Solar thermal capacity three times higher than wind
BRUSSELS, Belgium, 2004-11-17 Refocus Weekly
Solar thermal systems provide 70,000 MWh of thermal energy around the world which is equivalent to three times current wind energy capacity according to a new report.
The 69,320 MWt of capacity in 2001 compares with wind capacity of 23,000 MW
and 1,100 MW of solar PV, according to data from the Solar Heating & Cooling
Programme of the International Energy Agency and seven trade associations from
Europe and North America. That total consists of 34,332 MWt in glazed
collectors, 19,375 MWt in unglazed and 15,613 MWt in evacuated tube collectors.
The parties have published the data in GWth, rather than in square metre of
installed collector area which, in the past, has led to under-estimation of
capacity of solar thermal because the measure is not comparable with other
energy sources, explains the European Solar Thermal Industry Federation. Making
the installed capacity of solar thermal comparable with other energy sources was
a top priority at a meeting held in September in Austria.
“The worldwide contribution of solar thermal installations to meeting the
thermal energy demand for applications such as hot water or space heating has
been greatly underestimated in the past,” says Michael Rantil of IEA. “With
an installed capacity of 70 GWth, solar thermal is one of the leading sources of
renewable energy world wide and its potential is much, much higher.”
The seven countries agreed to convert collector area into solar thermal
capacity, using a factor of 0.7 kWth/m2 to derive the nominal capacity from the
area of installed collectors. The supporting groups include Austria Solar,
Bundesverband Solarindustrie of Germany, Canadian Solar Industries Association,
ESTIF, Holland Solar, IEA, Solar Energy Association of Sweden and the Solar
Energy Industries Association of the U.S.
“Now the solar thermal capacity should show up in all statistics alongside the
capacities of other renewable energies,” says Ole Pilgaard of ESTIF. “And
seeing that the world wide capacity of solar thermal installations exceeds even
that of wind power, people will realize that our technology can contribute
tremendously to reducing GHG emissions and to making the global energy supply
more sustainable.”
The top five countries hold 82% of installed global capacity, led by China with
22,400 MWt, the United States with 17,459, Japan with 8,447, Turkey with 5,691
and Germany with 3,049 MWt, or an aggregate of 57,046 MWt of global systems.
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