Mature European Market: More than € 2 billion and More than 30,000 Jobs
Submitted by Baerbel Epp on October 23, 2008The solar thermal market in Europe is by far a mature sector with a substantial total turnover of more than € 2 billion and more than 30,000 jobs. This is shown by the Solar thermal barometer published in October by the French-based organization Observ´ER. These figures result from some simple assumptions.
| Country / year | Turnover of the national solar thermal sector (Euro) | Annual newly installed collector surface ( m2) | Turnover per newly installed collector area (€/m2) |
| Germany / 2007 | 850.000,000 | 940,000 | 904 |
| Austria / 2007 | 380,000,000 | 281,000 | 1,352 |
| Greece / 2007 | 235,000,000 | 283,000 | 830 |
| Spain / 2007 | 210,000,000 | 262,000 | 802 |
| Italy / 2007 | 104,750,000 | 245,000 | 428 |
Table 1: Turnover of the solar thermal industry in the leading countries in 2006 and 2007Source: National associations (BSW-Solar, Austria Solar, EBHE, ASIT, Assolterm)
The same assumptions could be made for the jobs created by the solar thermal sector. Table 2 shows the number of jobs in the five major solar thermal markets in Europe – adding up direct jobs in the industry and indirect jobs in retail, installation and maintenance. The employment in these five key markets in 2007 already exceeded 30,000 full-time jobs.
| Country / year | Jobs in the solar thermal sector (direct and indirect) | Turnover per job (€/job) | New installed collector area per job (m2/job) |
| Germany / 2007 | 15,000 | 56,667 | 63 |
| Austria / 2007 | 6,500 | 58,462 | 43 |
| Greece / 2007 | 3,250 | 72,308 | 87 |
| Spain / 2007 | 3,360 | 62,500 | 78 |
| Italy / 2007 | 2,551 | 41,062 | 96 |
Table 2: Employment in the solar thermal sector in the leading countries in 2006 and 2007Source: National associations (BSW-Solar, Austria Solar, EBHE, ASIT, Assolterm)
On average, a plus of 73 m2 of newly installed collector area in a year adds one new full-time job. Relating to the overall European market of 2.74 million m2 this results in a figure of around 37,500 jobs. In most cases, solar thermal is used together with a source of back-up heating. Therefore, solar thermal does not replace another industry’s products, but really adds new demand and jobs. Assuming that the overall growth rate in Europe in 2008 will be 20 %, the sector will create around 7,500 new jobs.
Download Solar Thermal Barometer: www.energies-renouvelables.org/observ-er/stat_baro/observ/baro187.pdf
