KfW

• Germany: Backlash against Solar Heating and Cooling Sector-

  Prospects for the German solar thermal industry remain gloomy. For the second time in a row, the market has shrunk significantly. The installed collector area in 2009 (1,615,000 m²) was already 23 % less than the record figure in 2008 (2,100,000 m²). In 2010, however, installation figures have again been down from last year's figures by around 20 %. “The drop in installations is hurting the industry badly, because most German collector and tank manufacturers have just invested in new production facilities, which are now running below capacity,” Helmut Jäger, Second Chairman of solar industry association BSW Solar and Managing Director of Solvis, a manufacturer and supplier of renewable heating systems, says.

• Germany: Blocked Funds Cause Stop of Rebate Programme -

  The after effects of the financial crisis are again threatening the German solar sector: Not only had the industry to cope with a 25% decrease in sales in 2009, but now the National Rebate Programme for Renewable Energies (MAP) seems to already run out of money – although the new year is not even half over.
  

• Denmark: Delivering Solar Heat at a fixed price-

  The newly founded Danish company of Nordic Clean Energy (NCE) offers operators of district and local community heating grids all over Europe a feed-in of solar heat from large collector plants at fixed prices.