Sweden

• Europe: SDHplus Gathers Experts and Newcomers to Solar District Heating-

  Just after the Intelligent Energy Europe (IEE) project SDHtake-off will have ended in June 2012, there will be a follow-up project called SDHplus. Six new countries will join it: Spain, France, Lithuania, Croatia, Poland and Slovenia. Experienced partners from the former SDHtake-off project will help them promote solar district heating by launching awareness-raising campaigns and assessing the potential of their heat supply network. SDHplus comes with a budget of EUR 1.8 million from the IEE fund and will run over three years.

• More Research Needed for New Storage Materials-

  If solar energy is to be the primary or only source of heat for houses in the future, there will arise a need for storing it more efficiently. Materials have to be found that are able to hold more energy than water, but with less volume and higher loss. Task 32 of the International Energy Agency's (IEA) Solar & Cooling programme was working on this issue. The scientists presented their results at the Eurosun 2008 in Lisbon, at the beginning of October.

• Overview on Solar Thermal Plus Heat Pumps Systems and Review of Monitoring Results (2011)-

  The target of the present paper is to give an overview on commercially available Solar Thermal and Heat Pump Systems (SAHPS) and a review on available monitoring results of these integrated systems. It is the fruit of the research of German, Italian and Austrian specialists in the framework of IEA’s Solar Heating and Cooling Programme.

• Sweden: Increased Subsidy Budget-

  Solar roof in the Swedish city of Onsala: The increased subsidies in Sweden focus on larger collector fields – like the 220 m² plant from 2005.
  Photo: Jan-Olof Dalenbäck

• European Solar Days: Date Set for 2012 Campaign-

  The next edition of the European Solar Days – a campaign of national events aimed at promoting the use of solar energy – will be held from 1 to 13 May 2012. The initiative now includes more than 20 participants from 16 countries, who gathered on 7 and 8 November in Prague for the second European Solar Days Annual Conference. The meeting consisted of the internal project meeting with the partners and the Annual Conference, also attended by two guest countries. A total of 23 conference participants were responsible for evaluating the 2011 event and planning the 2012 campaign.
  Photo: ESTIF

• Europe: Solar Keymark Scheme Rules for concentrating solar collectors-

  During the meeting in Paris in October 2011, the Solar Keymark Network has accepted an extension of the Solar Keymark Scheme Rules. In the future, Solar Keymark will be available for both solar water heater stores and concentrating solar collectors. At the same meeting, the Solar Keymark Network has approved the new Annual Collector Energy Output Calculation Tool as a standard measuring tool for all Solar Keymark certified collectors. The energy output calculated with it can from now on be found on all Solar Keymark data sheets.
  Photo: Henry Rosik

• Success Factors in Solar District Heating (2010)-

  The 'SDHtake-off - Solar District Heating in Europe' project is a EU-funded project (under the European Commission Programme IEE Intelligent Energy Europe)supporting the market rollout of solar district heating in Europe. It started on July 2009 and runs for a period of three years. This document is one of its deliverables, describing the development of SDH capacities in Europe as a result of the existing policies and incentives.

• Italy: District Heating Sector shows great Interest in Solar Thermal-

  On 29 and 30 September, the project partners of the EU project SDHtake-off met for a workshop during the GeoThermExpo in Ferrara, Italy. “All the big players in district heating in Italy joined our meeting,” project coordinator Thomas Pauschinger from German research centre Solites says. He sees that as an indicator for the growing interest of the district heating industry in solar thermal applications. The Italian town Serrazzano (Photo) might soon have a solar district heating system.
  Photo: Geo Energy Service

• Combisol Project: „Solar combi systems are gaining market share“-

  In December 2010, the Solar Combisystems Promotion and Standardisation (CombiSol) project ended after running for three full years. The aim of the project was to expand the market development of Solar Combi Systems (SCS), which provide both space heating and domestic hot water, and to promote an improvement of the quality of systems installed. Project partners were the National Institute of Solar Energy – Education (INES Education), France, the Institute of Thermodynamics and Thermal Process Engineering (ITW) of the University of Stuttgart, Germany, French Environment and Energy Management Agency ADEME, PlanEnergi, Denmark, the Committee Renewable Energy at the Institute for Sustainable Technologies (AEE), Austria, and Dalarna University, Sweden.

• Finland: In-line Coating Machine for complete Direct-Flow Absorbers-

  A full aluminium direct-flow absorber with a newly developed coating from Finland won one of the three Solar Thermal Intersolar Awards at the Intersolar 2011 in Munich, Germany. The photo shows the respective in-line coating machine by Finnish company Savo-Solar Oy. In cooperation with the Danish company Hydro Aluminium Precision Tubing, both companies were able to impress the jury with the new developed “Savo-Solar Al-MPE” absorber. The other two prizes went to Vetter Gesellschaft für Medizinische Datentechnik, Bio- und Umwelttechnik mbH, Germany, for developing a parabolic trough collector which opens up a diverse range of installation possibilities, and to Swedish company Absolicon Solar Concentrator for a PVT collector combining solar power generation with the use of solar heat.
  Photo: Savo-Solar Oy

• Sweden: Feeding Solar Heat into the Grid-

  In Sweden, it is not uncommon to feed solar heat into district heating networks. “After a bit of persuasion, most district heating companies will agree to buy the heat, but the prices they pay for it will differ a lot,” Gunnar Lennermo says. Lennermo works as a consultant for Energianalys and helps his customers with planning and constructing large solar installations.
  Source: Energianalys

• Sweden: Solar Electricity, Heating, and Cooling for a local Hospital -

  Electricity, heating and cooling from one and the same energy plant, all simultaneously: this is the special feature of the recently inaugurated solar installation at the Närvård Härnösand hospital.
  Photo: Cleantech Demonstration Arena
  

• The Market Potential of Micro-CHCP (2009)-

  This is a study assessing the market potential of small scale Combined Heating Cooling and Power (CHCP) in several European countries (Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland). The study is one of the final deliverables of the PolySMART Project (POLYgeneration with advanced small and medium scale thermally driven air-conditioning and refrigeration technology), an integrated project partly funded by the European Commission under 6th Framework Programme.

• 1,000 Solar Keymark Licenses for Collectors: among them 7 % from China -

  Solar Keymark is a very broadly accepted label on the European solar thermal market. More than 1,000 collector certificates have been issued since the introduction of the certification system in 2003.
  Source: www.solarkeymark.org

• Sweden: Growing Number of Feed-in Contracts with District Heating Providers -

  Net metering solar heat: Allbohus Fastighets AB, a municipal housing company, has built a roof-integrated solar collector field of 350 m² on a multi-family building in Vislanda, Sweden, which is connected to the district heating network via a pre-fabricated sub-station. When the solar heat is greater than the building’s heat load, the building owner will be paid for the solar heat going into the heating network. When the solar energy does not cover the building’s heating demand, the building owner pays for the complementary heat delivered by the heating network.
  Photo: Heat-On

• Sweden: First Buffer Tank receives P-Mark Certificate -

  The buffer tank Ecoscience by Swedish tank manufacturer Fueltech Sweden AB is the first tank to receive the P-Mark certification. After one year of testing and paper work, the P-labelling of the 520 litre tank with fresh-water station and external solar loading module was approved at the beginning of November 2010. P-Mark is a quality mark developed by SP, the Swedish National Testing and Research Institute. To receive the label, a product must fulfil requirements in four different categories: efficiency, safety, documentation and manufacturing quality.
  Photo: Fueltech Sweden

• WREC 2011, Linköping- The World Renewable Energy Congress 2011, will take place from 08 – 13 May 2011 in Linköping, Sweden. WREC 2011 will focus on future challenges and opportunities for renewable energy technology and sustainable energy systems, as well as climate change issues. Major topics and new trends will be introduced through several keynote lectures, presented by internationally recognized experts. Within the great variety of topics solar thermal will contribute only a small part.
• USA: ClimateWell wins Technology Contest of General Electrics-

  ClimateWell AB, located in Stockholm, is one of 12 companies which were chosen among 4,000 applicants in a ten-week contest organised by US-American General Electric Co (GE). ClimateWell won in the Efficient Appliances category and received a USD 100,000 concept stage grant. Since 2008, the Swedish company has run a production unit for absorption chillers in Spain, similar to the system shown in the picture.
  Photo: Kingspan

• Sweden: Media Campaign receives ISES Europe Award 2010-

  Clearly committed to solar energy: During the Eurosun 2010 conference in Austria, ISES Europe President Dorota Chwieduk presented the ISES Europe Award 2010 to Jan-Olof Dalenbäck for the media campaign of Svensk solenergi (Solar Energy Association of Sweden). The award includes EUR 1,000 of prize money and recognizes outstanding promotion activities in the field of solar thermal and PV between 1 January 2009 and 1 May 2010.
  Photo: Eurosun

• European Solar Days: Around 6,600 Events in 17 European Countries-

  Everything revolves around the sun: 17 European countries participate in the 3rd edition of the European Solar Days from 1 to 16 May 2010. Around 6,600 events are planned for this year’s campaign, involving several hundred thousand citizens at a local level.
  Photo: Fotostudio Pflueg

• A Common Framework for a Coordinated/Harmonised Policy on Renewable Heating (2010)-

  The present document was prepared in the framework of the RES-H Policy project (Policy development for improving RES-H/C penetration in European Member States). The RES-H Policy project, supported by the European Commission through the IEE programme, has the objective of supporting EU Member States (Austria, Greece, Lithuania, The Netherlands, Poland and UK) in the implementation of the so-called RES 2020 Directive (2009/28/EC).

• Seizing the Solar Solution: Combating Climate Change through Accelerated Deployment (2009)-

  This report was published on December 2009, parallel to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) summit taking place in Copenhagen, to bring authorities' attention to solar energy and the relevant contribution it can provide to reducing GHG emissions.

• Renewables for Heating and Cooling (2007)- This document, prepared by the International Energy Agency, comes as a follow-up of the 2006 seminar “Renewable heating and cooling – from RD&D to deployment technology and policy” aimed at exploring guidelines and policy initiatives to boost technology development and market deployment for renewable heating and cooling (REHC).
• The Sun Shines a Bit More in Härnösand (2010)- This is a document released by the Swedish company Absolicon about the solar thermal and PV project being carried out through a public-private partnership in the small town of Härnösand in Sweden. The hospital in Härnösand is now an example of energy efficiency and use of renewable energy sources for Sweden and Europe. 50 m2 of suntracking solar panels, generating power and heat simultaneously, were installed on the roof of the hospital.
• Solar Thermal Components Adapted to Common Building Standards – SCAS (2007)-

  This document is the final report of the project "Solar Thermal Components Adapted to Common Building Standards", involving different universities in Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Latvia (Technical University of Denmark, SERC, University of Oslo, Riga Technical University).

• REPAP2020: Roadmap Fixes 2020 Targets for the Solar Share in the Heating and Cooling Sector-

  Some countries in Europe have made plans for using solar energy to cover between 1 and 4% of their gross final demand of heating and cooling by 2020. The states with the most ambitious targets regarding their national sector are Portugal, Germany and France.
  Source: National RES Industry Roadmaps

• Barriers to Technology Diffusion: the Case of Solar Thermal Technologies (2006)-

  This joint paper from the OECD and IEA (October 2006) looks into the different barriers that exist which prevent solar thermal technologies to deliver its real potential. Next to listing the barriers, the document also looks into means to overcome these, the existing technologies & markets and identifies best practices which can be used by policy makers in both industrialised and developing countries.

  Three barriers to diffusion are analysed in more detail:

  (1) Technical barriers,

  (2) Economic barriers and

• Solar Thermal e-Learning: Education without a Classroom-

  Electronic »e-Learning« programmes for solar heating are beginning to gain popularity with training centres in the UK. These are designed to assist training centres in teaching solar domestic hot water installation techniques to apprentices and engineers. Source: www.elearning-shop.co.uk

• 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.

• European Solar Days Kick-off Today-

  The second European Solar Days are celebrated from 15 to 22 May with more than 500.000 citizens participating in 7.000 events in 15 European countries.

• Laser Welding Captures the Market-

  Laser welding machine: a popular joining technique between absorber sheet and pipe Photo: Sunlaser Consulting GmbH
  

• Solar Heating Systems for Houses (2003)-

  This book from 2003 presents the collaborative work of international experts from research, industry and academia in the IEA solar heating and cooling programme's Task 26, Solar Combisystems

  The book details methods for analysing and optimising combisystems for different house types and introduces standardised classification and evaluation processes and design tools for these systems. Furthermore the book addresses the need for guidelines in selecting and designing the appropriate system according to the specific needs of the building and the local environment.

• Solar Cooling: The Time is Ripe for Small-Scale Devices-

  Solar cooling system at Bachler Austria: 40 m² of flat-plate collectors drive an absorption chiller of the type Chillii PSC10 Photo: Solarnext

• Harnessing Solar for District Energy: Europe Leading the Way- This article offers an outline to the solar district heating market in Europe and in particular outlines the trend to diurnal storage and heat-driven cooling applications. A SWOT analysis of the industry points to technical and non-technical barriers for market development, but highlights that among others combined heating and cooling offer advantages to the sector. The greatest potential for market development is foreseen for Germany, France, UK, Poland, Netherlands and Belgium. Information on centralised solar heating plants is also included.
• European Solar Days- The next European Solar Days will be celebrated from 1 to 16 May 2010 in 16 European countries: Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Slovenia , Spain, Switzerland, Denmark , Norway, Netherlands, UK, Belgium, Hungary, Poland and Sweden. The two weeks event is coordinated by the European Solar Thermal Industry Federation (ESTIF) in close co-operation with the European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA) and supported by 24 organisations at a national and European level.
• EU Project: Introducing Solar District Heating to the Market-

  18 experts from twelve different institutions and associations met in Stuttgart, Germany, to launch the EU project SDHtake-off. This team is to develop and introduce a new approach and new instruments for a Europe-wide market introduction of solar district heating.
  Photo: Solites

• Commercial combined Solar and Pellet Heating Systems (2004)-

  Electrical heaters are often used as the auxiliary heat source for solar thermal heating systems, but the use of wood pellets in pellet stoves and pellet boilers is becoming more and more popular. In Sweden, which is the most developed European market for pellet heating systems for one-and two-family houses, an estimated 30000 pellet heating units had already been installed by the end of 2001.

• Front-runners of solar district heating- Feeding directly into the district heating system of the Austrian city of Graz: The collector fields are mounted on four different hall roofs belonging to the AEVG, a municipal waste disposal company. Photo: S.O.L.I.D. / Oberländer
  

• Is there enough sunshine in all regions?- Solar thermal systems produce hot water whether the system is installed in Sweden, Germany, India, Tunisia or South America. The annual yield depends on the application (domestic hot water, pool heating, space heating), the local climatic conditions and system dimensioning (high or low solar fraction).
• Thermal solar energy in detached houses - The Jämtland County Energy Agency and the Energy advisors have during 2003 implemented the project “Thermal solar Energy in detached houses”. The project, which was partly financed by the Swedish Energy Agency, aimed to increase the interest and competence according to thermal solar energy in detached houses. The project was mainly based on information and education activities. The evaluation shows that our quantitative objective for the project not have been reached. The installed solar panel area increased with only 245 m2, our objective was 600 m2. The evaluation