The One World Solar Collector developed by Austrian company Sunlumo finally received a Solar Keymark certificate in October 2015. This is a milestone in the long design and development process, which started in 2009. “We designed a completely new collector model optimising weight, performance, logistics and raw materials,” Robert Buchinger, Managing Director of Sunlumo, says about the long term R&D project. Sunlumo is looking for investors who want to purchase a complete production line as well as the license and produce the polymer collector locally.

Costa Ricans currently spend up to 40 % of their electricity bill on hot water supply. With an average annual increase of 5.3 %, the demand for electricity has quadrupled over the last 20 years and prices have more than doubled during the same period. Therefore, one should assume solar water heaters to be popular in a country where solar irradiation is as high as 2,100 W per m² and year. Besides, the National Energy Plan 2015 to 2030 stipulates that 10 % of all residential energy consumers ought to have domestic water heating systems with solar energy until 2030.

São Paulo’s around 30,000 new building permits per year and a municipality bylaw which has required construction companies to make solar water heating part of almost every newbuild since 2008 have created expectations for a flourishing solar thermal sector in this Brazilian city. Independent consultancies estimate that the local solar obligation has led to 110,000 m² of collector area installed at residential buildings since the solar obligation came into force.

Tanks with high storage capacity and reduced losses are key to an increased solar heat share in households. Austrian research institute AEE INTEC has recently inaugurated a pilot research facility which promises exactly that: greater storage capacity than water and almost zero energy losses even in seasonal mode. The heart of the test facility are two low-pressure vessels filled with 750 kg of zeolite beads or spheres each. “Our first measurements since the beginning of October were very promising,” confirms Wim van Helden, head of the research project at AEE INTEC. “We reached a storage density of 180 kWh/m³, which has never been achieved before in a device of this size.”

Since October, a new government has been at the helm in Canada under Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Trudeau's conservative predecessor, Stephen Harper, who had been in office for nine years, had encountered increasing criticism by the Canadian population because of his climate-damaging policies and his close ties to the oil and gas industry. According to the study Solar Heat Worldwide, the newly installed collector area in Canada declined between 2011 and 2013 from 127,412 m² to 58,067 m². Accordingly high are now expectations of the new government regarding climate change and the environment.