Brief
Since 2021, Narbonne, a city in the south of France with more than 56,000 inhabitants, is home to the country’s second-largest solar district heating plant spanning an area of 3,232m². This solar plant supplies renewable heat to the district heating network of the city of Narbonne and it was developed with the goal to replace, as far as possible, the use of gas boilers by solar energy. It covers most of the network’s needs during the summer period, from April to October, when the sun’s rays are strongest.
Technology
The core principle of this solar thermal integration involves heating the network through end-of-network integration, resulting in significant fossil fuel savings, particularly in gas consumption. Thanks to the use of solar thermal technology providing an annual energy delivery of 2,200 MWh, the heat needs of 9,000 households, 7 schools and several other public buildings are covered. Furthermore, around 600 tonnes of CO2 are prevented from entering the atmosphere each year.
Additionally, the solar district heating system optimizes the biomass boiler functionality in winter through the pooling of the 1,000m³ heat storage tank, providing a great example of how heat decarbonisation can be achieved through the hybridisation of different renewable heat technologies.
Financial Structure
The project has received financial support from ADEME’s Fonds Chaleur and the Occitanie region, and 51% of its financing has been secured by Newheat, with the support of three regional energy transition funds, AREC Occitanie, OSER ENR and Terra Energies, which together contributed to the remaining 49%.