A recently introduced annual statistic by Brazil’s newly established industry association ABRASOL shows that in 2016, the country was again the one with the third-largest number of new installations worldwide. The 1,304,922 m² of newly installed glazed and unglazed water collector area (0.91 GW_th) added in 2016 have put it only slightly ahead of India and behind China and Turkey. Brazil’s glazed collector market experienced a comparatively small drop of 4 % considering the country’s ongoing economic and political crisis and the slowdown of the social housing programme Minha Casa Minha Vida.

In the Netherlands, solar district heating plants with a capacity of 140 kW_th or above can benefit from a feed-in tariff scheme called SDE+, which pays a certain amount per kWh of energy. Under the scheme, operators of renewable energy plants can apply for a subsidy to bridge the gap between market price and cost of energy production. Consequently, interest was high when a workshop about solar district heating (SDH) took place in mid-April 2017. In 2016, SDE+ approved funding for around 62 MW_th in solar thermal plants, among them many heating systems for orchid greenhouses. The first application round in 2017 in March saw applications for 27 solar thermal projects totalling 26 MW_th.

Despite shrinking markets in Europe, Greece’s collector and tank manufacturers have increased their exports two times in a row. In 2015, the solar thermal industry delivered 7 % more collector area abroad and in 2016, the figure even rose by 14 % compared to the year prior and totalled 330,000 m² (231 MW_th). Main export markets were in Southern Europe, North Africa and the Gulf region. Domestic sales have remained at the same level since 2014, at around 270,000 m² (189 MW_th).

Solarthermalworld.org has been offering an open source database of showcase projects in solar heating and cooling. A recently added section called De-Risking consists of 18 news articles so far, either including detailed figures on the economy of existing plants or a summary of studies which compare the cost structures of solar heat in buildings and industry. To increase investor trust in solar heating and cooling, the industry needs to be more transparent about system performance and make energy yields and associated costs easy to understand. (Photo: CSP-F Solar)

China’s shift away from residential towards commercial solar thermal applications continues: The collector area of newly installed solar water heaters in single-family buildings declined by 26 % in 2016, whereas the ‘engineering segment’ remained stable last year. This segment is comprised of all non-domestic hot water applications, such as space heating and cooling as well as applications in industry and agriculture. Overall, its share in the newly installed collector area went from 61 to 68 % in 2016. All figures were taken from the Report on the State of China's Solar Thermal Industry (July to December 2016), a document drafted by Dezhou-based consultancy Sun’s Vision.