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02 MARKET AND INDUSTRY TRENDS
Over the last five decades, the primary application of solar
thermal technology globally has been for water heating in singlefamily
houses; the residential segment accounted for 63% of
the total installed collector capacity at the end of 2014 (the most
recent data available). 30 In recent years, however, markets have
been transitioning to large-scale systems for water heating in
multi-family buildings and in the tourism and public sectors. In
2014, this commercial sector accounted for only 28% of the total
collector capacity in operation worldwide, but it represented 50%
of newly installed collector capacity. 31 (p See Figure 22.)
The transition from single-family houses to the commercial sector
continued during 2015 in many countries around the world. 32 The
best examples were China and Poland, where the commercial
markets grew rapidly, whereas the residential sector declined
drastically. 33 In China, solar thermal systems for multi-family
houses, tourism and the public sector accounted already for 61%
of newly installed collector area in 2015. 34 In Poland, the major
market driver was larger systems in public buildings, financed
with international funds. While such projects saw an increase
of up to 10% in volume relative to 2014, the residential segment
declined significantly in response to the national residential
subsidy scheme that favours solar PV. 35
The use of solar thermal for space heating also continued to
gain ground, particularly in Europe, where an increasing number
of large-scale solar thermal systems feeds into district heating
grids. As in past years, Denmark dominated Europe’s solar district
heating market in 2015. Beyond Denmark, only three other district
heating installations larger than 350 kW th went into operation:
Austria, Italy and Sweden each brought one plant online. 36
Denmark brought 17 new and 3 expanded solar district heating
plants (totalling 187 MW th ) into operation in 2015; this compares
with only 7 MW th of solar water heaters installed in single-family
houses during the year. 37 At year’s end, Denmark had 79 solar
district heating plants in operation, with a combined capacity of
577 MW th ; an additional 364 MW th of large-scale solar heating
systems was in the pipeline. 38 Denmark’s situation is unique in
that it has inexpensive and sufficient land in the vicinity of its
municipalities; taxes on fossil fuels; and cost-effective mounting
systems developed by the domestic industry for large groundmounted
collector fields. 39
At the end of 2015, Europe was home to 252 large-scale systems
with a total of 745 MW th , making up around 2% of the region’s
total operating solar thermal capacity. 40 Nearly half (48%) of these
large systems are connected to block heating (mostly stand-alone
boilers); another 36% are connected to district heating systems;
and the remaining 16% are used for other applications, primarily for
solar cooling and solar process heat. 41 After several years with no
new large-scale installations, both Germany and Spain had several
large-scale solar thermal systems in the pipeline as of early 2016. 42
Solar heat is being used in an expanding range of heat-based
industrial processes, such as water preheating, evaporation,
cleaning, drying, boiling, pasteurisation, as well as thermal
separation. The most popular sectors for solar process heat
applications in recent years have been the food and metal
processing, textile, beverage and mining industries. 43 In 2015, a
variety of industries invested in solar process heat installations,
among them the Dairy Bonilait (France), the automotive supplier
Harita Seating systems (India), an Italian cheese producer, a
garment manufacturer in India and the pharmaceuticals producer
Ram Pharma based in Jordan. 44
The largest investor was Petroleum Development Oman (CPD),
which began construction in November of its 1 GW th , USD
600 million Miraah solar steam-producing plant, located next
to the Amal West Oil field in Oman. 45 Once completed, in 2017,
Miraah is expected to be the largest solar steam-producing plant
worldwide. 46
As of March 2016, at least 188 solar process heat projects,
with a combined capacity of 106 MW th , were operating in 32
Figure 22. Solar Water Heater Applications for Newly Installed Capacity, by Country/Region, 2014
Share
in %
100
Swimming pool
heating
Domestic hot water
systems for
single-family houses
Large domestic
hot water systems
(multi-family houses,
tourism and public
sector)
Solar combi systems
(domestic hot water
and space heating
for single- and
multi-family houses)
Others
(solar district heating,
solar process heat,
solar cooling)
80
60
40
Source:
IEA SHC.
See endnote 31
for this section.
20
0
World
United
States /
Canada
Australia
Latin
America
Sub-
Saharan
Africa
EU-28
and
Switzerland
Asia
excl. China
Middle East
and
North Africa
China
Turkey
72