Based in Brussels, the International Copper Association (ICA) Europe is the leading advocate for the copper industry in Europe. As ICA’s European branch, the organisation represents companies that mine, smelt and recycle copper for use across the economy, in the electricity system, buildings, transport and industry. Through a team of policy, industry and scientific experts, ICA Europe promotes copper as an essential material for achieving the EU’s ambition of a resilient, climate-neutral Europe and seeks to ensure that EU policies enable the sustainable production of copper to serve Europe’s future needs.

Solarthermalworld.org was initiated by ICA Europe in 2008 with the aim of providing stakeholders from research, public and private sector all around the globe with first-class information about solar heating and cooling to stimulate market growth. The ICA Europe has supported the hosting of the website until 2021 as well as the content gathering continuously since 2008.

Please see below our most recent articles:

Green Heat subsidy scheme

Green Heat subsidy scheme in Flanders supports concentrating solar heat plants

Flanders, the northern region of Belgium, will see a series of concentrating solar process heat systems go into operation in the next year. The starting point is the 2.5 MW parabolic trough collector field at Avery Dennison, a leading global packaging and materials manufacturer in Turnhout, inaugurated at the beginning …
Solar air heating and drying

Solar air heating and drying – an attempt to assess the world market

Solar air heating for space heating and drying is one of the most economical uses of solar thermal. The 2,500 m2 unglazed solar air heating façade at Turkish Aerospace Industries in Ankara, for example, will pay for itself in only 2.4 years according to the project developer Solarwall Turkey. Solar …
Inflation Reduction Act

Quick facts on Solar Investment Tax Credits prior to and under the IRA

The federal Solar Investment Tax Credits are an important funding instrument for the solar PV and solar thermal market in the USA. In the current version, set out in tax code section 25d for private individuals and section 48 for commercial customers, the tax credits for solar thermal energy are …
Solar Investment Tax Credits

Producers point to forced electrification and cheap natural gas as barriers for solar thermal in the US

For many years already, solar thermal for residential and commercial use in the United States has been eligible to benefit from Solar Investment Tax Credits (ITC) and diverse federal and regional incentive programmes. However, as Solar Heat Worldwide data shows, over the last year the newly installed flat plate and …
Glasspoint Series A funding

USD 8 million injection into the lean structure of new Glasspoint

Glasspoint has closed its Series A funding round with USD 8 million. The US-headquartered, privately held company will use the money to increase project development activities in the field of solar industrial steam plants. According to a press release from 31 July the leading investor was 300PPM, a newly founded …
Supply chain constraints

Supply chain constraints in concentrating solar thermal

The demand for heat above 100 °C in industry is huge. More and more project developers offer solutions with concentrating collectors that can provide heat between 100 and 400 °C. On the regularly updated World Map of SHIP Turnkey Suppliers, the number of concentrating collector providers has now grown to …
Polish heating device market

Polish heating device market with interesting ups and downs

2022 was the second consecutive year of growth in the Polish solar thermal market. Solar collector sales increased by 11 % after growth of 17 % in 2021. According to Janusz Staroscik, President of the Association of Heating Appliance Manufacturers and Importers in Poland (SPIUG), sales mainly increased towards the …
solar district heating market

New milestones on the German solar district heating market

Germany was the largest solar district heating market in Europe in 2022. According to market statistics from the German institute Solites, four solar district heating plants with a total power of 24 MW started operation last year, among them the largest German plant in Greifswald with 13.1 MW. This is …
General State of Solar Heat

Hopes of improved market framework at the French General State of Solar Heat Conference

The French solar thermal industry is confident about 2023. The 10th edition of the recognized annual conference Etats Generaux de la Chaleur Solaire (General State of Solar Heat) counted a record number of participants – 120 in person and more than 500 online. The one-day event was jointly organized by …
listed solar thermal companies

Entry into solar shares at low market values

The project business in the solar thermal sector is still in the red. High project development costs for rather small projects are dragging down the balance sheets of the companies. Accordingly, the share prices of listed companies have lost value in recent years. We asked Max Deml, Editor-in-Chief of the …
Spain's solar thermal market

Spain´s solar thermal market impacted by various new policies

Spain’s solar thermal market contracted again in 2022 by 12 % according to the latest market survey by the solar energy association ASIT. New emerging segments are PVT and solar industrial heat (SHIP). Although sales in these two technologies are still small, sector representatives expect double-digit growth in the years …
stricter binding targets for renewables

EED & RED III – two amended directives to lead the way to climate neutrality

The European institutions have agreed on stricter binding targets for renewables and stricter rules for energy efficiency. The European Commission, the European Parliament and the EU Council ended the so-called trilogue and agreed on amended versions of the Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) and the Renewable Energy Directive (RED III). In …