IEA SHC

International Energy Agency’s Solar Heating and Cooling Programme

The IEA Solar Heating and Cooling (SHC) Programme has over 35 years of international collaborative work in the field of research, development, demonstration (RD&D) and test methods for solar thermal energy and solar buildings. The results of this work are available for researchers, policy makers, industry, utility and business representatives, builders, architects and teachers

The IEA SHC Programme is a member-based Programme with 20 member countries and 5 member organizations. Its mission is “To enhance collective knowledge and application of solar heating and cooling through international collaboration to fulfill its vision of solar thermal energy meeting 50% of low temperature heating and cooling demand by 2050."

Highlighted in the section below are some of our most recent publications:

January 6, 2016
Austria: Optimising of Large-scale Collector Fields

One key aspect of the energy and cost optimisation of large-scale collector fields (called arrays in this news) is collector array hydraulics. Optimal connection is achieved when (1) the costs and length of the connecting pipes is small, (2) the pressure drop over the entire array is low...
December 29, 2015
Solar Cooling: Results Diagram Directs Stakeholders to Content of Interest

The best solar research results are of little use if they are not distributed and known to stakeholders from the industry, planning departments or public authorities involved in the related field work. This becomes an even more important point if the aim of the research is to “...
December 7, 2015
Meet Where the Continents Meet: SHC2015 in Istanbul

Two continents meet in Istanbul, in a metropolis of 15 million. More than 230 researchers and industry representatives from five continents used this strategic spot for their participation in SHC2015, a high-level conference which took place at the beginning of December and focused on...
November 3, 2015
IEA SHC Task 51: Urban Planners Know Little about Solar Energy Potential

During IEA SHC Task 51, Solar Energy in Urban Planning, the project partners evaluated the legal, process and education issues of solar in urban planning across the twelve member countries. What they found was: Planners and architects know little about the...
November 2, 2015
SHC2015: Conference Combines New Technologies, Market Analysis and Policies

The development of the international solar heating and cooling markets is posing great challenges: Whereas the residential market has been on the decline, market demand is shifting towards complex industrial solutions, large-scale plants for solar district heating and...
October 23, 2015
IEA SHC: Start of International Research Network on GW-Sized Solar Thermal Plants

The IEA’s solar heating and cooling programme has begun its research activities on solar thermal systems of gigawatt size. Scientists, industry representatives and utilities have been invited to participate in a definition workshop for a new task in the Austrian city of...
October 12, 2015
IEA SHC: Industry Invited to Join Research Community for Lower Solar Heat Costs

Driving down the costs of solar thermal systems is not only about cheaper collector production. In fact, post-production processes, such as sales, installation and maintenance account for up to 50 % of the price the end customer will have to pay. The new IEA SHC Task 54, Price...
October 5, 2015
IEA SHC Task 49: Solar Process Heat Showcase in Montpellier

Industry participation is key for the research work of IEA’s Solar Heating and Cooling Programme. Hence, the researchers of Task 49, Solar Heat Integration in Industrial Processes, used the last meeting in France in mid-September to hold a one-day workshop dedicated to...
October 1, 2015
Solar Cooling 2.0: New Generation Growing Up

The workshop New Generation Solar Cooling & Heating Systems held in Rome, Italy, on 23 September 2015 was the opportunity to check the status of both research on and market developments in solar cooling technology. The half-day event, which had about 40 participants, was jointly...
September 25, 2015
IEA SHC Task 42: Latent Heat Storage Has Huge Potential in the Long Run

In their position paper published in August 2015, the scientists of IEA SHC Task 42 (Compact Thermal Energy Storage) summed up the key results of their work between 2009 and 2015. Operating agent Matthias Rommel sees huge potential for latent heat and...
September 3, 2015
IEA SHC: 20 Country Profile Analyse Market and Industry Development

“The Renewable Heat Incentive in the United Kingdom has failed to stimulate the market for solar thermal, which continues to contract. There are technical issues in the regulations preventing the use of solar thermal with other renewable heating systems, such as biomass and heat...
August 28, 2015
IEA SHC: Attractive Solar Process Heat Markets

Which countries are currently attractive markets for solar process heat? Different sources give different answers to this question. The chart above shows the assessment of the solar industry. More than 30 % of the Austrian solar collector manufacturers in the two surveys in 2012 and 2013...

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