AEE Intec | Solarthermalworld

August 14, 2018
Concrete slabs store thermal energy and heat homes

Many building owners consider roof-integrated solar systems to be a tried-and-true way of saving as much on their heating bills as they can. A research project called solSPONGEhigh and developed in Austria has shown: When using thermal mass, i.e., the capacity of a building to store heat in...
July 18, 2018
Sector coupling still at an early stage

‘Sector coupling’ has become one of the most well-known terms to describe the transformation of energy markets. It had originally been created for models that use surplus renewables, such as wind and solar electricity, to provide heat and power new means of transport. International...
June 6, 2018
Rising demand for solar heat in large buildings and industry

By the end of 2017, the market for solar heating and cooling had grown by 472 GWth, which again made it the largest for solar energy in the world. The one for photovoltaic systems gained 402 GWp to become the second-largest, and 5 GWel was enough for concentrating solar power to rank third...
May 3, 2018
Record participation at SDH 2018 in Graz

The 5th International Solar District Heating Conference, which took place in Graz, Austria, in mid-April, brought together 350 experts from 33 countries. It had twice as many attendees as the previous one in Billund, Denmark, in 2016 and attracted representatives from several development...
April 5, 2018
IEA SHC Webinar: Cost reduction potential above 30 %

The key takeaway from an IEA SHC Solar Academy webinar held on 14 March 2018: There is still much room for cost cuts along the entire solar thermal value chain. The webinar was organised jointly by the IEA Solar Heating & Cooling Programme’s Task 54 and the International Solar Energy...
March 18, 2018
Solar thermal and biomass – a winning solution for district heating

Biomass may be cheap and carbon-neutral, but a solar upgrade of biomass-fired district heating could further improve efficiency and reduce local emissions. For example, solar heat helps avoid having to start up and shut down wood-chip boilers or operate them at partial load. It can even...
January 12, 2018
SHC-focused conferences in 2018

Currently, our 2018 calendar lists 57 events from all corners of the globe. Below is a summary of selected ones that put a clear focus on SHC.Photo: Masdar Institute at Khalifa University of Science and Technology
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December 22, 2017
French PVT market is picking up

The IEA’s Solar Heating and Cooling Programme will create its own international research platform on PVT systems in January 2018. Researchers and industry representatives from 13 countries so far will then start evaluating new PVT systems for HVAC solutions. This IEA SHC task, which is...
November 8, 2017
SHC 2017: Largest experts’ meeting on integrated solar heating and cooling

500 experts from more than 50 countries attended the 5th International Conference on Solar Heating and Cooling (SHC) in Abu Dhabi, UAE, from 30 October to 2 November 2017. It was the first time that this biennial conference by the IEA’s Solar Heating and Cooling Programme had been organised...
October 26, 2017
TrustEE Facilitates ESCO Project Financing in Industry

The implementation of energy efficiency measures and the use of renewables can help manufacturing businesses cut costs and prepare them for when they will have to compete in a decarbonised market. However, even outstanding technical designs often fail to secure financing. The EU’s TrustEE...
October 11, 2017
Solar District Heating: How to Tackle Land Use Issues

Usually, solar district heating (SDH) plants require large fields for collector installations, which has raised concerns at local level because of competing land uses and a system’s potential visual impact on the surroundings. One way out of this dilemma is to combine heat generation and...
September 5, 2017
IEA SHC: New Task to Use Solar Energy for Water Treatment

On 18 September, there will be a definition meeting for a new task called Solar Energy in Industrial Water Management in Gleisdorf, Austria. The initiator of this international research project within the IEA Solar Heating and Cooling Programme is Christoph Brunner from Austrian...