District Heating

March 31, 2021
“7 MW solar heat plants will be a commodity in Europe in 5 to 10 years”

Viessmann, a major German provider of climate solutions for living spaces, strengthened its project development team last year, hiring Christian Stadler and four of his ex-colleagues in June 2020, after their former employer, Danish-based Arcon-Sunmark, stopped operation. As part of...
March 30, 2021
Supply chain maturity and economies of scale drive solar heat costs down

Europe’s solar thermal industry has achieved quite significant cost reductions since 2014, with economies of scale at the project level helping to drive down costs, Michael Taylor, of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), said at a 9 March webinar titled Cheaper than...
March 25, 2021
Improving the efficiency of SDH

Since the end of IEA SHC Task 55 – Large Solar District Heating and Cooling Systems last December, there have been multiple calls for continuing the work of this successful research platform in some fashion. In response, Viktor Unterberger, a senior researcher at the Austrian BEST –...
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...
March 10, 2021
Rush on industrial solar heat in Germany

In Germany, demand for high-temperature solar process heat is growing rapidly. In the past months, Soliterm, a western German provider of turnkey solar process heat (SHIP) solutions, has conducted an ever-greater number of prefeasibility studies in several sectors, especially in the food...
March 9, 2021
“RHC becomes far cheaper than fossil energy in every way”

Which research and innovation priorities need to be set for buildings, industry, cities and districts to boost the renewable heating and cooling market? The new Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda for Climate-Neutral Heating and Cooling (SRIA) aims to answer this question by outlining...
March 5, 2021
“Reducing the level of harmful air pollutants is vital”

Be it the Western Balkans, Mongolia or Kazakhstan, Greg Gebrail is there to offer technical and policy support for solar district heating. As Principal District Energy Specialist at the London-based European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), he is a member of the Sustainable...
March 4, 2021
China sees strong growth in demand for solar space heating

The Chinese solar thermal industry ended the pandemic year on a high note, as companies in the sector sold a total of 27.038 million m² (18.9 GW_th) of collector area throughout 2020, leading to a fairly low annual decline of only 5 % compared to 2019. Solar thermal...
February 16, 2021
25-year heat supply contract for 4 MW SDH plant

Supported by a community financing model, southern Austrian solar heat specialists Unser Kraftwerk and Greenonetec have joined forces to build a 4 MW solar district heating plant in nearby Friesach by summer. While Greenonetec is producing the 5,750 m² of large flat plate...
January 30, 2021
Disappointing solar thermal support policy in Romania

Romania’s government intends to spend RON 750 million (about EUR 150 million) on clean district heat over the next two years. But solar thermal is not eligible for the EU-funded programme, according to government spokesperson Catalina Decolare. Only centralised heating solutions sourcing...
January 12, 2021
Quick Check BIOSOL: New tool helps utilities make the right choices

As early as November 2020, national association Austria Solar put a new decision-making tool called Quick Check BIOSOL on its website. At a German-language webinar following the upload, Austria Solar’s Managing Director Roger Hackstock then explained what the tool does and how it works. In...
January 7, 2021
Spotlight on SDH potential in Germany, the Netherlands and Austria

Solar thermal will have a key role to play in growing western Europe’s solar district heating markets over the next decades. During last year’s mid-October workshop organised by IEA SHC research platform Task 55 – Towards the Integration of Large Solar Systems into District Heating and...