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:
Superbonus has pushed solar heat in Italy
The combination of the Conto Termico incentive scheme, supporting renewable heat installations, and the 110 % Superbonus for energy efficiency in buildings allowed Italy to hit a record year for solar thermal in 2021. According to the industry association ANIMA, 225,000 m2 of collector area (158 MW) were installed in …
Celsius’s cities are going carbon neutral with waste heat and PV rather than with solar thermal
Waste heat and photovoltaics seem to be the preferred technologies for cities aiming to decarbonize their energy supply, rather than solar heat. This became clear during the webinar Cities Going Carbon Neutral at the end of February. During the presentations by energy experts from the Swedish city of Lund, Sonderborg …
Ariston Group acquires Chromagen
At the beginning of the year the Italian Ariston Group completed its acquisition of the Israeli solar thermal system pioneer manufacturer Chromagen Hot Water Solutions. According to a press release published on 5 January 2022, the boiler manufacturer acquired 100 % of the shares and voting rights of the Israeli …
Challenging short completion deadline
Fifty-one solar heat projects totalling 61 MW were awarded funding in Spain in the first round of the subsidy scheme Thermal Energy Production. The majority of these projects use concentrating solar technologies. This is a great step forward in a country where currently concentrating solar heat plants with a total …
EU fund allocates EUR 108 million for C&I renewable heat projects
The first call for renewable heat projects for the industry and service sectors in Spain resulted in awarded grants of EUR 108 million. This budget will be used to support 51 solar heat projects totalling 62 MW. Within this funding line Thermal Energy Production beneficiaries receive non-repayable grants co-financed by …
Unfavourable stop and go policy in England
The Green Homes Grant scheme in England “underperformed badly”. The Public Accounts Committee came to this conclusion when reporting that only about 47,500 families upgraded their homes out of the 600,000 originally envisaged and the scheme caused GBP 50 million of administration costs – more than GBP 1,000 per home …
Cities united for climate action
Cities drive climate action – that much is clear when looking at the numbers presented in last November’s 2021 Global Covenant of Mayors Impact Report. The signatories to the covenant announced a total of 222,034 actions, committing themselves to a reduction of 76 gigatons of CO2 by 2050, an amount …
Greenpeace Bulgaria campaigns for sunny future of heating
Greenpeace Bulgaria is actively campaigning to promote solar energy for heating purposes. The Bulgarian branch of the global environmental organisation has not only published promotional material but Greenpeace also donated two solar laboratories to schools to educate students about a decarbonised economy. At the beginning of this school year in …
Solar heat to save Switzerland several CHF 100 million a year
A new roadmap called SolTherm2050 shows how much of a role solar heat combined with thermal storage could play in Switzerland in 2050. Using the Swiss EnergyScope tool, the developers of the roadmap simulated a variety of scenarios with and without solar thermal. In addition, over half of their 117-page …
Lessons learned from three years promoting SDH in the Western Balkans
The interest in solar district heating has increased significantly in Serbia since the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) started to finance prefeasibility studies for SDH plants in January 2019. Furthermore, Serbia adopted a Renewable Energy Law in April 2021 which includes an ambitious mechanism to support the implementation of renewable …
Feasibility studies on 13 solar heat plants underway in Austria
Solar district heating has turned around the steadily declining solar thermal market in Austria. As reported at the Austria Solar organisation’s annual meeting in December, solar heat was in high demand all over the country last year. Of particular note was the second quarter, in which capacity additions made a …
Molten salt: suitable heat-transfer fluid for concentrating collector fields
In a parabolic trough collector demo plant run by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Évora, Portugal, molten salt is used as a heat-transfer fluid instead of thermal oil. The advantage of molten salt is its stability at higher temperatures. Whereas thermal oil cracks at above 400 °C, molten nitrate …
