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:
IEA SHC: Attractive Solar Process Heat Markets
Which countries are currently attractive markets for solar process heat? Different sources give different answers to this question. The chart above shows the assessment of the solar industry. More than 30 % of the Austrian solar collector manufacturers in the two surveys in 2012 and 2013 assumed that solar process …
Turkey: Great Achievements with Little Policy Support
The interest in technology and market research on the solar heating and cooling sector is growing. The number of countries participating in the IEA Solar Heating and Cooling Programme (SHC) increased significantly over the last two years from 20 to 25 nations. One of the most recent entries was Turkey …
IEA SHC: Mutual Recognition of Test and Inspection Reports Saves Industry Costs
The work of the Global Solar Certification (GSC) Network is expected to continue within the framework of the IEA Solar Heating and Cooling Programme (SHC). The Executive Committee of the IEA SHC approved the set-up of a task definition workshop in Paris on 7 October 2015, in order to establish …
Position Paper: Actions Needed to Pave Way for Net Zero Energy Buildings
Over 40 % of primary energy use and 24 % of greenhouse gas emissions are attributed to global energy use in buildings so architects and builders are being posed the challenge of creating highly energy-efficient structures. One vision promoted by stakeholders in many countries worldwide is Net Zero Energy Buildings …
China: Investigating Low-Temperature and Low-Cost Solar Cooling Systems
Dai Yanjun is among the key solar cooling researchers in China. In cooperation with the IEA Solar Heating and Cooling (SHC) Programme, the professor with more than 15 years of experience in solar cooling research at the Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) organised the Solar Cooling Week in Shanghai in …
IEA SHC: Market Report Aggregates 56 Country Statistics
It is the most comprehensive publication on the global solar water heating market: the annual study Solar Heat Worldwide. On behalf of the IEA Solar Heating and Cooling Programme (SHC), Austrian research institute AEE INTEC has gathered data on 2013 market development from 56 countries worldwide – covering 95 % …
IEA SHC Task 52: Seeking Cost-optimised Urban Energy Systems
How can solar energy be ideally integrated into an urban energy system? This has been the key question of IEA SHC Task 52: Solar Heat and Energy Economics in Urban Environments. One and a half years after the task´s start in January 2014, scientists from Germany, Denmark, Austria and Switzerland …
France: New ESCO Focuses on Process Heat
A start-up company will host the next Task 49 meeting in Montpellier, France. This is unusual for the IEA Solar Heating and Cooling Programme, but the business target of French company Sunti is a perfect fit for Task 49, which aims at increasing solar heat integration into industrial processes. Sunti …
Solar Cooling Week in China: Sector Still Growing in Asia and Europe
Solar thermal cooling is a “small, but steadily growing market,” Dr Uli Jakob from the Green Chiller Association for Sorption Cooling pointed out in his presentation Solar Air-Conditioning in Europe during the Solar Cooling Week, which took place in Shanghai from 23 to 27 March. The week started with two …
IEA SHC Task 46: Solar Irradiation Data Helps Schedule and Operate Solar Thermal Plants
IEA SHC Task 46, Solar Resource Assessment and Forecasting, is an SHC project conducted in cooperation with IEA’s SolarPACES for Concentrating Solar Power and the Photovoltaic Power Systems programme. Accurate assessment and forecasting of solar irradiation is a key issue in planning and operating solar electricity and solar thermal plants …
Germany: Polymer Collector Design for EUR 25 Production
During project ExKoll, scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems, Fraunhofer ISE, have developed a new low-cost design for solar thermal collectors. The entire production of an 80 cm x 160 cm collector made of polypropylene (PP, drawing on the right) with an operating temperature resistance of up …
Austria: Task 42 Meeting on Compact Thermal Energy Storage Systems
IEA-SHC Task 42, entitled Compact Thermal Energy Storage, has entered into its final year and will end in December 2015. In February 2015, 44 scientists met for the 13th Experts Task Meeting in Vienna, Austria, to discuss the characterisation and development of materials for latent heat storage systems. This included …
