USA: First SHC conference to take place in San Francisco next July
The Solar Heating and Cooling Programme of the International Energy Agency (IEA SHC) is planning to start its own annual conference in 2012. The conference name SHC has been chosen in reference to the long-established research programme IEA SHC. The full name is International Conference on Solar Heating and Cooling for Buildings and Industry. The 1st SHC will take place in San Francisco from 9 to 11 July 2012 – in cooperation with the Intersolar North America (10 to 12 July 2012).
“SHC 2012 will be the first of a new series of annual scientific conferences on solar thermal,” IEA SHC Chairman Werner Weiss states in a press release from August 2011.”We invite all scientists and researchers – as well as market and policy specialists – to present and elaborate on their work.”
During the last four years, the IEA SHC joined forces with the European section of the International Solar Energy Society (ISES) to organise the Eurosun, a bi-annual conference which took place in Lisbon in 2008 and in Graz in 2010. This cooperation has now come to a close and ISES’ European section is organising the Eurosun 2012 in Croatia next September with a new partner, the Croatian Solar Energy Association. In addition to solar heating and cooling, the conference will also showcase photovoltaic and concentrating solar power systems.
The SHC 2012 is organised by German service provider PSE AG, and supported by ISES International and the European Solar Thermal Industry Federation (ESTIF). The abstract can already be downloaded at the conference website: http://www.shc2012.org. Proposed topics include new developments, system design, best practise examples, material developments, standardisation, modelling and simulation of a wide range of solar thermal applications. In addition to technical issues, the list also mentions market strategies and policy issues. The deadline for abstract submission is 31 January 2012.
“We will organise the SHC on an annual basis, with the conference taking place one year outside Europe and the following year within the Member States,” Weiss explains the event’s long-term prospects. “In any case, we are looking forward to cooperating with regional trade associations – such as, for example, the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) in the USA”.
It is now for ESTIF to decide if they want to become a supporting partner for the SHC 2013 in Europe. This would mean that the European Solar Thermal Energy Conference (ESTEC), which just took place for the fifth time in France in October, will merge with the SHC 2013 under the roof of EIA SHC. The decision will be made at the ESTIF´s General Assembly in Brussels in December.
More information:
http://www.shc2012.org
http://www.pse.de
http://www.ises.org
http://www.estif.org
http://www.iea-shc.org
