Researchers have worked intensively for one-and-a-half years across national borders to find ways of reducing the costs of solar thermal systems and making them more attractive to end users. The members of Task 54 of the IEA Solar Heating and Cooling Programme, Price Reduction of Solar Thermal Systems, have analysed the entire value chain from component manufacture to system assembly and installation to help identify cost-cutting potential. This is the first time that methods of Process Cost Analysis are being adapted for the solar thermal business.

Two larger solar thermal cooling installations were put into operation in China in 2016. One of them was a 23-kW Yazaki absorption system and one a new developed 50-kW variable-effect absorption chiller driven by a Fresnel collector. Solarthermalworld.org spoke with Professor Yanjun Dai of Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) about the market and technological advances of solar cooling in China. Dai expects the solar cooling market to grow together with the one of solar space heating to avoid summer overheat problems, as soon as initial costs of solar thermal cooling systems can be reduced successfully.

On 17 November 2016, Panama’s secretary of energy approved Resolution No. 3142 to create a new Sustainable Construction Standard Guide with the aim of reducing energy consumption in newbuilds. The new building regulations target a 15 % reduction in energy use in newbuilds within one year and a 20 % one in two years compared to baseline values. The authors of the guide consider solar thermal to be one of the most preferable solutions to achieve these efficiency targets.

Solar district heating is attractive business. This certainly explains the high interest from research and industry in international research platform Towards the Integration of Large SHC Systems into DHC Networks, or Task 55 of the IEA Solar Heating and Cooling Programme. Big Solar - a 250 MW_th collector field planned to cover 20 % of the energy demand in the Austrian city of Graz by 2020 - is a great case study for Task 55. It is one of the major task objectives to research and develop solar district heating solutions connected to absorption heat pumps and seasonal heat storage.

Poland´s market collapsed in 2016. A decline had been expected, but that it would be so severe surprised even insiders from the industry. Only 115,400 m² (81 MW_th) were added in 2016, a whopping 58 % less than the 277,000 m² (194 MW_th) installed the year prior. Consequently, Poland dropped from rank 3 to 6 on the list of the largest European markets. The reasons: 2016 had no attractive national support scheme in place, stable gas prices strengthened competition from combi gas boilers and heat pumps were seen as a more interesting "renewable" solution.

Solar Heat for Industrial Processes will be the topic of the second Solar Academy webinar offered by the IEA Solar Heating and Cooling Programme. During the webinar, speakers are going to present selected demonstration plants and their planning, list current and future developments of collector technologies and hydraulic designs, and highlight investment opportunities. We invite all stakeholders to join the 1.5-hour webinar scheduled for Thursday, 6 July 2017, from 1 to 2.30 pm GMT (Greenwich Mean Time). You can register online.