AEE Intec

Since July, the world’s biggest solar thermal plant has gradually come into operation. It produces heat for a women’s university in Saudi Arabia, the Princess Nora Bint Abdul Rahman University inaugurated at the end of 2011. From July onwards, students and staff have been moving onto the campus and with heat demand increasing, the covers have been removed one by one from the six solar fields. The photo shows the collector field on a warehouse – the buildings in the background all belong to the university.
Photo: AEE Intec

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

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 is an example of a training document prepared by the AEE Intec, the Institute for Sustainable Technologies in Austria. The document is part of the project SOLTRAIN (Southern Africa Solar Thermal Training and Demonstration Activities).

Thirty seven solar water heating industry leaders and academics have just attended the third SOLTRAIN (Southern African Solar Thermal Training and Demonstration Initiative) solar thermal technical training course in Pretoria, South Africa. The training was formally opened by the regional coordinator of the programme, Professor Dieter Holm. In opening, Holm emphasized the value of the hands-on approach to the course under the guidance of a number of eminent experts in the field. The delegates represented a balanced mix from industry and academia.
Photo: Omnibus Engineering

The results have convinced the sceptics: The interest in large solar thermal systems between 100 and 2,000 m² of collector area has been enormous in Austria. 76 requests have been submitted in the framework of the incentive programme “Solar Thermal - Solar large-scale" started in June 2010. 41 applicants received consultancy by one of the participating Austrian research institutions and submitted the application documents before 15 October. The chart shows the respective application areas of the 41 proposed projects totalling 15,877 m2 of collector area.
Figure: AEE Intec

This fact sheet was created by AEE INTEC, the Institute for Sustainable Technologies in Austria. It provides information on the various ways solar thermal systems can be set up for water heating purposes in a variety of settings.

The marketing campaign for solar hot water systems in the residential sector in Mexico, Procalsol (2007 to 2012), bore fruit: According to the annual market statistics of the National Association of Solar Energy (ANES), the newly installed collector area in households almost tripled from 53,183 m² in 2008 to 132,934 m² last year.

In 2008, the global solar thermal market grew by a significant 35%. The main reasons behind such a strong upward trend were the high growth rates of glazed water collectors in China (+35 %), Europe (+63 %) and North America (+42 %). Graphic: AEE Intec

Three partners, one project: Representatives from all three participating companies - Millennium Energy Industries, Jordan, and Greenonetec and AEE Intec, both based in Austria - met for their kick-off meeting at the collector factory of Greenonetec.
Photo: Greenonetec