The subject of this work is the integration and operability of a large-scale solar thermal field with condensing wood chip boilers for district heating application in rural areas. Based on a case study in Switzerland, a largescale solar field is designed to be coupled with the existing heating plant composed of two wood boilers with external flue gas condensers. The operability of the new central heating plant is then assessed with numerical simulations carried out with TRNSYS. In a first step, two scenarios with two different solar fractions are simulated to analyze the performances of the solar system and the influence of the integration of the solar thermal field on the operation of the wood boilers. The main results are: 1) The specific productivity is between 450 and 500 kWh.m-2.y-1 for the considered operating temperatures and solar fractions. 2) The startup cycles are important if the heating needs in summer are not totally covered by the solar system. 3) After optimization of the controls, the startup cycles of the boilers in mid-season are very low.