News | Solarthermalworld

July 19, 2019
Highly efficient industrial solar heat showcase in southwest France

In mid-June, a start-up business inaugurated the largest industrial solar heat plant to date in France, a 4,213 m² (3.4 MW_th) flat plate collector system, which supplies heat to the Condat paper mill in southwest of the country. Owned by the Lecta Group, the mill is one of the...
July 17, 2019
Reducing energy consumption in historic buildings

A meeting in mid-April, Copenhagen, Denmark, gave members of IEA SHC research platform Renovating Historic Buildings Towards Zero Energy (Task 59) the opportunity to meet researchers working on the EU Horizon 2020 project Robust Internal Thermal Insulation of Historic Buildings...
July 15, 2019
A new solar cooling standard for Australia

On 28 June, Standards Australia’s Committee CS-028 on Solar Water Heaters published its first standard on solar air conditioning, named AS 5389. It contains a methodology to calculate the cooling or heating loads of buildings under a variety of climatic conditions. Work on the document...
July 12, 2019
New Solar Keymark Network Rules Allow On-Site Testing

The Solar Keymark Network has expanded its range of options by including in situ testing. At a meeting in March 2019, a revised version of the Solar Keymark (SK) Scheme Rules was approved to allow collector efficiency tests in a real-life environment. It is now possible to create efficiency...
July 9, 2019
SDH system under construction in Latvia, soon in Tibet

The solar field for Latvian energy utility Salaspils Siltums is growing rapidly in size, as the utility’s Facebook page shows. As recently as mid-June, the site had been little more than an empty space. But construction got under way...
July 6, 2019
Shtigen has big plans in Armenia

Shtigen, a leading Armenian importer of vacuum tube collectors, is planning to build its own collector production facilities in Armenia. The company’s sales had significantly increased in recent years as a result of gas price increases, said Managing Director Hayk Shekyan. Shtigen currently...
July 4, 2019
SHIP feasibility assessment within a few hours

After four years of intensive scientific-technical work, the Association of German Engineers, also known as VDI, will soon publish VDI 3988, a guidance document intended to support the preliminary design of systems that supply solar heat for industrial processes (SHIP). The document...
June 26, 2019
Attractive solar cooling market in Italy

In 2018, Italy was an attractive market for solar cooling solutions thanks to high investment subsidies by national support programme Conto Termico 2.0. Three sorption chiller manufacturers launched projects in the country last year: Maya, an Italian joint-venture with the Japanese company...
June 26, 2019
Regional Sustainable Energy Centres join IEA SHC

The UNIDO-coordinated Regional Sustainable Energy Centres will become sponsor members of the IEA Solar Heating and Cooling programme, a decision made by the IEA SHC Executive Committee at a meeting in Austria in early June. Seven Regional Centres for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency...
June 25, 2019
“Breakthrough could occur if countries cut fossil fuel subsidies”

Over the last 15 years, the annual Renewable Global Status Report has grown into one of the most respected sources of information about the energy market transformation worldwide. It contains data and explanations provided by the REN21 network, which has more than 900 contributors who cover...
June 24, 2019
Big solar plans in Mexico City

On 25 May, the mayor of Mexico City, Claudia Sheinbaum, announced plans to turn the capital into a solar city based on a new Energy Sustainability Strategy for the years 2019 to 2024. The goal is to install 787,000 m² of collector area by the end of 2024, some at residential units, some at...
June 21, 2019
PV-Thermal collector area tops 1 million

PV-Thermal systems, which generate heat and electricity from the same collector, are gaining ever more traction: For the first time, they have now been included in the Solar Heat Worldwide report. Data supplied by 26 manufacturers from 11 countries indicates that more than 1 million m^2...