180 hybrid solar panels on a parking canopy for a municipal swimming pool – Sète (FR)

Interview with Jean-Paul Girard, DALKIA Project Manager. “I’m a thermal engineer and I have been working at DALKIA for 26 years in energy efficiency. I’ve worked in particular with renewable energy sources (biomass, solar), heat networks, electricity production, and of course on the energy efficiency of systems!”

How did this project start?
Everything started with a similar project in Perpignan. We had won an Energy Performance Contract for the two cities which was supposed to generate a maximum of energy economies. I’m particuarly interested in innovative technologies and I had discovered DualSun while reading Le Moniteur (a technical magazine) in 2012.In 2014, the ADEME created a new call for tender program called New Emerging Technologies (NET), it was the perfect opportunity to test this technology supported by this subsidy. There was a specific “hybrid solar” category, so we applied for Perpignan, and then for Sète.

How many people use this swimming pool?
120,000 people per year.

How is the energy generated by this installation used?
To produce hot water for the showers, to pre-heat the pools, and to generate electricity for the building.

Why did you chose DualSun solar panels for this project?
We chose DualSun because the panels are well adapted for heating swimming pools. These panels are designed to do low-temperature heating, which allows to optimize production. Moreover, with a swimming pool, there is a “match” between the consumption of the pools and the production of the panels that works well with solar. There is no need to store a lot of hot water, and it is easy to discharge surplus production in the swimming pools, which become thermal storage tanks for the installation! The DualSun panels helped us win this project!