ProSolNetz

The German research project ProSolNetz demonstrates the key role of concentrating solar thermal collectors for process and district heating in Germany. The 3-year project (May 2024 to April 2027) provides planners, municipal utilities, heating network operators and industrial companies with a comprehensive service package, so that they can take into account and realise concentrating solar thermal systems in their heat planning (Photo: Siemens Energy, 2024).

Together with several commercial partners, researchers from the German Aerospace Center (DLR), Fraunhofer ISE and Solites will work on improving design tools such as ScenoCalc and Greenius. The ProSolNetz consortium also wants to measure commercial parabolic trough systems in order to validate yields.

Within the partnership with solarthermalworld.org, articles are published and the annual surveys among SHIP turnkey suppliers are supported.

SHIP supply industry

The evolving SHIP supply industry: Key players and new entrants

The updated SHIP Supplier World Map lists 66 companies. Among them 15 had installed SHIP plants totalling more than 10,000 m2 by the end of 2024. They are headquartered in the USA, Mexico, Europe and China (see World Map above). One further company has fulfilled the requirement to be listed ...
Solar Industrial Heat Outlook 2025-2027

Global expansion of solar industrial heat: Key insights from the latest Outlook

Solar process heat is spreading worldwide. Projects are currently under construction or in planning on all five continents. Project developers have reported 73 plants totalling 277 MW that are to be realized by 2027 – the majority of them in Europe. The Solar Industrial Heat Outlook 2025-2027 presents the results ...
Reasons for business satisfaction

Key factors behind SHIP project developers’ business satisfaction

Development of solar process heat projects is a challenging business around the world. Slow decision-making by the clients, low fossil fuel energy prices and a lack of faith in the relatively new technology once again made it hard to close deals last year. This became apparent when around 70 SHIP ...
Global Solar Industrial Heat Market 2024

Global SHIP market reaches five-year high despite national fluctuations

The global solar industrial heat (SHIP) market maintained its dynamic development in 2024. The project developers reported 106 new systems with a total capacity of 120 MW for the year. A further 125 MW were under construction by the end of 2024. This is an enormous capacity increase compared to ...
technical-economic assessment of collector fields

Feasibility studies with parabolic trough collector fields in Austria

Between 2021 and 2024 the Austrian Climate and Energy Fund was active in supporting feasibility studies for large solar plants. The fund subsidized 15 studies regarding industrial solar heat plants with a total collector area of 306,000 m2. Among these studies were seven that included parabolic trough collectors to provide ...