By Werner Weiss and Peter Biermayr

The European Union and its Member States have committed themselves to achieving a 20% share of renewable energy in Europe’s final energy consumption by 2020. To reach this target, the renewable heating sector will have to make a significant contribution since the demand for heating and cooling represents 49% of the total energy demand in Europe.

In order to provide the European Union and its Member States with substantiated information on the solar thermal contribution to the 20% renewable energy target and its long-term potential, detailed surveys were conducted using a representative sample of five European countries and the information is being extrapolated to the EU-27 countries. Both the technical and economic potential of solar thermal technologies were examined for different applications.