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:

energy security

EUR 65 million provided for solar district heating in Kosovo

Air quality problems and energy security issues in a lot of Western Balkan regions have raised interest in solar district heating. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has therefore extended its solar district heating activities within the ReDEWeB project to even more cities in Serbia, Kosovo, Bosnia and …
Solar steam for cooling

Solar steam to cool production halls in southern Turkey

After almost a year of operation the parabolic trough collector field at Mayr-Melnhof Graphia Izmir, Turkey, was inaugurated on 22 June 2022. The German project developer Soliterm installed the 3 MW collector field on the roof of a new production building in 2021. It allows temperature and humidity control in …
Solar Thermal Roadmap

Energising Europe with solar heat – a Solar Thermal Roadmap

By 2030, solar heat is expected to reach 140 GW of installed capacity in Europe – tripling the 36 GW in operation at the end of 2021. At the end of this decade the sector will have replaced 12.1 billion m3 of imported Russian gas and enabled more than 250,000 …
concentrating solar industrial heat

Two concentrating solar industrial heat plants in operation in Barcelona

With the commissioning of two solar steam and cooling demonstration plants for industrial applications in May, the EU project Hycool has achieved major milestones. The photo shows the 800 m2 linear Fresnel collector field next to a chemical facility of the company Givaudan, which creates flavours and fragrances (see photo) …
Solar Heat Europe anniversary

“The solar thermal sector is able to scale up production rapidly”

“We want multi-megawatt solar heat plants to become a no-brainer for clients in industry and the energy sector”, states Guglielmo Cioni, Vice President of Business Development at TVP Solar. The Swiss company manufactures special high-vacuum flat panels that offer good yields, even on colder days of the year. Cioni wants …
Glasspoint is back

New Glasspoint announces first 1.5 GW parabolic trough field

Glasspoint is back. Two years after its liquidation the company has been restarted by founder and long-term former CEO Rod MacGregor. Together with the institutional investor Blackrock, MacGregor has restarted the team in New York and London with around 20 employees and is able to use all patents and rights …
Renewable Industrial Heat

Controversial view of Germany’s renewable industrial heat subsidy scheme

Demand for subsidised renewable industrial heat in Germany has been growing significantly. The German subsidy scheme Energy Efficiency in Industry – Section 2 spent EUR 128 million in 2021, which was two and a half times more than the previous year’s EUR 50 million. In both years demand was dominated …
a new collector every 72 seconds

Greek factories: a new collector every 72 seconds

The Greek solar thermal industry is growing impressively and so are its factories. The annually produced collector area doubled from 540,000 m2 in 2014 to 1.19 million m2 in 2021 according to the Greek solar thermal industry association EBHE. While domestic sales increased by 33 % in the period under …
Energy Communities

From LECs to TECs – citizen energy in focus

In recent years, the term Local Energy Communities has gained wider currency. And what it describes has given rise to the new phenomenon of the ‘prosumer’, who not only consumes but also produces energy. The definition of an Local Energy Community (LEC) varies from source to source. The shortest may …
REPowerEU plan

What will be the demands of REPowerEU on solar heat and heat pumps?

The Russian invasion of Ukraine triggered the publication of the REPowerEU plan, which the European Commission introduced on 18 May. Accelerated deployment of renewable energies and energy efficiency measures should rapidly reduce dependency on Russian fossil fuels and speed up the green transition. The climate goals were tightened again and …
EU Solar Energy Strategy

EU Solar Energy Strategy should balance out heat and power

The European Commission plans to launch its EU Solar Energy Strategy in June 2022. According to the official announcement this strategy will “take the form of a Commission communication“, aiming to ensure that solar energy both for power generation and heat production “achieves its full potential in helping to meet …
Zero Emission Building Design

Emission-free heat supply for new building area in Austria

For an emission-free energy supply for new and existing buildings on industrial wasteland in Reutte, Tyrol, Austria, the project developers are using PVT collectors. The Zero Emission Building Design concept of the Austrian company Simona Alexe – greenixcloud convinced the investors. They want to build a new commercial, industrial and …