+1.5 % The increase of the solar thermal market in the EU 28 in 2019
The European Union solar thermal market for heat, heating, and domestic hot water production held up well in 2019. Initial estimates put the total installed collector area at just under 2.3 million m2, which is a slight increase (1.5%) on its 2018 level. However, individual country situations vary, and the sector still has to reinvent itself to meet the huge challenge of climate neutrality.
The term Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) covers all the technologies that aim to transform solar radiation energy into very high temperature heat to convert it into electricity. Most of the current CSP development is going on in countries and regions that offer suitably conducive sunlight conditions, such as China, India, Australia, South Africa, the Middle East, and the Maghreb. The European Union’s new CSP plant installation pace slowed down considerably after an initial flurry concentrated in Spain between 2007 and 2014. In 2019, the European Union gauge moved up slightly to 2 323 MW when the eLLO project in the Pyrénées-Orientales, France, officially came on stream.
