The first conference “Solar District Heating – Technical solutions, urban planning and business models” took place in the Swedish town of Malmö on 9 and 10 April 2013. It brought together 120 participants from 19 countries: manufacturers, district heating companies, scientists and industry associations. Examples from Sweden made clear that it is not easy to integrate solar heat into a system which has not been designed for it. The main topics in the presentations from Sweden were operation issues and the question what is a fair price for solar heat. But an ongoing discussion in Germany illustrates that the integration of solar into district heating networks also has strong economic and political elements. The photo shows the conference participants visiting a solar plant operated by E.ON Sweden in the Western Harbour of Malmö.
Photo: Solites

In December 2006, the UK Government set a new policy that all new homes in England would be ‘zero carbon’ from 2016 and introduced an initiative called the Code for Sustainable Homes (CSH), which would allow a ratings to measure different levels of compliance. Although initially confusing, the term ‘Carbon’ in fact means anthropogenic Carbon Dioxide emissions. Although these rating did not specifically promote solar thermal, it was most difficult to comply with the ratings without renewable technologies on the building. Ever since, several governmental announcements brought delay and doubts into this far-reaching climate protection policy. The photo shows a low carbon building in the town of Rothwell, Northamptonshire that achieves reductions of 65 % compared to Part L of the building regulations 2006.