Solar cooling for an office building in Kordin, Malta: The Chillii Solar Cooling Kit PSC10 uses 30.5 m² flat plate and 7 m² of vacuum tube collectors to generate 10 kW of cold in an ammonia/water absorption chiller. Photo: Solarnext
It's a great step forward acknowledging solar heating and cooling to be a key factor for climate protection: For the first time, heating and cooling is covered by an European Directive. The new Energy Directive was adopted with 634 votes in favour and only 25 against and 25 absent in the...
Olivier Drücke has been working in the solar thermal sector since 1990 and is head of sales and marketing at the KBB Kollektorbau GmbH, a Berlin-based collector manufacturer, since September 2005. Photo: ESTIF
So far solar thermal technology is mostly used for domestic hot water, pool heating and room heating. It´s often forgotten that there is a huge demand for heat below 250 °C in industry, which can easily be reached with solar thermal collectors.
An international team of researchers...
Most importantly: The energy of the sun is endless, sufficient and free of charge. Using solar water heating technology makes you independent of the rapidly increasing fossil fuel prices. It saves customers energy, money, is clean and safe and it is a long-living technology with life cycles of 25 years and more.
In the summer your system can provide 100 % of your hot water demand for showering and bathing. To make sure that you do not run out of hot water, there is always a backup system for the times the solar system cannot provide all your needs. In sunny regions such as Southern Europe and Northern Africa solar water heaters can provide almost 100 % of the hot water demand of a family.
The ambitious scenario of the European Solar Thermal Industry Federation (ESTIF) expects Europe will reach 0.7 kWth (1 m2 of collector area) per European in 2020, equivalent to a total capacity in operation in the EU by then of 320 GWth. To reach this target, a suitable support framework will be required and solar will then be widely used for both cooling and supplying process heat, though the majority of this capacity will still supply domestic hot water and space heating. The average yearly growth rate of the EU market necessary to reach this target is 31 % – less than the rate achieved in 2006 and only 7 % above the 2002 to 2006 average. This scenario requires – supposing a linear growth – an installation of 12.2 GWth (17 million m2) in the year 2020, six times more than in 2007, when 2.1 GWth (3 million m2) were newly installed in Europe as a whole. Further Information: “Solar Thermal Action Plan for Europe” by the European Solar Thermal Industry Federation (ESTIF) http://www.estif.org/policies/st_action_plan/
By far the largest solar thermal market in the world according to newly installed solar thermal capacity per year is China. In 2008, around 21 GWth (30 million m2) were sold in China, which was around 80 % of the world global solar thermal market.
In Europe, Germany – the second biggest market in the world – is dominating. With its newly installed capacity of 1.13 GWth (1,615,000 m2) in 2009, the country reached a market share of 38 % within Europe.
Position three is held by Turkey, a dynamic solar thermal market which is estimated at 785 MWth ( 1,120,000 m2).
Besides these front-runners, India, Brazil, Israel, Austria, Greece, USA, Japan, France, Italy, Spain and Australia are countries which reached a market volume of greater than 70 MWth (100,000 m2) in 2007.
Further information:
Solarenergie 2007, Study by the Swiss bank Sarasin, November 2008 (Only available in German)
Solar thermal Markets in Europe. Trends and Market Statistics 2009, Study by European Solar Thermal Industry Federation (ESTIF), June 2009 (see the following link)
This report provides an overview of the state of the art of measuring heat delivery in larger solar systems, looking also at the costs and accuracy of the measuring systems. The present document was produced within the framework of the Intelligent Energy- Europe project Key Issues for...
