SHC 2013 ends on a high note: Solar heating and cooling has big role to play in buildings and industry

25 September 2013. SHC 2013, the 2nd International Conference on Solar Heating and Cooling for Buildings and Industry ended today in Freiburg, Germany. For three days, 400 experts from around the world discussed technological developments, markets and political framework conditions. Never before was solar thermal used as much as today. And its use for industrial processes, for cooling purposes or in district heating networks has increased significantly.

“With a 14% market growth rate in 2012 – on a world-wide scale – we are on track to our goal of providing half of the low-temperature heat demand with solar thermal energy,” said Werner Weiss, chairman of the IEA Solar Heating and Cooling Programme (IEA SHC). “We have proven solutions available for residential and non-residential buildings. We see more and more projects in which industry uses it for process heat. And solar cooling is increasingly implemented in the more sunny regions of the world.”

But this conference showed also that there is still intensive R&D and dissemination of knowledge needed to significantly increase the market growth – especially in Europe, which has a challenging time at the moment. The conference took place in Europe where many traditional solar thermal markets have slumped or stagnated in recent years. Therefore, cost competitiveness of solar thermal with fossil and renewable energy solutions and with energy efficiency measures was a recurring topic throughout the conference. Europe’s goal to make Nearly Zero Energy Buildings the building standard as of 2021 could provide the needed impetus to make solar thermal a truly standard solution in new buildings.

The two hosts, IEA SHC and ESTIF (European Solar Thermal Industry Federation) were happy with the results of the conference. Together with organising company PSE AG, IEA SHC will hold SHC 2014 next year in Beijing, China on October 27 to 29. With this, the SHC conference moves to one of them most dynamic and by far the largest solar thermal market in the world. “Many people associate China with very simple, low-cost solar water heaters”, says PSE’s CEO Andreas Häberle.” But the country is also an engine for new developments and they make big strides in applications such as solar process heat and solar cooling. Therefore, we are inviting everyone in solar thermal to join us for SHC 2014 in China!”

Further information:

Conference website: www.shc2013.org
IEA SHC: www.iea-shc.org
ESTIF: www.estif.org
PSE: www.pse.de

About the International Energy Agency’s Solar Heating and Cooling Programme (IEA SHC):

The Programme was established in 1977.
Its objectives are co-operative research, development, demonstration and exchange of information regarding solar heating and cooling systems.
21 countries and the European Union are IEA SHC members.
The research topics of the current 12 projects range from general topics, such as “Solar Resource Assessment and Forecasting” and system and materials research, such as “Large Solar Thermal Systems” and “Polymeric Materials for Solar Thermal Applications” to market support topics such as “Solar Rating and Certification”.
Additional information: www.iea-shc.org

Contact information: