Federal Technology Alert Parabolic-Trough Solar Water Heating Renewable technology for reducing water-heating costs Warren Gretz, NREL/PIX00327 Parabolic-trough solar water-heating system for Adams County Detention Facility, Brighton, Colorado. Abstract with the Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP) of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to finance and install parabolic-trough solar water heating on an Energy Savings Performance Contract (ESPC) basis for any Federal facility that requests it and for which it proves viable. For an ESPC project, the facility does not pay for design, capital equipment, or installation. Instead, it pays only for guaran- teed energy savings.
Preparing and imple- menting delivery or task orders against the IDIQ is much simpler than the standard procurement process. This Federal Technology Alert (FTA) of the New Technology Demonstration Program is one of a series of guides to renewable energy and new energy-efficient technologies. It is designed to give Federal facility managers the information they need to decide whether they should pursue parabolic-trough solar water heating or air- conditioning for their facility and to know how to go about doing so.
Software avail- able from FEMP's Federal Renewables Program at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) enables preliminary Parabolic-trough solar water heating is a well-proven renewable energy technology with considerable potential for application at Federal facilities. For the United States, parabolic-trough water-heating systems are most cost effective in the Southwest where direct solar radiation is high. Jails, hospitals, barracks, and other facilities that consis- tently use large volumes of hot water are particularly good candidates, as are facilities with central plants for district heating.
As with any renewable energy or energy effi- ciency technology requiring significant initial capital investment, the primary condi- tion that will make a parabolic-trough sys- tem economically viable is if it is replacing expensive conventional water heating. In combination with absorption cooling sys- tems, parabolic-trough collectors can also be used for air-conditioning. Industrial Solar Technology (IST) of Golden, Colorado, is the sole current manu- facturer of parabolic-trough solar water heating systems. IST has an Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract 1