Substantial solar resources and a generous incentive scheme called Conto Termico 2.0: Perfect conditions, it seems, for the widespread use of solar district heating. But barriers such as a low gas price and the concentration of district heating in a small part of Italy have so far limited deployment to a few installed systems.
Since the summer, two parabolic trough collectors have been drying sludge at a waste water treatment plant in Surprise in the state of Arizona, USA. The test project was developed by US-based Heat2Hydro to evaluate the effectiveness of this solution. The objective is to reduce the water content of the sludge and make it easier to transport. The municipality aims at expanding solar drying capacity to 5 MW thermal in about two years.
500 experts from more than 50 countries attended the 5th International Conference on Solar Heating and Cooling (SHC) in Abu Dhabi, UAE, from 30 October to 2 November 2017. It was the first time that this biennial conference by the IEA’s Solar Heating and Cooling Programme had been organised jointly with the Solar World Congress by the International Solar Energy Society (ISES). The new partnership resulted in 2017’s largest experts’ meeting on integrated SHC solutions for buildings, industry, cities, regions and utilities, and in over 300 presentations.
Videira TeamVideira, a family-owned storage tank manufacturer from Portugal, is celebrating its 35th anniversary this year. In 1982, José Oliveira Rocha (sitting) and three of his five children (back) established a small business in Paredes in northern Portugal. In the beginning, it was only him, his three sons and one additional staff member who worked at the 200 m² factory. Meanwhile, production facility has grown to 5,000 m² and the company employs 155 staff, who generated a turnover of EUR 15 million in 2016. Exports made up 70 % of the, all in all, 45,000 water heaters and tanks manufactured last year.
German politicians are beginning to appreciate the benefits of solar district heating, or SDH for short. Germany’s Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, BMWi, has launched District Heating Networks 4.0, a new subsidy scheme for grids which use solar, biomass or waste heat to meet at least 50 % of their customers’ annual demand.
On 18 October 2017, speakers from three continents joined a webinar initiated by the World Bank and the Clean Technology Fund and hosted by Spanish-based consultancy ATA Insights to talk about opportunities for concentrating solar thermal in industry.
The IEA Solar Heating and Cooling (SHC) programme has recently updated its country report on Sweden’s solar thermal industry, pointing out the increasing competition with other energy technologies and the factors exacerbating the decline in sales. It seems as if not even the rather high national carbon tax can reinvigorate the country’s solar heat market.
Here you can find a small selection of comprehensive market overvies from the solar thermal sector:
Market Overview: Vacuum Tube Collectors
Market Overview: Flat Plate Collectors
Market Overview: Solar Stations
Photovoltaic Feed