News | Solarthermalworld

January 14, 2021
Little known VAT exemption in Senegal

Senegal could see an increase in demand for solar water heaters after the government introduced VAT exemptions for solar thermal and PV. Decree No. 010158, signed by the Minister of Finance and Budget and the Minister of Petroleum and Energy in summer 2020, states that 22 components...
January 13, 2021
solarthermalworld.org finds a new home with solrico

At the turn of the year, German market research agency solrico became the new owner of global SHC news portal solarthermalworld.org, with the January newsletter being the first to have been sent out under new management. But that’s not all: A new decade of growth lies ahead. In the...
January 12, 2021
Quick Check BIOSOL: New tool helps utilities make the right choices

As early as November 2020, national association Austria Solar put a new decision-making tool called Quick Check BIOSOL on its website. At a German-language webinar following the upload, Austria Solar’s Managing Director Roger Hackstock then explained what the tool does and how it works. In...
January 7, 2021
Spotlight on SDH potential in Germany, the Netherlands and Austria

Solar thermal will have a key role to play in growing western Europe’s solar district heating markets over the next decades. During last year’s mid-October workshop organised by IEA SHC research platform Task 55 – Towards the Integration of Large Solar Systems into District Heating and...
December 31, 2020
Denmark, Netherlands and Cyprus: Fastest-growing ST markets in 2019

Europe’s solar heating and cooling markets keep growing, Brussels-based Solar Heat Europe said in a 21 December press release. At the end of 2019, about 10.4 million solar thermal systems totalling 37 GW_th of capacity were in operation across the European Union and Switzerland, 3...
December 30, 2020
Global thermal storage capacity to triple by 2030

There is a broad consensus that solar thermal storage has the potential to be an important driver of decarbonising energy systems around the world. Thermal energy storage, or TES for short, denotes technologies that make it possible to decouple energy generation from demand or move demand...
December 29, 2020
Five pathways for decarbonising heating and cooling

“If we intend to take the Paris Agreement seriously, we will have to accelerate the deployment of renewable technologies in heating and cooling.” This statement by REN21 Executive Director Rana Adib during a webinar in late November explains why the organisation has just published another...
December 23, 2020
Construction of largest Swedish SDH plant with parabolics

In November, construction began on what will be Sweden’s largest district heating system based on solar concentrating technology. This 3,000 m² field of parabolic trough collectors (1.5 MW_th) is part of a EUR 1.6 million demonstration project that will receive 48 % of...
December 22, 2020
Great advocates join board of Brussels-based SHE

Over the next two years, Solar Heat Europe (SHE) will be represented by both new and re-elected board members. While Costas Travasaros, CEO of Greek-based Prime Laser, will continue to serve as president, the organisation’s general assembly, held on Friday, 4 December, also voted in fresh...
December 20, 2020
Assessing lighting quality in commercial buildings

How effective are integrated daylighting and electric lighting solutions in raising comfort and saving energy? To answer this question, a group of researchers working under the auspices of the IEA Solar Heating and Cooling Programme have taken a closer look at field studies of commercial...
December 18, 2020
Surface synergies and conflicts in smart cities

Surface area is an important but limited resource in cities that aim to become climate neutral. It can be used to, for example, generate heat or electricity via active solar systems, improve air quality via greening, or provide cooling thanks to highly reflective and emissive materials....
December 17, 2020
Booklet describes 28 Positive Energy Districts

By 2025, the European Union aims to have supported the design, deployment and replication of 100 Positive Energy Districts (PEDs) through its Strategic Energy Technology (SET) Plan. PEDs represent a new and complex approach that requires the involvement of a large number of stakeholders...