European Solar Thermal Technology Panel

European Solar Thermal Technology Panel

The European Solar Thermal Technology Platform (ESTTP) was launched by ESTIF, now Solar Heat Europe, in 2005, at the 2nd European Solar Thermal Energy Conference (estec2005) and became part of the RHC-ETIP, after its establishment. The ESTTP consists of 19 elected Steering Committee members and over 500 individual Panel members and has 3 focus groups: (1) Solar thermal systems for buildings (2) Solar heat for industrial applications (3) Market deployment, strategy and scenario development. Read More...

Read More
The European Technology and Innovation Platform on Renewable Heating & Cooling (RHC-ETIP)

The European Technology and Innovation Platform on Renewable Heating & Cooling (RHC-ETIP)

The European Technology and Innovation Platform on Renewable Heating & Cooling (RHC-ETIP) brings together stakeholders from different renewable heating and cooling technologies from the solar thermal, biomass, geothermal and heat pump sectors – including the related industries such as district heating and cooling, thermal energy storage, and hybrid systems – to define a common strategy for increasing the use of renewable energy technologies for heating and cooling. Read More...

Read More
Technical Study Report on Measuring Remote Monitoring and Remote controlling for Solar Thermal Systems

Technical Study Report on Measuring Remote Monitoring and Remote controlling for Solar Thermal Systems

The market, media and policy arena often neglect solar thermal, because solar thermal energy is seldom accounted for and the amount of solar thermal heat supplied is neither measured nor displayed in a transparent way. This also results in problems/breakdowns not being spotted quickly. This “Technical study report on measuring, remote monitoring and remote controlling for solar thermal systems” aims at contributing to making measuring, monitoring, and remote controlling more mainstream for smaller systems. Read More...

Read More
Technical Study Report on Solar Thermal Technology LCIA Methods and LCC Models

Technical Study Report on Solar Thermal Technology LCIA Methods and LCC Models

Solar thermal suffers in the market, the media and in the policy arena, because solar thermal energy is often not accounted for, and amounts of solar thermal heat are not transparently measured and displayed. This also leads to problems/malfunctions not being spotted quickly. This “Technical study report on solar thermal technology LCIA methods and LCC models” aims at contributing to the demonstration of the advantages of solar thermal systems, taking the lifecycle into account. This means assessing both environmental and economic benefits of the systems over their operation period. Read More...

Read More
Strategic Research Priorities for Solar Thermal Technology

Strategic Research Priorities for Solar Thermal Technology

Europe’s energy future is dependent on our ability to address today tomorrow’s energy challenges. These challenges must be looked at from different angles: the stability and predictability of energy costs; environmental and climatic impact of our energy production and consumption; security of supply and geostrategic political matters related to the control of the energy supply; the capacity to generate local investment and local jobs; and maintaining a technological edge. This will allow Europe to be competitive at global level in the multi-trillion renewable energy market. Today there is still a tendency to equate energy with electricity, even when it only represents less than 25 percent of the final energy consumption in Europe. Read More...

Read More
Solar Heating and Cooling Technology Roadmap

Solar Heating and Cooling Technology Roadmap

The solar thermal energy sector is at a critical juncture. While solar thermal energy is showing the highest potential among renewable heating and cooling technologies, its share of heating and cooling is still far below 1%. This is against a background of declining or stagnating European solar thermal markets that have ceased growing since 2008. Furthermore, competition from other sources is growing, like electricity being used for heating purposes. Therefore, what will be the future of solar thermal in the European heating and cooling system is an important question. Read More...

Read More