Greentech Lead Asia: The solar heating and cooling (SHC)
market grew 14 percent in 2010 and the installed capacity of solar collectors
reached 196 GWth.
The collectors provided 162 TWh of solar thermal energy,
according to a new report from the International Energy Agency (IEA).
“With 162 TWh produced in 2010, solar heating and cooling is second only
to wind amongst the new renewables. While China continues to lead in total
installations, Australia and Israel added more capacity per capita than any
other country,” said Werner Weiss, chairman of the IEA’s SHC unit.
The majority of the 2010 capacity was in China (117.6 GWth) and Europe (36.0
GWth), which together accounted for 78.5 percent of the total capacity.
Most of the existing systems provide domestic hot water only (95 percent). In
some countries, combisystems (systems that also cover part of the space heating
demand) have become a major application as well, the report notes. Industrial
applications, district heating and air conditioning are also all growing.
Combisystems and other applications beyond domestic hot water reached 10
percent of newly installed systems in 2010.
Thermosiphon (natural flow) systems are the clear market leader, accounting for
89 percent of the newly installed capacity in 2010 – compared with 11 percent
of forced circulation systems, the report says. Among types of collectors
installed, 78 percent were vacuum-tube collectors, 18 percent were flat-plate
collectors and 4 percent were unglazed collectors.