World's Largest Solar Heating Project Begins Construction in Canada.

Imagine the entire southwest face of a ten-building complex retrofitted with approximately 10,000 m2 of solar wall cladding, and you have pictured a renovation taking place at Bombardier's Canadair aircraft-parts fabrication facilities in St-Laurent, Montreal. Projects such as this one can be credited to advances made in active heating systems under IEA Solar Heating and Cooling Task 14, Advanced Active Solar Systems. The refinement of perforated solar ventilation heating systems is one example of how Task 14 has achieved its objectives to reduce costs and increase performance of active heating systems.

The patented perforated Solarwall ventilation air heating system at the Canadair facilities was developed by the Toronto firm Conserval Engineering with support from Natural Resources Canada, through CANMET's Active Solar R&D Program. Bombardier chose this system following an independent feasibility study initiated by CANMET. The study identified this CAN$2 million system as the lowest cost option compared to conventional gas fired ventilation air heating systems. Since the capital costs of the Solarwall are comparable to that of natural gas, the payback from the energy savings will begin immediately. The estimated savings are approximately $180,000 per year. CANMET plans to monitor the performance of the new Solarwall system for two years.

This will be the third such system Bombardier has installed following successful installations at Bombardier's manufacturing facilities in Valcourt, Quebec. All three systems were supplied by Matrix Energy in Kirkland, Quebec. Other examples of successful perforated Solarwall installations in Canada are the Ford automotive assembly plant and General Motors battery plant. Both of these installations were part of Canada's contribution to Task 14. Monitored results from these projects will be included in a Task 14 report documenting several demonstrations of solar air heating systems using perforated absorbers in Canada, the United States, Germany, Italy, and Southeast Asia plus research work and design tools developed in Canada and the United States. This report is scheduled for publication in early 1996.

For more information, contact:

Doug McClenahan,
Natural Resources Canada,
580 Booth Street, Ottawa,
Canada K1A 0E4

Tel: +1-613-996-6078,
Fax: +1-613-996-9416.