Solar heat for industry goes global: new medium-temperature plants from Morocco to the USA

Medium-temperature solar collector systems for industrial heat are becoming increasingly established. Companies in the food and pharmaceutical sectors in particular are increasingly turning to solar thermal energy to decarbonize their manufacturing processes. A prominent example is the Heineken brewery in Patras, Greece, where the German project developer Protarget is currently constructing a 5.7 MW parabolic trough plant. At the same time, project developers report several smaller systems commissioned in 2025 that supply industrial heat in the 100 to 180 °C range. What makes these new installations particularly noteworthy is their global distribution. Recently completed projects are located in Australia, France, India, Morocco, Spain, Turkey and the United States. These findings are based on a market survey currently being conducted among project developers listed on the SHIP Supplier World Map.
Photo: Rackam

Below is an overview of some of the newly commissioned medium-temperature solar industrial heat systems, starting with the largest.

Lubricants production in Morocco

A 1 MW solar installation equipped with high-vacuum flat plate collectors (1,750 m²) from Swiss supplier TVP Solar began operation in October 2025 near Casablanca. The client is Shell Lubricants & Vivo LAS Roches Noires, which produces premium Shell-branded lubricants.

“The solar plant produces saturated steam at 2.2 barg, 135.6 °C and 97% dryness for the operation of the blending plant and reduces the propane consumption of the factory by about 30%,” explained Silvio Sparano, Head of Oil & Gas at TVP Solar, in an October 2025 LinkedIn post. Annual solar yield is estimated at 1,162 MWh, corresponding to a specific yield of 664 kWh/m².
This marks the first time TVP Solar has developed a project for a client requiring low-pressure steam. The company engineered a dedicated steam generation unit that converts hot, pressurized water from the solar circuit into low-pressure saturated steam. Sparano emphasized the client’s strong commitment to decarbonizing its operations and confirmed that the solar plant runs fully automatically, with human involvement limited to supervisory oversight.

First low-pressure steam producing solar plant from TVP Solar, Switzerland Photo: TVP Solar

Sludge drying in Arizona

In the United States, a 1,700 m² parabolic trough field is used to dry sewage sludge for a municipal entity in Arizona (see photo at the top). The system was designed and installed by Canadian company Rackam. It started operation at the beginning of 2025.
The unsubsidized installation is economically viable based solely on avoided disposal costs, as landfilling of sewage sludge is no longer required. Furthermore, the pasteurized sludge is upgraded to Class A fertilizer and sold to agricultural businesses, creating an additional revenue stream while reducing environmental impact.

Pharmaceutical producer in France

A 0.84 MW solar thermal system with parabolic trough collectors (1,123 m²) has been in operation at the pharmaceutical manufacturer Ethypharm in Châteauneuf-en-Thymerais since July 2025. The installation supplies pressurized water at temperatures between 90 and 180 °C, which is fed into the company’s steam network.
The solar heat is used to support the climatization of the production halls, where both heating and cooling are critical to maintaining the strict temperature conditions required for pharmaceutical manufacturing processes. To date, this is the largest solar industrial heat plant developed and implemented by the French company Helioclim. Ethypharm financed the project without subsidies, driven by its internal emission-reduction targets.

Solar heat for the emission-reduction strategy of the French pharmaceutical company Ethypharm Photo: Helioclim

Pharmaceutical producer in Turkey

In November 2025, another parabolic trough collector field (1,600 m²) was commissioned at a pharmaceutical production site of Novartis in Istanbul. The 0.5 MW system delivers pressurized water at up to 180 °C. A 5 m³ thermal storage unit ensures a continuous solar heat supply, even after sunset.

The project was developed and implemented by the German company Soliterm. “We have streamlined our manufacturing processes to ensure cost-effective and scalable production”, said Global Sales Director Deniz Lokurlu. Soliterm relocated the production of its small parabolic trough collectors with aluminium mirrors from Turkey to Germany in 2022, further consolidating its manufacturing operations.

Parabolic trough field at the pharmaceutical producer Novartis in Istanbul, Turkey Photo: Soliterm

Oilfield wastewater treatment in New Mexico, USA

In addition to the three larger commercial plants with parabolic trough collectors, a number of smaller demonstration plants with linear Fresnel collectors were constructed last year. One of them in New Mexico, USA, is for water treatment at the company NGL Water Solutions Permian, which deals with oilfield wastewater. The solar system with a size of 100 kW (200 m²) was planned, installed and is now operated by the US-based project developer Sunvapor. The project developer markets the solar field as a linear segmented mirror system.

“The facility uses a desalination process patented by Sunvapor”, according to a news article published by the Southeast New Mexico College which has started using the facility to train a future workforce in sustainable water treatment. The solar system processes 70 barrels of water per day.

The new technology hybridizes the combination of two thermal processes: a membrane distillation bottoming process and an evaporation topping process. The integration of these processes enables an industry-leading thermal efficiency and recovery ratio for hypersaline oilfield water. Instead of electricity, steam is used to drive the desalination process. The construction of the pilot plant was supported by the New Mexican Economic Development Department.

Linear segmented mirror system produces steam to drive a desalination process in the USA Photo: Sunvapor

Linear Fresnel demonstration plants in Spain and Australia

The Spanish linear Fresnel collector manufacturer Solatom delivered collectors for two other small demonstration plants with 70 kW each: The first system was installed at the Spanish CTAEX Agricultural and Food Technological Centre. The system is operated as an R&D and demonstration plant. It is primarily used to produce process steam and inject it into the steam header of CTAEX`s pilot-scale facility, under operating conditions representative of industrial tomato processing.
“We are researching how direct solar steam generation can be integrated into an existing steam header to deliver a drop-in renewable heat contribution without disrupting downstream process operations”, explains CTAEX researcher Rubén Sánchez Herrero. “We investigate operating modes that maximize solar contribution when the resource is available, supporting industrial strategies that reduce fossil boiler load during peak periods while keeping steam supply stable.“

The linear Fresnel collector is installed on the roof of the Spanish research institute CTAEX, enabling real-world operation, monitoring and performance assessment in an applied research environment. Photo: CTAEX

The second Solatom collector was installed at the Australian company Sparc Hydrogen. The linear Fresnel reactor supports the endeavours of Sparc Hydrogen to produce renewable hydrogen using a solar reactor in a process known as photocatalytic water splitting.

Linear Fresnel collectors from Spain installed at Sparc Hydrogen in Australia to provide renewable steam for the production of green hydrogen Photo: Sparc Hydrogen

Another small-scale but purely commercial system was created in India by the concentrating dish manufacturer Quadsun. The 77 kW collector field (110 m²) supplies up to 100 °C to the automotive manufacturer Hero Motor in Tirupati, India.

Website of organizations mentioned in this news article:
Protarget: https://protarget-ag.com/
TVP Solar: https://www.tvpsolar.com/
Rackam: https://rackam.com/en/
Soliterm: https://solitermgroup.com/
Helioclim: https://www.helioclim.fr/en/accueil-english/
Sunvapor: https://www.sunvapor.net/
Solatom: https://solatom.com/
Sparc Hydrogen: https://www.sparchydrogen.com/
Quadsun: https://quadsuntechnology.com/