On 15 March, the excavators began their work for Denmark’s largest solar district heating project so far. The collector field in the town of Dronninglund, about 30 km northeast of Aalborg, will have an area of 35,000 m², but installing the collectors will only be the last step. First, there is the seasonal pit heat storage - a hole in the ground filled with 60,000 m³ of water. In combination with the seasonal heat storage, the solar plant is said to achieve a yield of 15,000 MWh per year and to provide 40 % of the heat for the local district heating network with its 1,350 customers. 

What have the Albena resort on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast (see photo), the Bräuer restaurant in Weißkirchen, Austria, and the 2 Danby Cottages in the UK’s Forest of Dean in common? They are all part of the RELACS network, which boasts around 200 participants in ten European countries, including hotels, bed and breakfasts, campsites and youth hostels. RELACS is short for “REnewabLe energy for tourist ACcommodation buildingS”, a project to help tourist accommodations become more energy-efficient and increase the share of renewable energy technologies in the sector. 

On 24 January, the Conference of Italian Regions adopted the guideline ”Training standard for the installation and maintenance of renewable energy systems – in accordance with Legislative Decree 28/2011”. Two Italian associations, the CNA (National Confederation of the Craft Sector and Small and Medium Enterprises) and the associations Confartigianato have sounded the alarm: if the regions do not implement installer training courses quickly, “many of the 57,000 renewable installers in the country will be out of work” after 1 August 2013.

In an interview, Dr Anton Schwarzlmüller, project partner of the Southern African Solar Thermal Training and Demonstration Initiative (SOLTRAIN) in Zimbabwe, offers his take on the country’s solar thermal market: “sales of flat plate collectors have been decreasing, whereas the number of evacuated tube systems has been growing steadily over the last two years. Many orders come from diplomatic staff to beat power failures and also to show that they care about the environment. The demand for solar thermal technology is not likely to change within the next five years, as the spending power of the private and government sector tends to remain minimal.” The photo shows the presentation of a solar water heater at the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair in Bulawayo this April.

The Community and Renewable Energy Scheme (CARES) in Scottland underwent a change in March 2011 with the result that no application was submitted ever since. Although this technology had been reasonably popular in the first phase of the CARES scheme with solar thermal systems completed up to 2011 such as in schools and community centres. “People interested in solar tend to go for PV with the feed-in tariff instead,” argues  Eric Dodd, Head of Operations for Community Energy Scotland.