Policy

A satisfying record: The Indian city of Rajkot in Gujarat state, Western India, has seen the installation of more than 16,000 residential systems and over 700 commercial solar water heating systems since the Municipal Corporation implemented a solar building bye-law in March 2004.
Photo: Jaideep Malaviya

The Barcelona Solar Thermal Ordinance has been in place since 2000. Reviewed in 2006, this piece of local legislation was pioneer for a city in Europe.

This is a brochure from the ProSTO Project, an EU funded project aimed at supporting European local authorities in planning, developing, introducing and managing efficient solar thermal ordinances (STOs).

This report has been arranged by the TECH4DCM (2008-2009) project which is financed by FP6 (European Union Sixth Framework Programme). This EU Project focuses on promoting solar thermal energy and is being carried out in five countries: Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Mexico and Peru. The project’s primary goal is the promotion of renewable and efficient energy technologies, paying special attention to overcoming technological barriers.

This is the final report of the EU funded project East-GSR (2006-2008), created to support the development of the solar thermal market in 5 Eastern European countries (Bulgaria, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia). One of the main objectives of the project was to promote the performance guarantee approach for large solar thermal systems focusing on the example of the Guaranteed Solar Results (GSR) contract. The project was coordinated by the French Energy Agency ADEME.

This report was prepared in 2003 by Rob McMonagle for the Canadian Solar Industries Association.

The document describes the specific challenges that the solar industry in Canada faces and also argues against many common myths associated with solar energy. Several charts also show that Canada has more solar energy than many countries that are currently worldwide solar leaders. Several charts provide a cost/energy breakdown for various uses of solar thermal power and solar pool heating is explained in further detail.

Every fifth building permit for new single-family houses in Hawaii included a tankless gas water heater in the first half of 2010. This is a rather large share, if considered that Hawaii has “mandated” solar thermal water heaters since the beginning of 2010.
Photo: www.kleinezeitung.at

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).

This report was prepared in February 2009 by Public Citizen, Environment Texas and Vote Solar. The document looks at the various factors and technology needed to not only supply Texas’ energy needs but make Texas a world leader in solar energy.

Three solar technologies are discussed; photovoltaic (PV), concentrating solar power (CSP) and solar water heaters. The report goes into detail discussing the different variations and advantages each technology possesses. Various charts and photos show applications and cost benefit analysis.

This report prepared by the Polytechnic University in Catalunya gives the reader a complete overview of the Barcelona solar thermal ordinance, created in 2000, and the role of the Barcelona City Council in this regard.