Recently EcoGeneration caught up with Werner Weiss, Chair of the International Energy Agency’s Solar Heating and Cooling Program and Managing Director of AEE Intec – Institute for Sustainable Technologies. Mr Weiss discusses, advances in solar thermal technology, the differences between the European and Australian solar scenes, and the origins of his clean energy interests.
Mr Weiss has spent the past 25 years working in the field of solar thermal energy, low temperature heat, and of late has been working on industrial applications for solar thermal and sustainable buildings.
Solar thermal technology: ever expanding
Mr Weiss credits the shift from small-scale solar hot water applications to systems that cover several thousand square meters as the largest technological advance in his field. This expansion allows for the heating of water for an entire district, he explains.
Mr Weiss is also inspired by technological advances that have also been made in the development of smaller-scale solar cooling and air-conditioning. Political advances in the solar thermal sector are also duly noted by Mr Weiss, who celebrates that this technology is now recognised as important by international governments in the push to reduce global carbon emissions.
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Solar thermal projections
The future of solar thermal technology relies on the development of high density energy storage componentry, Mr Weiss explains. This means devising thermal chemical storage techniques to reduce the storage volumes associated using a water storage medium.
“This is the precondition for the long term vision which is to have 100 percent solar heating and cooling systems without a back-up system. I think this is what we have to do in the future.”
Solar thermal in Australia
In terms of solar thermal in Australia, Mr Weiss says that he was astonished to discover that there was a much greater national focus on concentrated solar. While he concedes that concentrated solar is important, as are all renewable technologies, the bulk of installed solar capacity worldwide is solar thermal at approximately 190 gigawatts(GW) – while there is less than 1 GW of installed concentrated solar internationally.
The situation is different in Europe says Mr Weiss, where there is a lot of discussion and projects involving solar thermal.
Installed solar thermal: Australia and Europe
Australia
Currently there is only a very small number of working solar thermal power systems in Australia and few of them relate to using this technology for heating and cooling. The largest solar thermal installation is the Liddell Power Station which has a demonstration plant of approximately 1.5 megawatts (MW) although a larger system is being planned on this site. The CSIRO is also constructing a
0.5 MW solar thermal power station in Mayfield, western New South Wales. Both of these projects focus on energy generation, rather than heating and cooling.
In May 2009 the Federal Government announced the $1.5 billion Solar Flagships Program to help fund the construction and deployment of up to four large-scale solar power stations of around 250 MW, of which two can be solar thermal. Construction of these energy generation sites should commence in 2012.
Europe
According to statistics presented in report a released by the European Solar Thermal Industry Federation in a June 2010, Germany has the largest installed solar thermal capacity in Europe.
The report titled Solar thermal markets in Europe: trends and market statistics 2009 details that Germany has close to 250 MW of installed solar thermal capacity covering an area of just over 1.5 square kilometres. The following five European countries in terms of installed solar thermal are Italy, Spain, Austria, France and Greece. Combined, these countries host just over 500 MW of installed solar thermal capacity covering an area of 3.5 km2.
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