal wells.
Technology
This solar thermal installation is composed of 100 hybrid PVT panels, producing both heat and electricity with the sun’s energy. Even in a place like Kringsjå where it snows a lot, solar panels are capable of capturing the sun’s irradiance and transforming it into energy.
The solar collectors are placed on the flat roof of the student village buildings and connected to a geothermal probe and a heat pump. Thermal storage is ensured thanks to geothermal energy, keeping the heat in the subsoil. This innovative storage system combining solar thermal and geothermal can be applied both to new buildings and to renovations.