Research Centre Trisaia - ItalyResearch Centre Trisaia - Italy

UNESCODESIRE - NET PROJECT

Multi media web site and e - learning PlatformJuly 12-13, 2006, Rome

SOLAR THERMAL MARKET AND BARRIERS

The modern Active Solar Systems market began as a consequence of the oil crisis in the 1970’s.

Many companies were created World-wide to manufacture, sell and install a series of new products, principally for heating water

in private houses, public buildings and swimming pools.

This enthusiastic and dynamic commercial activity was backed up by government sponsored research and development projects.

Great hopes were built on a steadily growing market. However, by the mid-1980s the situation changed, oil prices started to fall and the public fear of a conventional energy shortage slowly died out.

The solar industry suffered badly and the majority of the newly formed companies disappeared. Those that manage to survive improved their products, re-organised production methods and introduced quality controls in order to satisfy more exacting

customer demands.

The market has stabilised, but in most European countries the stabilisation is at a rather low level.

SOLAR MARKET IN ITALY 

At the end of 2000 a large solar thermal programme was launched in Italy. Overall installed capacity (during the year 2005) is more or less of 500.000 m2. Area of glazed solar collectors installed each year is about 65.000 m2 and approximately 3.000 m2 of un-glazed solar collectors .However, due to the market penetration of modern solar technologies at faster and faster rates, significant increase in the sale of solar collectors (approx. 15-20%) has been observed during the last couple of years. 

Market is developing for the double tube evacuated collector.

Considering the additional foreseen incentives made available during the coming years for both public and private sectors along with others specific incentives for the companies, significant market development would certainly be helpful to achieve the set-target of installing nearly 3 millions m2 up to 2012 (target set forth in the white book).

SOLAR THERMAL (MARKET BARRIER)

INFORMATION PRICE DISTORTION

ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS

INFORMATIONThe importance of this barrier varies from country to

country, depending ( as would be expected) on the promotion of the technology within the individual country.

In general, there are information sources available for decision makers to be able to reach a decision to invest in solar water heating.

However, there is also a lack of public awareness of the technology, which should be addressed by information campaignsfor the general public and professionals. There are government sponsored information campaigns in Denmark, Spain, Finland and Greece.

There appears to be a high level of knowledge about solar systems in Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden.

In some countries, for example, Portugal, information dissemination is needed to combat a reputation for low quality which had spread in the early days.

PRICE DISTORTIONActive solar systems have to compete with conventional

energies for which the environmental costs are not fully reflected in overall energy costs. Conventional energy therefore appears to be cheap compared with active solar heating.

Because a simple economic comparison does not reflect the environmental advantages of using active solar in comparison to the cheap conventional fuels, an introduction of measures such as CO2 taxes would help to even out this imbalance. Countries such as

Sweden, Denmark, and the Netherlands are addressing the issue.

In several EU countries, for example, the UK, the selling of solar heating systems involves high marketing costs per system due to the small size of the market and the lack of awareness amongst the general population. High marketing costs contribute to the overall system prices and as a result the economics of the solar heating systems be unattractive.

ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS

Solar thermal heating produces no emissions during operation but some very small levels of emissions are produced during the manufacture and installation of components and systems.

LEVEL OF EMISSION

Parameter Value

Emission-CO2 (kg/TJ) 0 Emission-SO2 (kg/TJ) 0Emission-NOx (kg/TJ) 0Emission-particulate (kg/TJ) 0Emission during construction-(CO2 kg/TJ) 3580-10502Emission during construction-(SO2 kg/TJ) 27 - 28Emission during construction-(NOx kg/TJ) 12 - 35Emission during construction-(particulate kg/TJ) 0.8 – 2.4

SOLAR THERMAL (EU COMPETITIVENESS)The European manufacturers of solar systems and materials are producing internationally competitive products.

The imports from non-EU countries are limited, mainly from Israel, Australia, Japan and Canada, while there is an export trend to non EU countries.

The solar thermal market in Europe and the Mediterranean countries represents potential World market.

The principal exporters in the world are Japan and Australia. Greece is the largest exporter of collectors within the EU.

SOLAR THERMAL (EU COMPETITIVENESS)

The industrialised countries should act as examples for the economically developing “sun-belt” countries, where active solar systems could play a much more important role. These countries are more important destinations for the technology than ‘well developed’ energy economies. This could have a major impact on the realisation of the world-wide active solar potential.

The current market for active solar systems appears to be particularly suited to SMEs. There are about 150 manufacturers of solar collectors in Europe. With further development of market larger companies may become interested in the technology.

SOLAR THERMAL: CURRENT R&D

R&D involvement differs in the different EU countries. The countries can be divided into the following three groups:

Strong involvement and financial funding of government and private companies

Involvement mainly by private companies

No involvement

Austria, Finland, Germany, Greece, Netherlands, Italy and the UK have governmental programs to promote solar thermal heating in all steps of development up to deployment, whereas in Denmark mainly the companies are involved in R&D funding.

Some EU countries are leading a JOULE/THERMIE project for the development of various components and equipment for

solar air conditioning.

SOLAR THERMAL – FUTURE POTENTIAL

Solar energy is available in all EU countries and the quantity of heat that can be collected with the current technology can contribute significantly to the total energy consumption. Even in a country like Greece, with relatively well established solar water heating market, still there exist a large unexplored potential.

World deployment of solar heating systems is expected to increase up to 100 million m2 or an energy contribution of 50 TWh/year (4.3 M.toe) by 2010 whereas the expecteddeployment in Europe by 2010 is 20 million m2 collector area, i.e. nearly 10 TWh/year or 0.9 M.toe).

Solar Thermal – Future PotentialThe more expensive systems, which have taken an increasing share of the market in Northern Europe since the late 1980’s,  employ larger collector areas and / or more sophisticated evacuated collector technologies. 

For climate related reasons, the prices of the larger and more sophisticated systems used in Northern Europe will never fall as low as those used in the South, but it is nevertheless expected that the prices of systems for use in Northern Europe will continue to fall during the coming decade.

SOLAR THERMAL – FUTURE R&D

The future R&D needs can be divided into two groups

FUTURE R&D NEEDS FOR MARKET PULL

FUTURE R&D NEEDS FOR TECHNOLOGY PUSH

FUTURE R&D NEEDS FOR MARKET PULL

AREA MEASURESHOUSEHOLD DOMESTIC AND SWIMMING POOL SYSTEM

promotion of technology

EU-wide implementation of standards

Training and certification of installers and system designers

Implementation of third party financing

EU-wide promotion of self-built groups

AREA MEASURESLARGE SCALE SYSTEMS promotion in the tourist and

multiple-family house sector, together with promotion of use in combination with biomass district heating scheme

Demonstration

(including installations implementing the Guarantee of Solar Results scheme)

FUTURE R&D NEEDS FOR MARKET PULL

FUTURE R&D NEEDS FOR MARKET PULL

AREA MEASURES

SPACE HEATING/

COOLING

INDUSTRIAL USES

Demonstration

Demonstration

FUTURE R&D NEEDS FOR TECHNOLOGY PUSH

Following R & D needs for technology push are necessary in all areas.

TECHNICAL AND ECONOMIC OPTIMISATION OF SYSTEMS

COST REDUCTION (ESPECIALLY FOR SPACE HEATING SYSTEMS)

DEVELOPMENT OF DESIGN ASSISTANCE SERVICES

BESIDE THE ABOVE-MENTIONED GENERAL R&D NEEDS, IT IS NECESSARY TO DEVELOP NEW TECHNOLOGIES FOR COOLING SYSTEMS.

“Quality assurance” in solar thermal

The “Quality assurance” corresponds

SOLAR SOLAR COLLECTORSCOLLECTORS

Standard EN 12975

Factory Made Factory Made SOLAR SYSTEMSSOLAR SYSTEMS

Standard EN 12976

Custom BuiltCustom BuiltSOLAR SYSTEMSSOLAR SYSTEMS

Standard ENV 12977

The Solar Energy LaboratoryExternal area of Laboratory

Collector test facilities

System test facilities

Solar Collector and Overall System Test Laboratory at ENEA Research Centre Trisaia

Furthermore the Laboratory is able to asses the daily and annual performance of solar domestic hot water systems according to EN 12976 and ISO 9459/2 standards.

The Laboratory performs:• efficiency tests both on glazed and

unglazed solar collectors according to European (EN 12975) and international (ISO 9806-1 and 3) standards;

• qualification tests (Internal pressure, Internal and External thermal shock, etc.) according the same standards.

Test sequence for solar collectors

Standard EN 12975:

• Internal pressure• High-temperature resistance• Exposure test (dry stagnation)• External and Internal thermal shock• Rain penetration• Internal pressure (retest)• Mechanical load• Thermal performance (efficiency test in steady-

state and transient condition, time constant, thermal capacity, Incident Angle Modifier, pressure drop)

• Impact resistance (optional)

EN 12975: Qualification test

High-temperature resistance - Exposure test (stagnazione a secco) - External and Internal thermal shocks

• High level of solar irradiance (> 1000 W/m²) without water;

• Exposure of collector to the ambient conditions without water until at least 30 days with minimum level of solar energy (14 MJ/m²);

• Resistance to external and internal thermal shock.

The aim of these tests is to check the resistance of the collector to:

EN 12975: Qualification test – Rain penetration

The objective of this test is to assess the extent to which glazed collectors are resistant to rain penetration.

Apparatus: Closed box with artificial rain generation

Test procedure:• Exposure of the collector to

controlled rain (T<30°C) for a period of 4 hour, with the simultaneous heating of the collector through hot water re-circulation (T>50°C).

Results:• No vapour condensation • Collector weight difference before

and after the test < 5 g/m²

EN 12975: Qualification test – Mechanical load

The objective of this test is to assess the extent to which the transparent cover and the mountings of the collector are able to resist at positive and negative pressure loads due to the effect of snow and wind.

Apparatus: a system with uniformly distributed set of suction cups, each connected to air compressed pistons.

Test procedure:• Positive pressure over the

collector cover • Negative pressure generated by

the means of a uplifting strength

Range of applied pressure:• 100 – 1000 Pa with a step of

100 Pa

EN 12975: Qualification test – Mechanical load

………………….Collector

cover fixtures

Stiff frame

Stiff frame

Mountingfixtures

Air piston

SV

SP

Suction Cup SteloSSt

P1P2 P3 Pn

F = Fi

N

F = Fi

N

EN 12975: Qualification test: Impact resistance

Scope: to simulate the effect of hails on collector glazing

Scheme used: system at verticle impact

Articolazione del test:• A series of 10 contacts realised

using a steel sphere weighing 150 gm falling from a distance in the range 20 cm to 2 m with inter spacing of 20 cm.

Test foreseen as per norms for the systems

Standard EN 12976:• outdoor characterization based on daily

performance and energy performance prediction on yearly basis.

Serbatoioacquacalda

Serbatoioacquafredda

Serbatoiodi

accumuloTi

Tf

P

Collettore

Scarico del

draw -off

Scarico per il precondizionamento

Sistema sotto test

Valvola dimiscelazione

Sistema diacquisizioneSistema di

acquisizione

• Solarimetro ;• Sens . Tamb

• Anemometro

• Solarimetro ;• Sens . Tamb

• Anemometro

Pompa dimiscelazione

Sensori ambientali

Serbatoioacquacalda

Serbatoioacquafredda

Serbatoiodi

accumuloTiT

TfTf

PP

Collettore

Scarico del

draw -off

Scarico per il precondizionamento

Sistema sotto test

Valvola dimiscelazione

Sistema diacquisizione

Data acquisition system

• Solarimetro ;• Sens . Tamb

• Anemometro

• Solarimetro ;• Sens . Tamb

• Anemometro

Pompa dimiscelazione

Sensori ambientali

System Test Facilities

The plant allows the simultaneous performance characterization of two SDHW systems arranged in parallel. The equipment consists of a control system that adjusts water temperatures and flow rates at the inlet of solar systems.

The adjustments are accomplished through digital PID, provided by self-tuning and controlled through a PLC.

A fully automatic data acquisition system controls the different sections of the plant and collects thermo-hydraulic and meteorological data.

Articolazione dei test

1 – Determination of daily thermal performanceThe test comprises of at least six days testing, each sub-divided in the

following three phases: Pre-condition of system Exposition of Solar radiation Evening Draw-off

icioutip

iiV TTVcQQ ,3

2 – Determination of losses during the nightTest foresee: Pre-conditioning of system (T initial > 60°C) night exposure Final temperature evaluation attained by the system

Vi

ii QV

QVf

3

1)(

Draw-off profile

anf

anispS TT

TT

t

VcU ln

3 – Draw-off file with initial mixing Test foresee: Pre-conditioning of system (T initial > 60°C) System draw-off with release of water at a temperature of 30°C less than that of pre-conditioning.

Performance based on longer duration (Day by Day Method)

The method makes it possible, through an iterative process extended over 365 days/year, to know the energy stored by the system, annually.

daily energy stored by the system + eventual residual energy stored during previous day;

Energy contained in volume of water effectively used by the consumer;

temperature reached by the system at the end of draw-off ;

Amount of energy lost during night; temperature recorded for the system on

the successive day.

The method is articulated according to a sequence of steps to be repeated daily, during which is calucalted:

A l g o r i t m o u t i l i z z a t o : P a s s o 1 : I n i z i a l i z z a z i o n e ( g i o r n o # 1 ) 1 . )( 1,1,101 caTH TTHQ

2 . 1

0

11, )(V

s dVVfQQ

3 . C

QQTT s

ce1,1

1,1,

4 .

C

tUTTCQ S

aneL exp11,1,1,

5 . C

QQQTT Ls

cs

1,1

1,2,

P a s s o 2 : C i c l o i t e r a t i v o P e r i = 2 : 3 6 5 s t e p 1 , i n i z i o c i c l o :

1 . )()( ,,01,, iciaTiHicisi TTHTTCQ

2 . iV

iis dVVfQQ0

, )(

3 . C

QQTT isi

icie,

,,

4 .

C

tUTTCQ S

ianieiL exp1,,,

5 . C

QQQTT iLisi

icis,,

,1,

F i n e c i c l o .

A l g o r i t m o u t i l i z z a t o : P a s s o 1 : I n i z i a l i z z a z i o n e ( g i o r n o # 1 ) 1 . )( 1,1,101 caTH TTHQ

2 . 1

0

11, )(V

s dVVfQQ

3 . C

QQTT s

ce1,1

1,1,

4 .

C

tUTTCQ S

aneL exp11,1,1,

5 . C

QQQTT Ls

cs

1,1

1,2,

P a s s o 2 : C i c l o i t e r a t i v o P e r i = 2 : 3 6 5 s t e p 1 , i n i z i o c i c l o :

1 . )()( ,,01,, iciaTiHicisi TTHTTCQ

2 . iV

iis dVVfQQ0

, )(

3 . C

QQTT isi

icie,

,,

4 .

C

tUTTCQ S

ianieiL exp1,,,

5 . C

QQQTT iLisi

icis,,

,1,

F i n e c i c l o .

I dati cosi ottenuti consentono di stimare:

365

1 0

365

1, )(

i

V

ii

ieannua

i

dVVfQQQ

annuac

annua

HA

Q

EN 12976: Thermal performance of solar systemsCharacterisation of daily performance: Consists of the evaluation of energy stored by the system under different climatic conditions and various temperature for system loading.

0 5 10 15 20 25 30-20

-10

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Radiazione giornaliera (MJ/m²)

Qua

ntità

di e

nerg

ia s

pilla

ta (

MJ)

Ta-Tc= -20Ta-Tc= -10Ta-Tc= 0 Ta-Tc= 10

)(0 caTH TTHQ

The energy Q stored by system is correlated to the energy H incident on the collector surface and difference between Tamb and Tc, as per the following relation:

THANKS