At the beginning of August, the Italian Decree No. 63 of 2013 was turned into Law No. 90 of 2013. This new law implements Directive 2010/31/EU on the energy performance of buildings.The law modifies the tax deductions for energy efficiency measures in buildings, increasing the deductible share to 65% of the investment costs over 10 years. The incentive will be extended until 31 December 2013 for all types of measures, except for blocks of flats: In this case, the extension runs until 30 June 2014. 

Indian company ACME Jelly Products has been successfully showcasing the use of solar thermal dehydration systems of agro-products since October 2011. The company, which is located near Ahmedabad in Gujarat state in western India, is one of the rare Indian examples of vacuum tube collector projects that use metal heat pipes filled with glycol-supplying, water-based fan coil units. After two years in operation, the owner of ACME, Jaykishan Parmar, has confirmed that the system paid off within the first year because dried vegetables are sold at a much higher price than fresh ones.

Two years after the approval of the first local ordinance making it obligatory to install solar thermal systems in Rosario, Argentina, the regulation entered into force in September. Since then, all public buildings in the city have had to cover at least 50 % of their hot water consumption through solar energy. Ordinance 8784 could set an example for other cities in Argentina. Red de Ciudades Solares (Solar City Network) is lobbying to adopt the measure in several other municipalities and has even proposed a nationwide regulation.

The new Ruukki Classic Solar Thermal Roof from Finland was shown twice this summer: First at the Intersolar Europe in Munich, Germany, at the booth of Finnish company Savo-Solar in June and then at the Finnish Housing Fair in Hyvinkää, Finland, in August. Three rather different companies have been involved in manufacturing, selling and distributing this roof-integrated solar solution. Finnish company Savo-Solar, which specialises in the production of solar collectors based on aluminium absorber sheets, manufactures the collector modules, which are then integrated into steel roof solutions of the Finnish Rautaruukki Corporation (Ruukki). The last step in the sales chain is Pohjolan Design-Talo, a Finnish supply company of prefabricated houses.

In July 2013 the UK’s Department of Energy & Climate Change (DECC) confirmed the tariff rates for the long-awaited Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI). The Government’s press release of 12 July 2013 promises that the solar thermal tariff will be set at ‘at least 19.2 Pound Stirling pence (p)/kWh’. This compares with 7.3 p/kWh for air source heat pumps, 12.2 p/kWh for biomass boilers and 18.8 p/kWh for ground source heat pumps.