Solar Power Heated Pool (photocase, Gerold Uder)

Outdoor swimming pools are big energy consumers. Pool owners and/or operators in EU - mostly municipalities - spend millions of Euros annually to heat their pools, mostly by using fossil fuels. The use of solar energy for heating swimming pools is a cost-efficient alternative to fossil fuels.

The solpool project intends to demonstrate owners, operators (campaign 1) and also installers (campaign 2) the economical and ecological advantages of the proposed systems and the positive image effect associated to their use. The partners are all independent in terms of economic interests in the use of solar energy for the heating of outdoor pools. The project is supported by the European Union in order to push solar thermal energy and take environmental objectives seriously.

The industry´s network will be improved by bringing stakeholders together in a neutral information platform. The stakeholder database will provide contact information details of relevant industrial players. In addition, a decision support tool named “Impact Advisor” will help owners and operators of swimming pools to have a general idea in terms of cost-benefit of solar thermal systems according to their own specifications. Both the stakeholder database and the Impact Advisor will be made available to the public in the project website. The experiences with the project in European countries will be summed up in guidelines. By this means, other countries can benefit from the existing network and know-how transfer.

"The SOLPOOL project receives funding from the European Commission within the ALTENER programme. The sole responsibility for the content of this document lies with the authors. It does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the European Communities. The European Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.„