International Energy Agency

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.

This technical report is a deliverable of Task 38, Subtask C within the framework of the International Energy Agency’s Solar Heating and Cooling Programme. It describes both existing and developing simulation tools and models used for solar cooling applications.

This report was prepared within the framework of the Solar Heating and Cooling Programme (SHC) of the International Energy Agency (IEA) as an update of the one issued in 2009. The report documents the solar thermal capacity installed in the important markets worldwide and its contribution in terms of supply of energy and CO2 emissions reduction. Documented collectors comprise unglazed collectors, glazed flat-plate and evacuated tube collectors with water as the energy carrier, as well as glazed and unglazed air collectors.

This study is a deliverable of the IEA Solar Heating & Cooling Programme. Based on the previous studies and results from international R&D cooperation, the declared goal is to present the opportunities linked to solar thermal technologies given their positioning as the fourth largest renewable source of energy.

The Solar Heating and Cooling Programme of the International Energy Agency (IEA SHC) is planning to start its own annual conference in 2012. The conference name SHC has been chosen in reference to the long-established research programme IEA SHC. The full name is International Conference on Solar Heating and Cooling for Buildings and Industry. The 1^st SHC will take place in San Francisco from 9 to 11 July 2012 – in cooperation with the Intersolar North America (10 to 12 July 2012).

This position paper is a deliverable of the Task 38 “Solar Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration” of the IEA Solar Heating & Cooling Programme. It describes the application of active solar heating and cooling technologies within the heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) system of buildings in the context of increasing energy efficiency requirements.

The crisis in the European key countries was present during the entire 5th European Solar Thermal Energy Conference (ESTEC) in Marseilles on 20 and 21 October 2011. Around 300 speakers and participants tried to deliver new ideas and concepts to get the industry back on track. At the second conference day, "plug and flow", "solar active houses", "fixed prices for end consumers" and "solar incentive tariffs" were among the key issues of a round-table discussion, which was moderated by Uwe Trenkner, a consultant based in Brussels (third from left).
Photo: ESTIF/ Joël Assuied

Solar heat is penetrating Denmark’s district heating networks at an unprecedented rate: Around 90,000m² of collector area (63 MW_th) are going to be connected to the country’s networks in 2011. The map shows the existing and planned solar district heating systems in Denmark, including the installed or planned collector area. The Danish consulting and engineering company PlanEnergi was responsible of drafting the map in the framework of Task 45 “Large Solar Heating/Cooling Systems, Seasonal Storage, Heat Pumps”. The task was started in January 2011 by the International Energy Agency’s Solar Heating and Cooling Programme (IEA SHC), which will run until December 2013.
Source: PlanEnergi

At their meeting in June, the Executive Committee (ExCo) of the International Energy Agency (IEA) gave green light to a new task for solar process heat. The IEA-SHC (Solar Heating and Cooling) Task 49 – “Solar Process Heat for Production and Advanced Applications“ - will start in January 2012 and run for four years. The now rough outline of the task will be further specified in a second “Task Definition Meeting“ at the Solar World Congress in Kassel, Germany, on 2 September 2011. Task participants will then take the suggestions made by the ExCo to spell out the activities for solar process heat in more detail.

This document was created by the International Energy Agency (IEA) in 2010. It explains the background and basics of concentrating solar thermal power (CSP), and has an introduction explaining the current market status and trends.

It discusses the economics of CSP, including generation costs, investment costs and displays it by how much it costs per Watt to create state-of-the-art trough plants. It gives an outlook for growth, as well as barriers.