UK
Solar Thermal e-Learning: Education without a Classroom
Electronic »e-Learning« programmes for solar heating are beginning to gain popularity with training centres in the UK. These are designed to assist training centres in teaching solar domestic hot water installation techniques to apprentices and engineers. Source: www.elearning-shop.co.uk
European Solar Days
The next European Solar Days will be celebrated from 1 to 16 May 2010 in 16 European countries: Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Slovenia , Spain, Switzerland, Denmark , Norway, Netherlands, UK, Belgium, Hungary, Poland and Sweden.
The two weeks event is coordinated by the European Solar Thermal Industry Federation (ESTIF) in close co-operation with the European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA) and supported by 24 organisations at a national and European level.
UK Carbon Trust Programme: Small Impact on Solar Thermal
Yvonne and Stephen Mould wanted to lower the energy bill of their Hyne Town House, a South Devon residential care home, and used an interest-free Energy Efficiency Loan from the Carbon Trust among others for a solar thermal installation.
Solar Thermal: “Potential Massively Underestimated”
The UK Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has recently published its Renewable Energy Strategy (RES) which includes solar thermal. This has provoked a strong response from the UK Solar Trade Association (STA) stating that DECC has “massively underestimated the potential of solar thermal technologies and completely missed a huge opportunity”.
Consumer Attitudes Towards Domestic Solar Power Systems (2006)
This case study (2006), uses householders in central England to investigate householder attitudes towards characteristics of solar systems and identifies some of the barriers to adoption.
The study states that despite the "current policy of stimulating the market with grants" it is "not resulting in widespread adoption".
The study utilises Diffusion of Innovations theory to identify attitudes towards system attributes, and isolates the characteristics that are preventing a pragmatic ‘early majority’ from adopting the technology.
Baxi Group: US$ 3 million for a New Collector Production in Turkey
A modern Turkish collector factory: Baymak purchased a laser-welding machine as part of the new collector production unit at Istanbul. Photo: Baymak
Simulation Based Design Methods and Economical Analysis for Solar Driven Absorption Cooling Systems (2006)
This paper produced by British and German researchers in 2006 sets out to correlate the collector area with cooling power and energy demand in absorption cooling systems.
The paper demonstrates that buildings with the same maximum cooling power, but very different load time series, require collector areas to vary by a factor 4 to achieve the same solar fraction.
Experimental and Theoretical Investigation of Unglazed Transpired Air Collectors in a Multicomponent Solar Thermal System (2006)
This research paper from 2006 explores the scientific calculations behind air assisted preheating for district heating nets in the former Soviet Union that uses Unglazed Transpired Air Collectors (UTCs) in open solar air systems, e.g. for space heating of production halls.
Solar Thermal Heating User Guide (2007)
Small-scale Solar Thermal Energy and Traditional Buildings (2008)
This 2008 guide from English Heritage (the UK Government's Adviser on the Historic Environment within England) looks into the small-scale generation of solar thermal energy. The emphasis of the document lies on the practicalities that need to be taken into account for the installation of the solar thermal collectors on a historic building. It lists the different aspects that have to be taken into consideration in the planning stage (i.e. orientation, shading, wildlife). The guide also sets out the different installation options.
