News | Solarthermalworld

January 24, 2020
UK: “Solar heat has fallen out of awareness against PV”

When the British Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) started in November 2011, solar thermal specialists all around Europe were enthusiastic about the implementation of a pure performance-based incentive for non-domestic applications. Unfortunately, the programme did not become the expected...
January 24, 2020
Why was there such a drastic drop in the demand for solar water heaters in the UK?

The British Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) for homeowners was a successful programme. Between 2014 and 2019, in total 47,641 homes received funding for renewable heating systems. After a good start with high demand for solar thermal solutions in 2014 and 2015 the number of applications...
January 22, 2020
Germany: “It makes sense to invest in renewable heating now”

The bill to implement Germany’s 2030 climate protection package was passed by the country’s parliament on 15 November 2019 and came into effect at the beginning of this year. It contains a wide variety of provisions that should support the implementation of the national climate action plan...
January 18, 2020
Cities crucial to clean energy transition

The first edition of the Renewables in Cities Global Status Report was published by REN21, France, at the end of 2019. In all, 380 people, mostly volunteers, contributed to this report, supplying data on the progress of the renewable energy transition across municipalities, including...
January 15, 2020
Commercial installations in Russia

Alrosa, a Russian-based group of companies that specialise in mining, processing and selling diamonds, is pleased with the performance of its solar field, which began supplying heat to shift workers’ homes at a factory in Nyurba three years ago. The system is located in the northern Russian...
January 8, 2020
In search of cost-effective, advanced PCMs

Salt hydrates are the most interesting phase change material in the low-temperature range of up to 150 °C. Their volume-related enthalpy at melting is much higher than the enthalpy of paraffins and sugar alcohols (see the chart above) and they are comparatively inexpensive. This is why the...
January 8, 2020
Compact thermal energy storage: research in cycles

Research into compact thermal energy storage is made difficult by the fact that the performance of storage materials depends significantly on their intended purpose. For example, storage tanks that are integrated into space heating systems are made of materials different from those used to...
January 6, 2020
Chinese market keeps shrinking, but exports on the rise

At the beginning of December 2019, the Chinese Solar Thermal Utilisation Specialisation Committee (CSTIF) held its annual conference, which gave attendees the opportunity to learn more about the latest trends in the solar thermal market. Xiaoli Zhang, Director of CSTIF, which is part of the...
December 28, 2019
Solar heat champions

Last year brought the European solar heating and cooling sector back on track for growth, the Solar Heat Europe association based in Brussels, Belgium, emphasised in a press release published on 13 December. The newly installed collector area in the 28 EU member countries and Switzerland...
December 26, 2019
Anna Maria Ruz: Chile’s ambitious goal to become carbon neutral by 2050

Anna Maria Ruz was honoured to be part of the organising team of the joint conferences SHC / SWC 2019 in Santiago de Chile. Ruz is Sustainable Energy Director at the Chilean Economic Development Agency in short called Corfo. The agency represents the public sector in the discussion about the far...
December 26, 2019
Prof Roberto Roman: First Solar World Congress in Latin America

Prof Roberto Roman from the Solar Energy Research Center (SERC) in Chile got standing observation during the closing session of the joint conferences SWC / SHC 2019 in Santiago de Chile at the beginning of November 2019. He was the initiator and co-chair of this first Solar World Congress in Latin...
December 26, 2019
Christoph Brunner: Solar heat for water purification and metal recovery in industry

Water and energy are the most important resources globally. The term ‘water-energy nexus’ underlines their close connection, and the phrase has become increasingly popular with international environmental organisations. In the interview carried out at the SHC 2019 conference in Santiago de Chile,...