07 AUG 2021 Large-Scale Solar Thermal District Heating and Cooling: One on One with Sabine Putz The SHC Programme wrapped up its third project on large solar systems (Task 55) in December 2020. To learn how the Task impacted this market sector,... read more
07 AUG 2021 Integrating Large SHC Systems into District Heating and Cooling Networks Integrating large-scale solar thermal plants into district heating and cooling grids is playing a crucial role in many countries’ energy transformation... read more
26 MAY 2021 New SDH factsheet database goes online The IEA Solar Heating and Cooling Programme has just launched a database containing a substantial number of fact sheets about solar district heating technologies,... read more
26 MAR 2021 Improving the efficiency of Solar District Heating (SDH) Since the end of IEA SHC Task 55 – Large Solar District Heating and Cooling Systems last December, there have been multiple calls for continuing the work... read more
20 NOV 2020 Fact sheets TASK 55 available TASK 55 ends soon! Currently the fact sheets are in finalization. There are already some fact sheets downloadable. read more
27 OCT 2020 Improved design for giga-size pit heat storage Denmark’s cost-effective, tried-and-true seasonal pit heat storage concept needs to be modified if it is to be implemented across Europe, since district... read more
30 SEP 2020 Four years of global SDH research summarised in online workshop and factsheets On Thursday, 15 October 2020, an online technology transfer workshop about large solar district heating networks will provide attendees with the perfect... read more
24 JUN 2020 Success factors in top SDH countries In the last decade, Denmark, China, Germany and Austria played a leading role in the deployment of large solar thermal systems around the world. What country-specific... read more
03 JUN 2020 FINAL SHC Task 55 Expert Meeting - Online Meeting - October 13 - 15 The meeting will be held as a pure virtual/online meeting via ZOOM. Registered participants will receive the ZOOM link in the week before the start of... read more
20 JAN 2020 UK Training Workshop on Renewable Heat for Heat Networks Held in December In December, Triple Point Heat Networks Investment Management, in collaboration with the IEA Solar Heating and Cooling TCP, hosted a workshop in the UK... read more
01 DEC 2019 Final IEA SHC Task 55 Expert Meeting FINAL Task 55 Expert Meeting: October 13th to15th, 2020 will probably take place in Graz, Austria. We are looking forward to welcome you in Graz in October... read more
13 SEP 2019 Solar District Heating Infographics Available for Download Task 55 has developed eleven infographics to illustrate SDH technologies, advantages and market developments. The files are available as jpgs and pdfs... read more
12 JUL 2019 New Solar Keymark Network Rules Allow On-Site Testing The Solar Keymark Network has expanded its range of options by including in situ testing. At a meeting in March 2019, a revised version of the Solar Keymark... read more
27 JUN 2019 7th IEA SHC Task55 Expert Meeting The 7th IEA SHC Task55 Expert Meeting is taking place Task 55 Expert Meeting: October 7th/8th 2019 District heating industry workshop: October... read more
03 JUN 2019 Seasonal pit heat storage: Cost benchmark of 30 EUR/m3 Denmark has had a steep – but successful – learning curve with regard to the cost and efficiency of seasonal pit heat storage, which is used to store sunlight... read more
17 APR 2019 GBP 320 million for low-carbon heat networks Heat networks have proved to be a reliable and cost-effective means to supply low-carbon thermal energy. And yet, just 2 % of buildings in the UK are connected... read more
27 MAR 2019 International Solar Energy Society (ISES) Webinar March 21st 2019 Thank you again very much for participating in last weeks webinar, we had great feedback from the attendees and I think it went very well. The... read more
27 NOV 2018 Sun meets 90% of district heat demand in Tibet On 29 and 30 October, the Solar Academy of the IEA SHC Programme held a 1.5-day training course on solar district heating in Lianyungang, at Sunrain Solar... read more
16 JUL 2018 Combining the strengths of collector technologies Task 55 of the IEA SHC Programme is currently studying the benefits of systems equipped with both flat plate and parabolic trough collectors to supply... read more
06 JUN 2018 On-site collector testing: new standard in development Once a large solar field is set up at its designated location, what tests can be conducted to show that it performs as expected? Soon, the IEA Solar Heating... read more
04 JUN 2018 IEA SHC TASK 55: Trends in April 2018 The 4th Task 55 Expert Meeting, the SHD DHC Joined Workshop and lates project results are highlihted within the latest Task 55 Trends Statement. read more
21 APR 2018 Sweden: Pioneer of solar district heating When it comes to district heating, Sweden has made the switch from fossil fuels to biomass and waste heat (see chart). As early as 2015, biomass provided... read more
02 MAR 2018 Solar district heating on the Roof of the World A contract to set up a solar district heating network in Langkazi county in Tibet has been awarded to Arcon-Sunmark Large-Scale Solar Systems. read more
07 DEC 2017 SHC 2017: Largest experts’ meeting on integrated solar heating and cooling NEWS at Solarthermalworld.org: 500 experts from more than 50 countries attended the 5th International Conference on Solar Heating and Cooling... read more
13 SEP 2017 French Independent Heat Supplier: “Optimise and de-risk all contracts” French-based NewHeat is a rapidly growing start-up. About two years after it was founded in December 2015, management has raised almost EUR 1.8 million... read more
07 JUL 2017 3rd Meeting of the IEA-SHC Task 55 "Towards the Integration of Large SHC Systems into DHC Networks" The 3rd SHC Task 55 Expert Meeting will be organized along the Solar World Congress 2017 in Abu Dhabi, UAE, which takes place from the 29th of October... read more
07 JUN 2017 Release of a MATLAB Toolbox to calculate pressure loss coefficients (zeta values) for T-pieces at low Reynolds numbers One of the key aspects in the design of large solar thermal plants is the hydraulic layout of the collectors and collector arrays. This recently released... read more
24 MAY 2017 IEA SHC Task 55: Solar District Heating Means Big Business Solar district heating is attractive business. Not only does this become obvious when looking at the 347 MWth of newly installed SDH capacity in Denmark... read more
16 MAY 2017 Netherlands: Solar Thermal Benefits from SDE+ Solar Heat Tariff The need for highly competitive designs meant that solar thermal had not had much of a chance within the SDE+ programme until the end of 2015. Most of... read more
12 APR 2017 TWITTER: Task 55 News Task 55 is now on Twitter! Follow the latest Task 55 News HERE. read more
07 NOV 2016 SHC TASK 55 Kick-Off Meeting in Graz, Austria: About 25 Experts joined the Event 19th - 21st of October 2016: International experts on large scale solar thermal systems, district heating, heat pumps, control strategies, or systems operations... read more
07 NOV 2016 SHC Task 55 at the Green Expo Forum 2016 - Video is now available! The Green Expo Forum 2016 in Doha, Qatar, is a platform for practitioners, experts, regulators and researchers, to discuss various topics on sustainability... read more
20 OCT 2016 TASK 45 / 55: Guidelines on How to Design Seasonal Storage Seasonal storage is a key component in the transformation of today’s energy industry. Besides storing energy in summer for heating in winter, it can also... read more
20 OCT 2016 District heating: “The industry is very optimistic about its future prospects” District heating has a long history in Scandinavia: The international symposium on district heating was launched there in 1987. In the meantime, the technology... read more
12 MAY 2016 Harmonizing Hashtags in Your Posts Three major solar heating and cooling institutions – the European Solar Thermal Industry Federation (ESTIF), the IEA Solar Heating and Cooling Programme... read more