Newsletter - Solarthermalworld.org Newsletter June 2015

In this issue

Spain: 20 % Direct Energy Efficiency Subsidy – up to EUR 200 Million

Solar Days 2015: Individual Schedules in Eight Countries

IEA SHC Task 52: Seeking Cost-optimised Urban Energy Systems

Italy: First Solar District Heating System, 990 m² big

Brazil: INMETRO Changes Certification to Counter Industry Complaints

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Renewable heating & cooling: First target ever in the 🇪🇺🇪🇺 https://t.co/dwgw1V22Ip #SolarHeat #biomass #HeatPump https://t.co/C4ugrjpMjg

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One more step forward for the large #SolarDistrictHeating project in 🇦🇹🇦🇹🇦🇹 https://t.co/4DV2ZkERQ1 #SolarHeat… https://t.co/WMWqWhLqWc

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Webinar: New Business Models for Commercial Solar Thermal

Dear Solarthermalworld.org Reader,

Industrial renewable energy deployment is lagging behind renewable installations in the construction sector. To close the knowledge gap, the IRENA Innovation and Technology Center in Bonn, Germany, has published a technology roadmap focusing on the potential of renewable heat at manufacturing businesses worldwide. Solar heat has the biggest potential in new industry plants, according to the authors. They see a large “realisable economic potential in small scale plants and less energy-intensive industries like the textile and food sectors, but the vicious circle of high initial capital costs and low deployment rates needs to be broken” – for example, by employing new business models such as third-party financing and energy service contracts. To discuss the challenges of addressing commercial clients, solarthermalworld.org is organising a webinar in cooperation with the International Solar Energy Society on 23 June 2015 at 3 to 4:30 pm Central European Standard Time. The photo shows a 396 m² Fresnel collector field in Jordan, which supplies pharmaceutical producer Ram Pharma with steam at 160 °C.

Have a good read and sunny regards

The editorial team

Ram Pharma, Jordan
Solar Process Heat Potential 2030
Webinar: New Business Models

Spain: 20 % Direct Energy Efficiency Subsidy – up to EUR 200 Million
by Alejandro Diego Rosell

Spanish authorities have launched a new subsidy scheme for energy efficiency measures with a budget of EUR 200 million. The scheme supports solar thermal as one of several technologies, giving it direct monetary support of 20 % of the system costs. On 5 May, the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism approved the so-called PAREER-CRECE programme (Programa de Ayudas para la Rehabilitación Energética de Edificios existents) which accepts applications until 31 December 2016. In addition to the 20 % subsidy, investors can apply for a soft loan at Euribor rate without additional charges.

Solar Days 2015: Individual Schedules in Eight Countries
by Vanessa Kriele

The European Solar Days (ESD) seem to have lost some momentum. Since the European Union stopped co-financing the ESD, it seems that several national partners among the so far more than 20 participating countries have found it harder to get monetary support for their work and all of the activities required for coordinating the Solar Days campaign at national level. Still, the European Solar Thermal Industry Federation (ESTIF) has been able to agree with Austria, Switzerland, Norway, Poland and Serbia on a common time frame. Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands have chosen another schedule. Denmark, Slovenia and Spain, however, will not offer any solar days this year.

IEA SHC Task 52: Seeking Cost-optimised Urban Energy Systems
by Eva Augsten

How can solar energy be ideally integrated into an urban energy system? This has been the key question of IEA SHC Task 52: Solar Heat and Energy Economics in Urban Environments. One and a half years after the task´s start in January 2014, scientists from Germany, Denmark, Austria and Switzerland met for the third task meeting in mid-April to discuss cost assessments of existing plants and models for analysing complex urban energy systems. One of the first published outcomes is a study carried out by Austrian research institute AEE INTEC. It lists the costs of existing solar district heating plants in Denmark, Germany and Austria. The analysis shows levelised heat costs calculated for 29 collector fields of sizes between 500 and 55,000 m² integrated into district or micro grids.

Italy: First Solar District Heating System with 990 m²
by Riccardo Battisti

Finally, solar district heating has reached Italy too: Utility Varese Risorse, which is part of the environmental multi-utility group A2A, brought its solar thermal plant into operation on 19 May. The idea for this project was born in 2013 when the utility began to show interest in using solar to lower the natural gas consumption of its district heating grid in summer. Staff members of Varese Risorse took part in the training course of the EU project SDHplus and benefitted from initial feasibility calculations for the solar plant. The collector field of 990 m² has been set up across eight collector rows, seven of which were mounted onto the ground, and one onto the roof of a small technical building, which also houses the heat exchanger and the control unit (see photo).

Brazil: INMETRO Changes Certification to Counter Industry Complaints
by Vanessa Kriele

There has been a change in the Brazilian Labelling Programme, PBE: The National Institute of Metrology, Standardization and Industrial Quality, INMETRO, has simplified solar thermal certification in its new decree published on 19 March 2015 and will become mandatory in September 2015. The decree is INMETRO’s response to the criticism expressed by stakeholders from the Brazilian solar thermal industry during last year’s public consultation process.

NEWS TICKER

Spain: EUR 2 Million in Subsidies for Solar Heat Providers

Germany: Award for Solar Process Heat above 150°C from CPC Vacuum Tube Technology

India: Solar Thermal Gains from Priority Sector Lending

France, Italy and Brazil: Programmes for Dedicated Solar Heating and Cooling Conferences

SHC 2015 in Turkey: Submit a Paper until 6 July

Denmark: 52,500 m² additional collector area in Vojens

Lebanon: Municipalities of Tyre Discuss Solar Obligation Pilot Project