Both the National High School Athletic Games (April 2011) and the National Intercollegiate Athletics (May 2011) were held at the National Chung Hsing University (NCHU) located in Taichung City, Taiwan. To prepare for these important events, 691 sqm of collector area were set up, heating pool water through sunlight. The operating solar thermal system was planned and installed by Taiwanese company Sunwe Pools Enterprise Co., Ltd. based in the same city.

The refurbished indoor swimming facility re-opened in April just before the first National Athletic Games took place. It includes three pools: a competition pool (1523 m³), a training/warm-up pool (525 m³), and a spa (32 m³). The purpose of the solar thermal facility is to heat all the water from ground water level of between 18 and 20°C to 26/27°C in-pool temperature. “We expect an annual solar energy collection of 933,860 MJ,” Yi-Wei Hsu, CEO of Sunwe, explains. This figure translates into 259,405 kWh per year, which corresponds to a specific yield of 375 kWh/m2a. According to a software analysis tool developed by the Taiwanese Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), the NCHU can save up to 65% of its energy costs while heating its pools.

This is an abstract. Read the full article at solarthermalworld.org.