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PARIS, France, November 1, 2006 (Refocus
Weekly)
The solar thermal market in Europe is growing at
23% per year, and the continent has installed 2 million m2 of
glazed, vacuum and unglazed collectors.
The capacity is equivalent to 1,451 MW of thermal energy,
explains the latest ‘Solar Thermal Barometer’ produced by Observ’ER.
The growth is due to “very good performance” of markets in Germany,
Austria and Greece, plus the increased importance of markets in
France and Spain.
“Solar thermal sector development conditions are rapidly changing
right now; the continuous rise in energy prices, associated with
support systems set up by most governments, is making it possible to
consolidate solar thermal sector growth,” the report explains. The
EU market installed 2,073,391 m2 last year. Flat glazed collectors
account for 89.4% of the market followed by 6.4% for vacuum
collectors.
Vacuum collectors are more expensive but provide higher
temperatures, and the technology is adapted to cold climates for
space and water heating, as well as for cooling in hot climates
where systems demand very high temperatures. Unglazed collectors
offer sufficiently high performances to heat swimming pools, and the
report says this technology is more difficult to monitor for
statistics because it is not always subsidized and, therefore, not
referenced by financing organisations.
Germany installed nearly 1 million m2 and had domestic market growth
of 25.6%. The German Association of Solar Industrialists (BSW) says
950,000 m2 of glazed collectors were installed last year (855,000 m2
of flat collectors and 95,000 m2 of vacuum), with another 30,000 m2
in unglazed collectors.
“The solar thermal sector's success is such this year that it has
been problematic for the government’s financing of the ‘Marktanreizprogram’,
an incentive system consisting of a federal aid of Euro110 per m2,”
the report notes. “Even though these financial aids were suspended
for the first two months of the year in progress, the financial
resources planned for 2006 had already been used up by last August,
with the number of requests at this date having already equalled the
total for the whole of the year 2005. Yet, the government announced
that the program initially envisaged until the end of 2006 would
continue in 2007.”
Growth in the Austrian market was similar to Germany, with new
installed capacity of 239,540 m2 (168 MW-th), allowing Austria to
recover its second place position in the EU. Greece installed
220,500 m2 of collectors (154 MW-th) due in part to replacement of
numerous thermosiphon systems damaged by high snowfall during the
winter of 2003.
Installed solar thermal capacity in EU countries last year reached
17.3 million m2, representing 12,087 MW-th, but the estimate differs
from the ESTIF because that professional group does not include
unglazed collectors. Observ’ER assumes glazed collectors work for 20
years before decommissioning (15 years for systems installed prior
to 1990) and 12 years for unglazed collectors, which are less
resistant.
When calculated on per-capita terms, Cyprus is the lead country with
642 m2 per thousand inhabitants, followed by Austria (319 m2) and
Greece (274 m2 per 1000 inhabitants). Germany is in fourth place (86
m2) and France in eleventh place (15 m2 per thousand inhabitants).
The German solar thermal industry had revenues of Euro 750 million
last year, compared with Euro 600 million in 2004 and Euro 550
million in 2003. Forecasts for 2006 are Euro 1 billion, and the
number of German jobs increased to 12,500 in 2005 from 10,000 in
2004. Austria had revenues of Euro 232 million last year with 3,300
jobs, while Greece had turnover of Euro 172 million and 2,450 jobs
last year.
“The state of the solar thermal sector has never been more
favourable,” the report concludes. “The traditional markets of
Germany, Austria and Greece continue to be just as solid as ever,
and the high potential markets like France and Spain are showing
good development prospects, backed up by incentive legislation.”
“Double-digit growth observed in most of the other EU countries is
also a very encouraging sign even if these markets are still far
from being developed, but this optimistic view must not hide the
fact that due to the slow-in-coming implication of most European
governments, the White Paper objectives (100 million m2 at the end
of 2010) shall not be reached in the set time limits,” it warns.
“Taking the growth observed these last three years into
consideration, we estimate total EU installed capacity at 32 million
m2 in 2010 (equivalent to 22,499 MW-th), a bit less than one third
of the European target.”
“The positive evolution that we are currently experiencing should
not make us forget that solar thermal market potential has been
barely touched upon as yet,” and the report encourages the EU to
pass a GreenHeat directive.
The Barometer is prepared by Observ’ER in the scope of the
EurObserv’ER project which groups Observ’ER, Eurec Agency, Erec,
Eufores, Institut Jozef Stefan and Systèmes Solaires, with the
participation of EC BREC and with the financial support of Ademe and
DG Tren.
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