Collector size is key when designing solar thermal systems for use in district heating and industry. Roughly speaking, the larger the individual collectors, the easier it will be to install […]
In spring 2015, Germany´s Federal Office for Economic Affairs and Export Control (BAFA) introduced a performance-based incentive for solar heating as an alternative to the scheme offering incentives based on […]
System cost reduction is one of the most urgent challenges of the solar thermal sector, especially in central Europe. The aim of Task 54 of the IEA Solar Heating and […]
Overcapacities in the collector industry, declining demand and the associated drop in collector prices have given European manufacturers a hard time. Over the last 12 months, four well-known collector manufacturers […]
Solar thermal cooling is a “small, but steadily growing market,” Dr Uli Jakob from the Green Chiller Association for Sorption Cooling pointed out in his presentation Solar Air-Conditioning in Europe […]
German company Parabel Energiesysteme has set up solar thermal systems with collector areas between 20 and 220 m² on, all in all, 450 buildings across Europe. More than 100 of […]
The Solar Keymark certification is getting more consumer-friendly: Since the beginning of this year, the new certificate data sheets include a second page on the annual collector unit output for […]
The solar thermal industry is facing major challenges: Costs of storage and collector components have to be reduced even further if large solar plants are to offer investors competitive prices […]
In Germany, the disparity between the photovoltaic market on the one side and the solar heating and cooling market on the other is increasing. “Whereas in 2004, the turnover of […]
Prospects for the German solar thermal industry remain gloomy. For the second time in a row, the market has shrunk significantly. The installed collector area in 2009 (1,615,000 m2) was […]