The town of Talsi is the center of Talsi region, Latvia, with population of about 30’000 and after the upcoming administrative reform the region will expand in area and population.
The annual estimated heating demand for the whole complex is 1630 MWh/year where heat recovery satisfies about 93% of the demand, while the rest 7% are supplied by extracting heat from the ground.
The municipality is assessing feasibility of a new multifunctional sports and recreation complex which would include ice rink, swimming pool, rehabilitation rooms, cafe and other. Talsi ice hockey team has a long history and main incentive comes from the necessity for a new ice rink, to offer better ice hockey training conditions and ability to host high level competitions. Today the city has an indoor rink which was built in 1989, its current condition does not make it attractive to renovate. In addition to that municipality sees a great potential for swimming pool and recreational functions with high demand from local residents and not least for tourist attraction.
EKA supported the municipality with operational and capital expenditure assessment. EKA’s past ice rink projects that are in operation for several years reveal that heat recovery from refrigeration system has more generated heat available than the ice rink functions require. This is why EKA developed a concept in Talsi where apart from all the ice rink heating functions, as much as possible of the swimming pool heating demand is also covered by heat recovery. The proposed system solution is based on natural substance CO2 as the primary refrigerant in an indirect refrigeration system with aqua ammonia as the secondary fluid. During the cold period a supplementary heat source is necessary for peak loads and it is found that geothermal heat is the optimum solution, considering more than 1 km distance to district heat network and the associated investment.
It is intended to operate the complex for 12 months, both ice rink and swimming pool. EKA did energy estimation for all major energy functions in the facility like ice rink functions (refrigeration, arena air heating, hot water for showers, dehumidification, resurfacer, lighting, etc.), swimming pool functions (pool heating, air treatment, sauna heating, etc.) and other surrounding space heating and electricity demands.
The annual estimated heating demand for the whole complex is 1630 MWh/year where heat recovery satisfies about 93% of the demand, while the rest 7% are supplied by extracting heat from the ground.
This project is at the early stage therefore it was crucial to define the most optimum solutions to minimize the energy usage. Talsi municipality has high ambitions, among them - to set a new bar for energy efficiency in this type of facility in the whole Baltic region. By implementing this it would increase Talsi visibility and due to minimized energy expenditures, it will be possible to increase the profitability of the facility in the long term.