The five-year UNDP-GEF project Market Development of Concentrating Solar Thermal Heating (CSH) Technologies for Process Heat Applications aimed at accelerating demand for solar heat systems in industrial, commercial and public facilities by organising stakeholder workshops, strengthening the industrial supply chain and implementing quality assurance measures. Solarthermalworld.org spoke with Dr R P Goswami, National Project Coordinator and Director at the Ministry of New & Renewable Energy, about CSH market development in India.

The European Solar Thermal Industry Federation (ESTIF) has recently changed its name to Solar Heat Europe and developed a new corporate identity. It represents the interests of the solar thermal sector at EU institutions and is home to around 50 European solar thermal manufacturers, national industry associations, research institutes and service providers. Solarthermalworld.org spoke with President Robin Welling about the purpose of the rebranding effort.

Achieving bankability for solar process heat projects requires huge efforts. Suppliers of turnkey systems confirm that key barriers to implementation were a lack of technical expertise in risk assessment at financial institutions and the relatively small investment amounts in individual projects. To rectify this situation, EU project TrustEE is aiming to combine several of industry’s energy efficiency and renewable energy investment projects into one package to be offered to pension funds and assurance companies.

Brønderslev, a Danish municipality with a population of 12,500, is setting up a multi-purpose renewable heat plant for their district heating network. So far, local utility Brønderslev Forsyning has been operating seven gas-fired combined heat and power plants and two gas boilers to produce 130 GWh of heat each year. In the future, most of the yearly district heating demand is planned to be met by a new Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) unit which receives its energy from two wood chip boilers with 10 MW each and from a 16.6 MW_th parabolic trough collector field with a mirror area of 27,000 m².

On September 18^th, the Task Definition Meeting for the proposed task Solar Energy in Industrial Water Management will take place in Gleisdorf, Austria. The researchers aim at investigating and improving solar-driven separation and water purification technologies in industrial applications. Interested researchers and industry representatives are invited to attend the one-day workshop in order to discuss crucial aspects and the structure of the global initiative.

After four years of research on how to incorporate active solar energy systems into cities and sensitive environments, the researchers of IEA SHC Task 51 will now share their knowledge and experiences during a free-of-charge webinar. Four speakers will highlight the current legislative situation for solar energy in several countries and provide a summary of approaches, methods and tools to support solar in urban planning. We invite all stakeholders to join the 1.5-hour webinar scheduled for Wednesday, 13 September 2017, from 10 to 11.30 a.m. GMT (Greenwich Mean Time). You can register online.