The idea of the project arose as the director of the Bosnian company Narodno Grijanje, distributor and manufacturer of heating systems, read an article about the Hotel Maršal located in Bjelašnica near Sarajevo and decided it was an ideal place to operate on renewable energy. The director held discussions with the hotel management and explained to them the idea of turning their hotel into an “ecological model”, which they readily accepted.
The installed system uses solar thermal panels and biomass boilers for generating heat for both the drinking water and the central heating. Besides becoming an example to follow, the aim of the hotel was to reduce CO₂ emissions through decreasing the use of fossil fuels and concurrently the amount of money spent on heating.
The system has been in use since February 2004; the project covers a local area.

TECHNOLOGY

The installed 60 units of solar thermal collectors and the 2 biomass-boilers (each 500 kW) are manufactured by the company Narodno Grijanje. The system also uses 2 accumulation boilers
of 18 000 litres total. The hotel requires a water temperature of 40°C, but the system typically
provides even higher temperatures, around 70°C.
The amount of heat generated at the hotel through this system amounts to 700 kW/h. The lifetime of the installed system is 20-30 years.
The sources of the raw material are forests and sawmills near Sarajevo.

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ENVIROMENTAL EFFECTS

The replacement of oil fuel used by Hotel Maršal amounts to 100 t/year, which is significant since the hotel no longer depends at all on oil for heating. However, the bio-solar system was also installed at a similar time as a new natural gas one. The amount of oil saved results in estimated savings in CO₂ emissions of almost 320 000 kg per year as well as in positive effects on air and water quality in the environment surrounding the hotel.

Another advantage of the project is that through collecting the wood waste from nearby forests for the biomass boilers, a cleaning of these forest is achieved, which otherwise has not yet been regulated by law in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

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SOCIAL EFFECTS

The local population was informed of this project via multiple sources of printed promotional material, the media (television and radio) and various public presentations. Visits are possible. Since the installation, the hotel has welcomed numerous people who have come to see the system itself.
The same staff (4 people) who worked on the oil-fired heating system before continues to maintain the solar-biomass system now and they have been appropriately trained. The positive influence of the project is evident in an increased environmental awareness among employees, the local population and visitors.

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ECONOMIC ASPECTS

The project was self-funded, though the hotel obtained a bank loan in order to install its new heating system.

Based on the annual savings achieved since the beginning of its operation, the calculated pay-back time of the bio-solar system is 3 years.

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DIFFICULTIES, PROBLEMS

Difficulties appeared from the constructor’s point of view.
The director of Narodno Grijanje had to arrange the bank loan himself for the hotel.
Some technical problems were caused by the fact that the hotel had an outdated heating system with some parts non-functional that had to be repaired, in addition to considerable overhaul of the plumbing system, required to switch it from an oil-based system to the biomass-solar one now installed. Additional problems were involved but basically solved, due to merging two new systems (natural gas and solar-biomass) to function together.
Despite the hotel being more or less surrounded by forests, obtaining the wood for the biomass heaters also proved difficult at the beginning. Most lumber companies operate for the winter heating season only and therefore work little during the summer. This fact, combined with the fact that the lumber industry in Bosnia and Herzegovina is not at all regulated or well-organized, meant that Narodno Grijanje eventually had to arrange wood delivery on its own to the hotel, of course being paid for such maintenance.

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FOLLOW UP

Hotel Maršal is satisfied with the installed system, but has expressed interest in investing in a larger system, in particular the installation of even more solar panels. However, funding is still lacking for those investments.
“Narodno Grijanje” plans to expand the business of installing such bio-solar systems to the whole Balkan area (and is already working on similar projects in most of the nearby countries) and help raise environmental awareness among the populations where it works.

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FURTHER INFORMATION

Narodno Grijanje
Tukovi 64
Osijek
71000 Sarajevo
Bosnia and Herzegovina

Besim Grozdanić - director

Tel: +387 33 763 900
Fax: +387 33 763 900
E-mail: info@narodnogrijanje.com
Web: www.narodnogrijanje.com

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