The focus was on Thermosiphon Solar Water Heaters for small-scale residential systems in Namibia.
“The residential sector has seen a broad roll-out of programmes on small-scale solar water heating systems, which makes it very critical for the country to have more qualified developers and installers of these systems,” said Helvi Ileka, Centre Head for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency and Acting Director at NEI.
The trainers were introduced to different types of thermosiphon solar water heaters with a focus on both theory and practice. Participants learned about designing, installation, quality controls, commissioning, quality checks, maintenance, monitoring of thermosiphon systems.
The participants had the chance to conduct practical work by designing systems using the gained knowledge and T*SOL software, which is a dynamic simulation programme in the field. After the simulation, the designer receives a comprehensive and appealing project report with all system data as well as detailed simulation and profitability results.
The training was held in October under the framework of the Southern African Solar Thermal Training and Demonstration Initiative (SOLTRAIN) Project Phase 4. It was conducted by Rudolf Moschik and Monika Spörk Dür, two experts from AEE-Institute for Sustainable Technologies (AEE-INTEC) together with local implementers of the project at NEI.
More than 10 participants from Vocational Training Centres, as well as well as NUST and University of Namibia students attended the training.
The participants were also given the opportunity to prepare and present feasibility studies on various case studies such as single family households, hotels, army bases, schools and hospitals.