Energy Savings, Environmental Impacts and Monitoring Results of a Pumped Solar Water Heating System at Katutura Hospital Maternity Ward, Namibia

Abstract

The SADC region is endowed with solar radiation between 1800-2400 kWh/m² [1]. Nevertheless only 0.3 % of the worldwide solar thermal capacity is installed in the Sab-Saharan African Countries. Therefore, the main goal of the Southern African Solar Renewable Heating and Cooling Initiative (SOLTRAIN+) project funded by the Austrian Development Agency is to contribute to the transformation of the energy system to a sustainable, affordable and carbon-free system. This will be done by the implementation of Renewable, Heating and Cooling (RHC) systems in the targeted sectors: buildings, industry & commerce, tourism and hospitals, and enable this by a holistic capacity building. RHC technologies are solar thermal, heat pump and energy efficiency. This study therefore intends to evaluate and produce energy balance, based on real data recorded from January 2023 to December 2023 on a 120 m² collector area with 8000 litres storage tanks, and a 22 kW heat pump, installed at Katutura State Hospital maternity ward.