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A great deal of sunlight, large investment grants and subsidised energy prices: These are the factors determining the profitability of big solar thermal systems in Tunisia, according to the authors of the study Opportunities for solar thermal systems in the tertiary and industrial sectors in Tunisia, a publication by the German Agency for International Cooperation, GIZ, (see attached document in English, the French version is under consultation). Under certain circumstances, a solar thermal system can achieve a double-digit Internal Rate of Return (IRR), for example, if it is installed at LPG-dependent hotels or hospitals on the Tunisian island of Djerba. When solar replaces natural gas in commercial buildings in Tunisia’s capital, Tunis, the IRR is still significantly higher than the estimated 4.3 % inflation per year. However, there are difficulties with the economic feasibility of solar process heat applications because not even top reference cases have fulfilled investor expectations. The authors emphasise that the importance Tunisian businesses currently place on payback periods for investing may lead them to overlook valuable projects.
Armenia, a small country in South Caucasus, is home to an innovative financing scheme for solar thermal systems and other energy efficiency measures. In 2014, Armenian ACBA Leasing launched the Green Leasing programme for small and medium enterprises from any industry. According to an article published on 24 March 2016 on Armenian news website news.am, Green Leasing had already helped fund several solar thermal systems for different customers, such as seven hotels, four catering businesses and more than 20 service companies. One of the most well-known customers was the Tufenkian Hotel in Yerevan, Armenia’s capital: The roof installation of 1,140 vacuum tubes was done in December last year (see photo). 
Eighteen solar heat projects have profited from the national incentive scheme, Solcasa, in Spain since May 2010. The programme has been offering low-interest loans to Energy Service Companies (ESCOs), which install, operate and maintain solar thermal installations to sell their solar gains to customers, such as hotels or multi-family building owners. To date, the administrator of Solcasa, the Institute for Energy Diversification and Saving, IDAE, has granted loans of EUR 2.09 million to 18 projects totalling 2.32 MWth. The photo shows the roof installation owned and operated by Spanish company Sumersol at the nursing home in Villafranca de los Caballeros, a town in eastern Spain. 
The regional government of the Canary Islands has published a guide on increasing the use of solar thermal in the local hotel sector. The government presented and distributed the study TRNSHOTEL, an analysis and proposals to optimise the solar thermal energy consumption in the Canary Islands hotel sector, during public seminars on 26 and 27 November 2014. The study can be a useful means of developing solar water heating technology in a region boasting a huge tourism sector but great untapped solar potential. The figure shows the 146-room hotel which was used as a reference throughout the study and was simulated in TRYNSYS by the Instituto Tecnológico de Canarias (ITC) to analyse building orientation and list the different solar energy yields and cooling loads (see the attached TRNSHOTEL PDF). 
Since April 2013, Jordan has had a solar bylaw in place. The rules of the 
A new law has just provided the framework to offer renewable tax incentives in Colombia. The law will now be followed by a decree, which is expected to be finalised within less than a year and will specify the objectives and support measures for different renewable energy technologies. Still, some companies are currently seeing the market grow even without any incentives in place, especially in the hotel and healthcare sector. The photo shows a field of 150 collectors on the roof of the Hotel Plaza in Bogotá. The system covers more than 40 % of the hotel’s hot water demand.
Despite the total lack of public incentives, the Guatemalan solar thermal market is growing at a steady rate. High electricity prices combined with a welcoming climate and market environment are turning solar thermal into an increasingly attractive technology. One of the country’s main solar thermal installers, Enersol, has been around for almost 30 years and installs both unglazed collector fields for swimming pools (left) and hot water systems for hotels and residential users (right).
