UK

The UK Department of Energy and Climate Change commissioned this report to the consultancy AEA Technology.

The report analyses the technical costs of four heating technologies: air source heat pumps (ASHP); ground source heat pumps (GSHP); solar thermal and biomass.

The objective is to better understand these technologies in order to prepare the review process of the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) scheme. The Renewable Heat Incentive went live in 2010 and it should be reviewed every four years.

The UK solar thermal industry has had several months notice that the new Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) was arriving. On the 28^th November 2011 this was finally announced (see www.solarthermalworld.org/node/3191) and the industry has now had time to give its reactions, especially since the PV tariffs have almost been halved since 12 December 2011. So now solar thermal has two benefits; lower PV tariffs and a feed-in tariff for solar thermal kilowatt hours of Pound Sterling (GBP) 0.085 (EUR 0.09) for 20 years.

After considerable delays and uncertainty, the UK’s Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has been finally launched the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) scheme on 28^th November 2011. Solar heating is one of the included technologies. The first phase of the tariff support is targeted at the non-domestic sector. This includes businesses, public sector, charities, not-for-profit organisations or industry which contributes 38% of the UK’s carbon emissions. Installations that were previously completed after 15 July 2009 will be eligible.

2010 was a good year for the solar thermal industry in Canada. The total newly installed collector area (brown line) grew by 54 %, from 129,418 to 199,491 m². Air collector sales (red line) doubled and - for the first - overtook the solar swimming pool market (blue line), which is more or less stagnating. With 150 %, the segment of glazed solar water collectors (pink line) experienced the highest growth, although the 20,000 m² sold in 2010 make it still a low-level market.
Source: NRCan

The Trainenergy project ran from September 2009 to September 2011, with the objective to produce a training programme about the EU Energy Performance of Building and the Energy End-Use Efficiency and Energy Services Directives for tradesmen in the construction industry. The project was run in Ireland, UK, France, Germany, Spain and Denmark. This module presents the best renewable sources that offer heating at virtually zero carbon emissions, solar water heating being the first technology to be assessed.

Becoming a publicly traded company by September: the first step of Sunex' strategy to enter new markets and invest in a factory outside the country. The solar collector manufacturer will be listed on New Connect, the Warsaw stock market for small enterprises. In August, Sunex already sold 0.76 % of its stocks to investors through private offers, gaining about PLN 0.55 million (EUR 0.13 million). “We have decided to enter New Connect to let the market give us a valuation of our company before we get listed on the main trading floor of the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE),” the company’s President, Romuald Kalyciok (see photo), explains. Further share sales are planned for 2012.
Photo: Puls Biznesu

SolarCity New Zealand Limited has been building, retailing and installing solar hot water systems for 30 years. To receive the carboNZero certification, the company has measured its greenhouse gas emissions pursuant to ISO 14064-1:2006 and has pledged to reduce them further. The carboNZero programme was established in 2001 by Landcare Research New Zealand Limited, a research institute owned by the New Zealand government. Since a merger with collector manufacturer and system supplier Solar Technology Systems Ltd in 2010, SolarCity has become New Zealand’s largest solar company and has, meanwhile, begun to offer off-grid and grid-connected PV systems as well.
Photo: SolarCity

This is an example of a brochure about the Accredited Dimplex Renewables Installer and Training Scheme.

This programme offers specialised domestic heat pump installer training courses. The course receives accreditation from the Logic Certification and it is addressed to plumbing, heating, HVAC and M&E engineers wishing to expand into the air/ground source heat pump sector.

The brochure also includes an explanation about heat pumps and solar water heating and the benefits of using renewables.

Author: Dimplex

On 10^th March 2011 the UK’s Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) published details of their Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) scheme. This will launch on 29^th July 2011 (see press release). The RHI aims to help the UK achieve a target of 12% of total heat consumption coming from renewable energy sources by 2020. It is predicted over the next decade that this initiative will reduce carbon emissions by 44 million tonnes, although this depends on which fuels are displaced.

The Solar Industry Summit - UK brings the players from across the solar industry together with representatives from politics, the financial world, the press and industry suppliers. This leading industry conference will take place in London from 12 to 13 May and offers talks on all current issues facing the sector today. It focuses particularly on the political environment, market developments, technology, financing and marketing.