Switzerland

March 19, 2021
SDH plant performs well in Swiss winter conditions

A new solar district heating plant in Geneva, Switzerland, is basking in the limelight of Swiss politics, with environmental minister Simonetta Sommaruga personally attending the start-up of the system at the end of February. The 816 m² solar field consists of special high-vacuum...
February 27, 2021
PV-Thermal: Major markets and most sought-after technologies

IEA SHC Task 60, Application of PVT Collectors, shows how a fruitful collaboration between industry and research can lead to a thorough analysis of current and future technological developments. Besides developing a series of standardised key performance indicators to assess the...
December 31, 2020
Denmark, Netherlands and Cyprus: Fastest-growing ST markets in 2019

Europe’s solar heating and cooling markets keep growing, Brussels-based Solar Heat Europe said in a 21 December press release. At the end of 2019, about 10.4 million solar thermal systems totalling 37 GW_th of capacity were in operation across the European Union and Switzerland, 3...
December 22, 2020
Great advocates join board of Brussels-based SHE

Over the next two years, Solar Heat Europe (SHE) will be represented by both new and re-elected board members. While Costas Travasaros, CEO of Greek-based Prime Laser, will continue to serve as president, the organisation’s general assembly, held on Friday, 4 December, also voted in fresh...
December 5, 2020
Financial and environmental benefits of solar heat pumps

As a source of energy for brine heat pumps, a PV-thermal collector field is well suited to reducing power demand in existing and to-be-renovated single-family homes, researchers at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences, also known as ZHAW, have found. They compared combinations of PVT...
December 1, 2020
Hybrid solutions are key to decarbonising industry

Industrial solar heat will be a key element of any strategy to decarbonise the industrial sector. A mid-November workshop organised by partners to the EU-funded INSHIP project explained how industrial solar heat options can become affordable when SHIP systems work in concert with other...
November 14, 2020
“Solar thermal cooling reduces the strain on the power grid”

Global IEA Solar Heating and Cooling research platform Task 65, called Solar Cooling for the Sunbelt Regions, aims to provide countries in Africa, Asia and the MENA region with specifications and know-how of solar thermal and PV air conditioning. To achieve this, researchers and...
October 18, 2020
Solar-heated multi-family buildings gain popularity in Germany

Many new largely solar-heated houses in Germany are multi-family buildings, and their number is growing, according to Sonnenhaus-Institut (Solar House Institute), an alliance of about 300 architects, planners, building companies and system integrators that specialise in the design or...
October 5, 2020
Benefits of 4G and 5G heat networks

Fourth-generation heat networks, which operate at about 60 °C, reduce heat losses, extend pipe life and create the best conditions for clean energy use. The photo shows one of these grids, which has been running in a neighbourhood in Villach, southern Austria, since the beginning of 2018....
September 9, 2020
Join 190+ pledge supporters by Friday

Since mid-July, more than 190 organisations across Europe have shown their support for Solar Heat Europe’s #SolariseHeat initiative by signing the European Solar Thermal Industry Pledge, promising to deliver a green recovery. The association has now launched a second call for signatures,...
August 27, 2020
Little support for PV-thermal despite high yields

PVT applications do not receive nearly as much support as solar thermal or PV systems do. Incentive schemes especially often do not include funding for PV-thermal components. In addition, special PVT grants are offered only in Germany but not in Austria, France, Italy, the Netherlands,...
July 21, 2020
Ups and downs in the 20 largest markets 2019

China again led the ranking for new installations of glazed and unglazed collectors – accounting for 73% of the total – followed by Turkey, India, Brazil and the United States. Additions in the largest solar heating and cooling markets besides China remained stable, with noteworthy growth...