SOLTRAIN supports solar thermal decision makers
Submitted by Karen SurridgePublished 5 years, 6 months ago
In keeping with some of SOLTRAIN's key focus areas, and specifically the strengthening of institutional structures which can offer expert advice, training and technical support on solar thermal technology, one of SOLTRAIN's South African partners, SANEDI hosted a half day of 'decision makers' seminar on solar water heating operating at different scales, followed by a half a day site visit to an installation comprising 1 500 litres of storage, heat pump backup and 30m2 of solar collector area at a military base in Hoedspruit. The target audience for this seminar was the military decision makers within the Department of Defence (DoD) as well as the tourism and hospitality service providers from Limpopo province.
Some of the technical topics for the first part of the seminar included:
Understanding of the global solar thermal resource
Solar water heating first principals
Understanding thermodynamics
Thermosiphon vs. pumped systems
Different types of application for solar thermal technologies (e.g. district heating, cooling, drying)
Examples of South African solar thermal installations
