Keep The Heat
I’ve always wondered why solar heating hasn’t caught on more. Not glamorous enough? Not useful enough? No subsidies :) Seriously though, it is more efficient than PV. It has a direct use in
water heating. The systems are not complex (you don’t need an electrical inverter) and the components are not new. Why has there been such a slow uptake of solar heat?
Well, the good ol’ Europeans are going to give it a go. I didn’t even think about space heating. Just like the air conditioner that makes its own ice at night when the rates are lower a solar unit could easily store heat in a thermal mass for use at night. I need to find out what those Austrians have been doing.
If all EU countries used solar thermal as enthusiastically as the Austrians, the EU’s installed capacity would already be 91 GWth (130 million m2) today, far beyond the target of 100 million m2 by 2010, set by the White Paper in 1997.
While the political debate at EU level develops, all Member States are urged to act as soon as possible to promote solar thermal in their own country.
Most of these barriers are directly related to the small size of the market. As soon as a critical mass is reached, these barriers vanish:…
In a few decades, oil and gas will be too precious to be wasted for low temperature applications, which could be easily supplied by solar thermal.
In a few decades??? This must be one of those people who can afford their electric bill. As in many cases I see the problem as inertia. The payback isn’t immediate so most people are reluctant to invest in a retrofit job, especially using a technology they are not familiar with (and they would rather have a new 52 inch TV than a solar system, ah, the power of advertising). Since no one is retrofitting there are no installations for the general public to be familiar with. It adds cost to a new home so builders don’t want to install them. Home buyers aren’t familiar with them so they aren’t asking for them.
So where is business? Certainly there must be applications where large buildings could use a solar boost. I have read about some hotels (here’s one) that have installed solar water heater systems but these are in the minority. I presume the reasons are the same - back to inertia. But operating cost savings should be overcoming inertia in business.
What about electricity generation? Why do geothermal sites not supplement the heat from the ground with heat from the sun? There is an installation of a large “solar trough” array. Big talk about a “solar dish“. Israel was working on a “solar pond” but I haven’t heard much about that lately. Even “solar towers“. Here’s an interesting timeline for early solar development.
Here is a pdf file from the International Energy Agency that has good coverage of solar thermal processes and uses. It too laments the lack of industrial solar heat usage.
The use of solar energy in commercial and industrial applications is currently insignificant compared to the use in swimming pools and the household sector. Most solar applications for industrial processes have been on a relatively small scale and are mostly experimental in nature.
To be able to make use of the huge potential for solar heat in industry and to open a new market sector for the solar thermal industry, Task 33/IV – a collaborative research project of the IEA Solar Heating and Cooling Programme and the IEA Solar PACES Programme - is going to carry out potential studies as well as to investigate the most promising applications and industrial sectors for solar heat.
You go get’em! Overcome that inertia. They give a few examples of existing installations including one in Austria.
In Austria about 20 production halls are currently supplied with solar heat for space heating in wintertime. The solar fraction of these systems equals 20 to 100% of the total space heating and hot water demand of these companies.
This outdated chart shows installations by country. Notice that the scale increments by two installations.
I was just wondering, why is solar thermal such a non-starter?
- Posted in : Environment, In the News, Pictures, Positive Change, Renewable Energy, Science
- Author :Rt
Comments»
[...] Solar PV is also shining brightly. I am curious as to how much of our PV output is exported. None the less, locally and globally there is no lack of desire for solar PV. Solar heat is a disappointing story. Perhaps the EU can breathe some life into it. [...]