Italy’s solar thermal market experienced another 10 % drop in 2016 despite the availability of at least two appealing incentive schemes: a 65 % tax reduction for small systems and Conto Termico 2.0, a revised national support scheme in place since the beginning of 2016 to support plants of up to 2,500 m². To find out more about the primary reasons for the continuing decline of the national market, solarthermalworld.org spoke with Federico Musazzi, Secretary General of Assotermica, the Italian Association of Manufacturers of Equipment and Components for Heating Systems.

The Danish town of Silkeborg now holds the record for having the world’s largest solar heating system. The solar district heating plant of 156,694 m² (110 MW_th) came online as scheduled in December 2016 after only seven months of construction. Municipal utility Silkeborg Forsyning intends to use the harnessed solar energy to meet 20 % of the annual heating demand of the 21,000 plant-connected users. The solar field was divided into four subfields to make it possible to set up the installation and hydraulics systems on this irregularly shaped piece of land.

Austrian collector manufacturer Tisun is currently the supplier for three major projects in Kuwait, Abu Dhabi and Qatar. Its subsidiary, Tisun GCC with two Dubai stakeholders, have been the ones helping the company enter the Arab markets. Tisun’s first reference project in the region was a 500 m² solar field built in 2012 for a food-processing factory and it has opened many doors since. One current Tisun project is the planning and development of a 1,173 m² solar thermal system for the new university campus near Kuwait City. 

The biannual SolarTR 2016 conference attracted more than 1,000 national and international solar energy stakeholders to Istanbul, Turkey, between 6 and 8 December 2016. The science- and technology-focused event showcased the development of PV technology across the country and around the globe and offered presentations in parallel sessions in Turkish and English, in particular about solar heating and cooling. “Turkey has made great progress in the last two years. (...) there have been improvements in the field of solar process heat and steam as well as with large solar heating and cooling systems,” Dr Bülent Yeşilata, Professor at the Engineering Faculty of Sanliurfa’s Harran University and Scientific Chair of SolarTR, said in his closing speech.

Professor Vitaly A. Butuzov is one of Russia’s well-known experts on solar heating and cooling. He is professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering, Heat and Renewable Energy of Kuban State Agrarian University in Krasnodar, the capital of the region which bears its name. This region is one of the main economic centres in southern Russia. Additionally, Butuzov is Director of Krasnodar Power Technologies, which offers solar thermal systems in combination with geothermal units and energy efficiency projects. Solarthermalworld.org spoke with him about market development in Russia.