During the meeting in Paris in October 2011, the Solar Keymark Network has accepted an extension of the Solar Keymark Scheme Rules. In the future, Solar Keymark will be available for both solar water heater stores and concentrating solar collectors. At the same meeting, the Solar Keymark Network has approved the new Annual Collector Energy Output Calculation Tool as a standard measuring tool for all Solar Keymark certified collectors.

The crisis in the key European countries was present during the entire 5th European Solar Thermal Energy Conference (ESTEC) in Marseille on 20 and 21 October 2011. Around 300 participants and speakers 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 one of the round-table discussions.

Until 15 October 2011, a total of 11,386 applications have been submitted by banks within the framework of the residential subsidy programme of the Polish National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management (NFOŚiGW). The monthly application rate has increased tremendously - from 15 applications in the starting month of September 2010 to 1,658 in September 2011 almost one year later. The collector area installed through the programme adds up to 71,870 m2 since its start.

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.

In Hamburg in Northern Germany, two district heating providers encourage their customers to supply the companies' networks with heat generated from individually owned solar collectors or other renewable sources. E.On Hanse Wärme offers to store heat for a fee, whereas Hamburg Energie buys renewable heat for a fixed price per kWh.