International Energy Agency’s Solar Heating and Cooling Programme
The IEA Solar Heating and Cooling (SHC) Programme has over 35 years of international collaborative work in the field of research, development, demonstration (RD&D) and test methods for solar thermal energy and solar buildings. The results of this work are available for researchers, policy makers, industry, utility and business representatives, builders, architects and teachers
The IEA SHC Programme is a member-based Programme with 20 member countries and 5 member organizations. Its mission is “To enhance collective knowledge and application of solar heating and cooling through international collaboration to fulfill its vision of solar thermal energy meeting 50% of low temperature heating and cooling demand by 2050.”
Highlighted in the section below are some of our most recent publications:
Investigation of the boost effect of heat pumps in solar district heating
During their most recent meeting in Sweden in October the district heating experts from the IEA SHC Programme discussed the impact of integrating heat pumps into solar district heating systems with and without seasonal storage. Jianhua Fan from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) analysed monitoring data from the Ørum …
Making the right decisions for lighting retrofit – now!
It is the time of the lighting retrofit in Europe. Since September 2023 all fluorescent lighting – tubes and bulbs – have been banned from sale in the European Union. One of the main questions is whether “transitional solutions” in the form of LED replacement tubes or bulbs make sense …
Overview of design tools and models for solar cooling systems
The knowledge hub for solar cooling and air conditioning within the IEA SHC Programme contains a number of new reports. One reviews climate conditions and typical applications for solar cooling. Another looks at technical and non-technical lessons learned, based on a survey of solar cooling experts and practitioners. The report …
How can the grid load of PV water heating systems in Australia be minimized?
During the Asia-Pacific Solar Research Conference in December in Melbourne, Australia, the IEA SHC Task 69 Solar Hot Water for 2030 team organized a Special Session on PV water heating systems. The session, entitled Key Considerations for the Adoption of PV Water Heaters featured Dean Clift, who recently finished his …
Solar Award recognizes outstanding solar thermal installation for process heating or cooling
The IEA SHC Programme has just launched the call for nominations for the Solar Award 2024. This year the programme will recognize an outstanding project or programme that has reduced costs and environmental impact by providing solar thermal heating or cooling to an industrial process or several processes. The nomination …
Commercially available products and champions of PCMs and TCMs
The Compact Thermal Energy Storage group within the IEA Solar Heating and Cooling programme investigates new materials for storing heat and develops standard procedures to test their stability, heat capacity etc. This is important basic research in order to find storage materials for new applications. During the Solar Academy webinar …
Interdisciplinary author team answers ten questions concerning planning and design strategies for solar neighborhoods
10 key questions, 12 authors and two years of drafting time led to a comprehensive paper on planning and design strategies for solar neighborhoods, which has just been published by the journal Building and Environment. The initiative originated from Associate Professor Maria Wall, who heads IEA SHC Task 63 on …
IEA SHC Solar Academy training in Cape Verde with high visibility
The IEA Solar Heating and Cooling Programme pursues a multidimensional approach to support the market transformation of solar cooling. This includes training for entrepreneurs from the installation industry and energy experts from administration at a national level. The photo shows solar cooling expert Dr Uli Jakob during a two-day specialized …
Technical tour to Europe’s largest solar industrial heat plant at Heineken Spain
The inauguration of the 30 MW parabolic trough plant at the Heineken factory in Seville, Spain, on 30 September 2023 was exactly on time. The investor and plant operator Engie España had to put the plant into operation before the end of September in order to receive the extensive subsidy …
“There is high potential for using solar energy in wastewater treatment”
In a circular economy the efficient supply of carbon-free energy and the recovery of resources as well as the treatment of wastewater must go hand in hand. In the IEA SHC Task 62 on Solar Energy in Industrial Water & Wastewater Management more than 50 experts worked intensively together to …
Demo projects of high-solar-fraction buildings carefully analysed
The IEA Solar Heating and Cooling Programme addresses the question of what is needed to reach a high degree of self-sufficiency in solar energy buildings and blocks. A research group within the IEA SHC Task 66 on Solar Energy Buildings has identified 20 completed or planned mostly residential building projects …
Open data sets have great importance when analysing and optimising operation strategies for solar district heating plants
A complete annual data set of monitoring results for a solar district heating plant is an important prerequisite for meaningful simulations of such systems and for developing of monitoring algorithms. That is why the scientists working on IEA SHC Task 68 on Efficient Solar District Heating are committed to ensuring …
