March 14, 2018, 3:00 - 4:30 PM (CET)

Having the image of being too expensive to buy, too complex to install, too costly to maintain, solar thermal often loses the race against other offerings in today’s heating sector. How this trend can be reversed is one of the key questions of the SHC’s Task 54 “Price reduction of solar thermal systems”. This webinar gave information on the solar thermal value chain and highlight parts with the highest cost reduction potential. Task 54 experts explain economic and technological mechanisms that could change the price structure of current solar thermal systems decisively through five practical examples.

All stakeholders were invited to join the webinar held on Wednesday, March 14, from 15 to 16.30 CET.

This was the fifth of a series of webinars organized by the IEA SHC Programme’s Solar Academy and was hosted by the International Solar Energy Society. A recording of the event from the webinar is available below. The webinar was a discussion about the opportunities and challenges and future role of solar heat in urban environments.

Webinar Recording

Agenda

1. Solar thermal value chain and cost reduction potential (S. Fischer, ITW)
2. LCOH calculation method (Y. Louvet, Uni Kassel)
3. Practical examples
       3.1. Reduction of production costs - Potential of polymeric materials (M. Meir, Aventa)
       3.2  Reduction of production costs - Potential of process cost optimization (A. Oliva, ISE)
       3.3  Cost reduction by standardization (S. Fischer, ITW)
       3.4  Cost reduction by temperature limitation (B. Schiebler, ISFH)
       3.5  Cost competitiveness of multi-family-house systems (F. Veynandt, AEE INTEC)
4. Wrap-up (M. Köhl, ISE)
5. Q&A (Moderator: S.Saile, ISE)

Expert Speakers

Stephan Fischer
Group Leader Testing Research and Testing Center for Thermal Solar Systems (TZS) at the Institute of Thermodynamics and Thermal Engineering (ITW) of the University of Stuttgart, Germany, Leader of Subtask B

Michael Köhl
Senior researcher at Fraunhofer ISE, Germany, Operating Agent of Task 54

Yoann Louvet
Researcher specialized in solar thermal systems, working with cost calculations, Phd student at the University of Kassel, Germany

Michaela Meir
R&D leader, Aventa AS, a Norwegian company pioneering in the manufacturing and installation of polymeric solar thermal collectors, Leader of Subtask A

Axel Oliva
Leader of a project on the techno-economic optimization of solar thermal systems at Fraunhofer ISE, Germany 

Sandrin Saile
Project manager at Fraunhofer ISE, Leader of Subtask D

Bert Schiebler
Leader of a project on solar system optimization at the Institute for Solar Energy Research Hameln (ISFH)

François Veynandt
Researcher specialized in simulation and cost calculations of solar thermal systems at AEE - Institute for Sustainable Technologies, Austria