Convincing aquatic centres in Victoria to use solar energy for pool heating

There are approximately 1900 aquatic centres in Australia, according to the database of Aquatics and Recreation Victoria (ARV) and 500 of these are located in Victoria. These centres are also large users of energy and water. However, a survey of a sample of these centres reveals that few use solar energy for water heating. Of 22 centres participating in an energy audit conducted for a larger research project, only one was using solar water heating to heat its outside pools. None used solar heating for its indoor pools. Five centres used solar for non-pool heated water and four centres used a solar photovoltaic system. Outside pools only represent 25% of the total number of pools in the surveyed centres. This failure to use solar energy, which is ideally suited and proven to heat water to 30°C, represents a lost opportunity for the renewable energy industry. One aquatic centre that is successfully using a solar system to heat its two indoor pools is that run by the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra. Two solar systems, 520 m2 and 1040 m2, were designed and installed to give approximately 40 and 50% solar contributions for the 25 m and 50 m pools respectively. Data from these pools was used to validate the simulation program RETScreen, which was then used to predict solar contributions for a typical aquatic centre in different locations in Victoria. Solar fractions and payback periods were calculated for this hypothetical aquatic centre. Barriers to adopting solar systems in Victorian aquatic centres and the challenges to overcoming these are also discussed. It was found that RETScreen predictions of solar fraction and gas heater use were within 10% of previous modelling with a different more comprehensive program. These results verified the use of RETScreen for predicting the performance of a typically-sized aquatic centre in five different locations around Victoria.