The International Energy Agency Solar Heating and Cooling Technology Collaboration Programme (IEA SHC TCP) is one of over 40 multilateral Technology Collaboration Programmes (also known as TCPs) of the
International Energy Agency
The International Energy Agency (IEA) is a Paris-based autonomous intergovernmental organisation, established in 1974, that provides policy recommendations, analysis and data on the entire global energy sector, with a recent focus on curbing carb ...
. It was one of the first of such programmes, founded in 1977. Its current mission is to "''advance international collaborative efforts for solar energy to reach the goal set in the vision of contributing 50% of the low temperature heating and cooling demand by 2030.''". Its international solar collector statistics ''Solar Heat Worldwide''
serves as a reference document for governments, financial institutions, consulting firms and non-profit/non-governmental organizations.
Membership and organization
The IEA SHC's members are national governments, the European Commission and international organizations. Each of the members is represented by one representative in the management body called the Executive Committee. The IEA SHC Executive Committee meets twice per year and is headed by an elected chairman. The IEA SHC currently has 28 members (Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, China, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, European Commission, CCREEE, EACREEE, ECREEE, European Copper Institute, ISES, RCREEE, SACREEE, SICREEE ).
Fields of work
Research, development and demonstration
The IEA SHC aims at facilitating international collaboration in the research, development and demonstration of
solar thermal energy
Solar thermal energy (STE) is a form of energy and a technology for harnessing solar energy to generate thermal energy for use in industry, and in the residential and commercial sectors.
Solar thermal collectors are classified by the United St ...
and solar buildings. Their multi-year projects (also known as "Tasks") are conducted by researchers from different countries. Funding is provided by IEA SHC members, who usually pay one or more national research institutions to participate in the work.
Research topics include:
*
solar water heating
Solar water heating (SWH) is heating water by sunlight, using a solar thermal collector. A variety of configurations are available at varying cost to provide solutions in different climates and latitudes. SWHs are widely used for residential a ...
and
solar air heating, e.g. Solar Hot Water for 2030 (Task 69), Solar and Heat Pump Systems (Task 44), Solar Combisystems (Task 26)
*
solar industrial process heat, e.g. Solar Process Heat (Task 64), Solar Energy in Industrial Water and Wastewater (Task 62), Solar Process Heat for Production and Advanced Applications (Task 49), Solar Heat for Industrial Process (Task 33)
*
solar district heating, e.g. Efficient Solar District Heating Systems (Task 68), Towards the Integration of Large Systems into District Heating and Cooling Network (Task 55), Large Systems: Large Solar Heating/Cooling Systems, Seasonal Storage, Heat Pumps (Task 45)
*
solar cooling
Solar air conditioning, or "solar-powered air conditioning", refers to any air conditioning (cooling) system that uses solar power.
This can be done through passive solar design, solar thermal energy conversion, and photovoltaic conversion (sunli ...
, e.g. Solar Cooling for the Sunbelt Regions, New Generation Solar Cooling and Heating Systems (PV or Solar Thermally Driven Systems (Task 53), Quality Assurance and Support Measures for Solar Cooling (Task 48), Solar Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration (Task 38)
*
solar buildings/architecture, e.g. Solar Energy Buildings (Task 66), Solar Neighborhood Planning (Task 63), Solutions for Daylighting & Electric Lighting (Task 61), Renovating Historic Buildings Towards Zero Energy (Task 59), Building Integrated Solar Envelope Systems for HVAC and Lighting (Task 56), Solar Energy and Energy Economics in Urban Environments (Task 52), Solar Energy in Urban Planning (Task 51), Solar Renovation of Non-Residential Buildings (Task 47), Solar Energy and Architecture (Task 41)
As well as work on:
* materials/components for solar heating and cooling, e.g. Compact Thermal Energy Storage Materials (Task 67), Application of PVT Collectors (Task 60), Materials & Components for Thermal Energy Storage (Task 58), Price Reduction for Solar Thermal Systems (Task 54), Compact Thermal Energy Storage (Task 42), Polymeric Materials for Solar Thermal Applications (Task 39)
* standards & certification, e.g. Solar Standards and Certification (Task 57), Solar Rating & Certification Procedure (Task 43)
* resource assessment, e.g. Solar Resource Assessment and Forecasting (Task 46), Solar Resource Knowledge Management (Task 36)
SHC conference
In 2011, the IEA SHC Executive Committee announced an annual international conference on solar heating and cooling for buildings and industry. The first conference, SHC 2012 took place 9–11 July 2012 in
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
,. SHC 2013 on 23–25 September 2013 in
Freiburg
Freiburg im Breisgau (; abbreviated as Freiburg i. Br. or Freiburg i. B.; Low Alemannic: ''Friburg im Brisgau''), commonly referred to as Freiburg, is an independent city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. With a population of about 230,000 (as o ...
, Germany., SHC 2014 on 13–15 October in Beijing, China, SHC 2015 on 2–4 December in Istanbul, Turkey. SHC 2013 and SHC 2015 were jointly with the European Solar Thermal Industry Federation (ESTIF), which had previously organized their own conference, ESTEC. SHC 2017 in Abu Dhabi, UAE and SHC 2019 in Santiago, Chile were jointly organized with ISES' Solar World Congress. EuroSun 2022 in Kassel, Germany is the first co-organized EuroSun conference with ISES. The next joint EuroSun conference with ISES is planned for 2024 in The Hague, Netherlands.
Publications
Apart from the reports and other publications of the research projects (Tasks), the Solar Heating and Cooling Programme publishes several cross-cutting documents, the most important one being the annual collector statistics ''Solar Heat Worldwide''.
The SHC newsletter ''Solar Update'' is published twice per year.
See also
*
List of pioneering solar buildings
The following buildings are of significance in pioneering the use of solar powered building design:
* MIT Solar House #1, Massachusetts, United States ( Hoyt C. Hottel & others, 1939)
* Howard Sloan House, Glenview, Illinois, United States (Ge ...
*
Passive house
"Passive house" (german: Passivhaus) is a voluntary standard for energy efficiency in a building, which reduces the building's ecological footprint. It results in ultra-low energy buildings that require little energy for space heating or coo ...
*
Low-energy house
A low-energy house is characterized by an energy-efficient design and technical features which enable it to provide high living standards and comfort with low energy consumption and carbon emissions. Traditional heating and active cooling systems ...
*
Zero energy building
A Zero Energy Building (ZEB), also known as a Net Zero Energy (NZE) building, is a building with net zero energy consumption, meaning the total amount of energy used by the building on an annual basis is equal to the amount of renewable energy c ...
*
Energy-plus-house
An energy-plus building (also called: plus-energy house, efficiency-plus house) produces more energy from renewable energy sources, over the course of a year, than it imports from external sources. This is achieved using a combination of micro ...
*
Sustainable development
Sustainable development is an organizing principle for meeting human development goals while also sustaining the ability of natural systems to provide the natural resources and ecosystem services on which the economy and society depend. The des ...
References
{{reflist
External links
IEA SHC homepage*
ttp://wire0.ises.org/wire/doclibs/EuroSun96.nsf/4817e6fc4e8d8facc12565a000428ee7/71e9a9dbe695ba4fc12565e600372d89!OpenDocument Reaching Extremely Low Levels of Energy Consumption: Strategies Usedbr>
The Experiences of IEA SHC Implementing Agreement Task 13Construction assemblies and details1st Wooden Prefabricated Zero Energy House the German Market
Solar Heating and Cooling Programme
Solar energy
Energy conservation
Low-energy building