Finance and Incentives

This paper was prepared by the research center, LEPII, and the World Energy Council in 2007.

The report breaks down the total installation capacity, worldwide and identifies the largest installing countries in the world by per capita, cost and total systems.

It includes case studies on individual countries including Austria, China and Mexico. The case studies define the market, barriers, incentive measures and main issues. Te main issues talk about market growth and what’s stunting it or what is needed to grow it further.

This report was written in cooperation with the Environment California Research & Policy Center and the Frontier Group in 2007.

The report starts with a summary of exactly what solar thermal systems do, how they can have a positive effect on natural gas consumption and stating that the renewed interest in solar hot water can be traced back to the energy crisis of the 1970s.

Collective systems are on the rise in France: This photo shows the youth hostel of the Association Logis des Jeunes de Provence in the city of Cannes in the South of France. Photo: Enerplan

This report was from the Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC) Annual Meeting in October, 2009. The report is broken down to cover state incentives & policy trends, solar installation trends, net metering & interconnection updates & trends, and workforce development and training.

A sunny island that is not only a good place for tourists, but for solar water applications as well: The French Island of Mauritius experiences a great demand in support schemes for solar water heaters, albeit the administration of the programmes is showing some administrative difficulties.
Source: www.mauritius-erleben.de

From the 1^st of April 2010 on, Mauritius is going to have a new grant scheme for solar water heaters (SWH) of Mauritian Rupees (MUR) 5,000 (EUR 120). These grants will only be provided for products which meet the standards the Mauritius Standards Bureau (MSB) will define for the programme. Although the initial target had been 25,000 applications for the programme, in the end, the previous solar water heater scheme attracted over 49,000.

Minas Gerais is the leading state for solar thermal technology in Brazil: The state housing company COHAB plays a major role and started solar housing projects already in the late nineties. The photo shows a housing area in the city of Betim. Photo: COHAB

The case study on the Northern Indian State of Haryana shows that great efforts will be needed to reach any significant increase in solar thermal market growth.
Source: HAREDA

37 commercially installed solar thermal systems of between 50 and 500 m² received subsidies in Thailand over the last two years. Nevertheless, the sector shows a lack of professional service to operate these solar systems at an optimum efficiency.
Photo: STA