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Credit Security Providers Share Long-term Risk through Energy Supply Contracts
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Dear Solarthermalworld.org Reader,
Selling
clients solar heat instead of solar systems avoids having to make the
big investments which slow down the market segment of large-scale solar
thermal systems. To be profitable, Energy Service Companies (ESCOs) or
contractors need to supply the energy over long contract periods between
10 and 20 years. For example, Austrian company S.O.L.I.D. has received a
EUR 4 million loan for a huge solar cooling system in Singapore, which
is being refinanced through an energy supply contract over 12 years (see
photo). Banks and investors, however, are only willing to share such a
long-term risk if a credit security provider covers the pitfalls of
underperforming systems or outstanding client payments. Case studies
from Austria and Brazil show how important these financial guarantee
schemes really are.
Best regards
The editorial team
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Poland: Renewable Energy Sources Law Either Late or Never
by Marcin Czekanski
The
draft of the RES law, which was published in December 2011, has never
reached the Polish parliament. The government has missed all deadlines
that it announced for sending the draft to the legislative for almost
two years. The government announced in June that it would wait
with the RES law until the existing Energy Law was amended. "This could
happen not earlier than mid-August, so the RES law could be sent to the
parliament in September - if at all," Grzegorz Wiśniewski, President of
Institute for Renewable Energy, explains. Some market experts, however,
have told Solarthermalworld.org that the government had already
given up on the RES law and was just waiting for the approval of the
European Commission to abandon it.
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Greece: Sales Stable, but Profits under Pressure
by Eva Augsten
Whereas
Central Europe’s solar thermal markets keep shrinking, Greek has been
very stable in recent years. In the meantime, Southern Europe’s hopeful,
however, has attracted domestic competitors from other sectors with a
low performance, such as PV wholesalers. Usually, they sell collectors
from big domestic OEM manufacturers at a low price. Recently, TV adverts
have even begun to promote solar thermal systems at low and fixed
costs. “We are talking about a completely new situation, which has made
end customers to think a solar water heater costs only that much,” says
Panayis Konstantinidis, Managing Director of collector manufacturer
Calpak Solar Energy (Cicero Hellas) and since January President of the
Greek Solar Industry Association, EBHE.
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Database of Building Codes: 24 Individual Regulations
by Bärbel Epp
Sometimes,
it takes a while until good ideas are copied. This has been the case
with solar/renewable building codes, which were invented in Israel more
than 30 years ago. It has just been over the last ten years, however,
that this political instrument reached all five continents. Frontrunner
in Europe was Spain, which approved the Technical Building Code, CTE, in
March 2006. Outside Europe, it was the Australian state of Victoria
which, in 2005, implemented the first building standard. In the
meantime, the database of solar obligations on solarthermalworld.org has
grown further and now includes 24 countries which use one of the
various types of solar or renewable building codes.
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Costa Rica: Small Market but Prestigious Large-Scale Projects
by Eva Augsten
Costa
Rica’s local solar thermal industry has been getting organised. The
Solar Energy Association of Costa Rica, Acesolar, was officially founded
last year. In early 2013, all formal issues were resolved and Acesolar
was able to start working. Currently, the association has around twenty
members. In February, a committee began developing a national standard
for solar thermal systems. Cheap vacuum tubes from China are currently
very popular. The photo shows one of the recent prestigious large-scale
solar projects, which was finished in April 2013. The installation at
the MultiSpa consists of 64 glazed flat plate collectors covering the
hot water demand and 320 m² of unglazed collectors to heat the
Olympic-size pool.
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Chile: So Far No Government Compromise on Extending Tax Credits
by Alejandro Diego Rosell
If
nothing is done about it, Chilean Law 20.365 – which includes tax
rebates for solar thermal systems - will end on 31 December 2013.
Despite the support scheme’s success, there has not been any news on
continuing the rebate policy. The main national solar associations,
ACESOL and ACERA, are lobbying to extend the tax credit scheme. Although
the new law is written and only needs final approval from President
Miguel Juan Sebastián Piñera, there has not yet been an official date
set to approve it. In a race against time, the associations are pouring
their efforts into securing a compromise between the Energy Ministry,
which supports the extension, and the Ministry of Finance and the
Presidential Office, whose support is still to be gained.
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