Abstract
Growth in the use of renewable energies in the 27 European Union (EU-27) countries over the past decade has been remarkable. Among these energies is solar thermal energy (STE). The average annual growth rate for the EU-27 countries in installed STE capacity in the period 2005–2011 was 20.82 %. While the use of STE has reached almost 43 % of National Renewable Energy Action Plan targets for the EU-27 countries for 2020, it is still nevertheless far from being used at its full potential, mainly because of barriers that hinder the installation of STE-based technologies in homes. Over recent years, various measures have been adopted in the EU to enhance and promote the use of STE. One measure has been to implement legislative regulations that require the housing construction industry to installation this type of energy in new homes. Another alternative has been to promote STE use via three forms of incentives: tax incentives, non-refundable grants and favourable lines of finance. Twenty-five of the 27 EU countries have used subsidies to promote solar thermal energy, 13 have used tax measures, 8 have used financial incentives and only 4 have adopted feed-in tariffs, with those countries with the most implemented measures being those with greatest amount of installed STE technology.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Country Reports on EPBD implementation can be found in BUILD UP, the European web portal for energy efficiency in buildings: http://www.buildup.eu/home.
References
Adelaja, S., Hailu, Y.G.: Effects of Renewable Portfolio Standards and Other State Policies on Wind Industry Development in the U.S. Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI (2008)
Annunziata, E., Frey, M., Rizzi, F.: Towards nearly zero-energy buildings: the state-of-art of national regulations in Europe. Energy J. (2013). doi:0.1016/j. 2012.11.049
Arvizu D. et al.: Direct solar energy. In: O. Edenhofer et al. (eds.) IPCC Special Report on Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge and New York (2011)
ASIT: La actualidad de la industria solar térmica. Asociación Solar de la Industria Térmica, Madrid (2012)
Buerger, V., Klinsli, S., Lehr, U., et al.: Policies to support renewable energies in the heat market. Energ. Policy 36, 3150–3159 (2008)
De Jager, J., Klessmann, C., Stricker, E., et al.: Financing Renewable Energy in the European Energy Market. Ecofys, Belgium (2011)
Cansino, J.M., Pablo-Romero, M.P., Román, R., et al.: Promoting renewable energy sources for heating and cooling in EU-27 countries. Energ. Policy 39(6), 3803–3812 (2011)
Carley, S.: State renewable energy electricity policies: an empirical evaluation of effectiveness. Energ. Policy 38(8), 3071–3081 (2009)
EREC: Mapping Renewable Energy Pathways towards 2020. EREC, Belgium (2011)
ESTIF: Solar Thermal Markets in Europe. Trends and Market Statistics 2011. European Solar Thermal Industry Federation, Brussels (2012)
ESTIF: Best Practice Regulations for Solar Thermal. ESTIF, Bruxelles (2007)
EuroACE: Current Financial and Fiscal Incentive Programs for Sustainable Energy in Buildings from Across Europe. EuroACE, Belgium (2009)
European Commission: Members States’ progress reports on 2011. European Commission, Belgium (2013a)
European Commission: Taxes in Europe. Database. European Comissión, Belgium (2013b)
Eurostat: EU Energy in Figures: Statistical Pocketbook. European Commission, Belgium (2012)
Eurostat: Data on ‘Energy statistics’. http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/energy/data/database (2013)
EurObserv’ER: EurObserv’ER database. EurObserv’ER (2013)
Höhne, N., Geurts, F., Teckenburg, E., et al.: EU Climate Policy Tracker. Ecofys, Belgium (2011)
Fantidis, J.G., Bandekas, D.V., Potolias, C., et al.: Financial analysis of solar water heating systems during the depression: case study of Greece. Inzinerine Ekonomika (Eng. Econ.) 23(1), 33–40 (2012)
IEA: Energy Efficiency Policies and Measures. Database. IEA, Paris (2013)
IEA: Solar Energy Technology Perspectives. IEA, Paris (2013)
IEA: World Energy Outlook 2012. Renewable Energy Outlook. OECD/IEA, Paris (2012)
IEA: Renewables for Heating And Cooling. OECD/IEA, Paris (2007)
IEA: Barriers to Technology Diffusion: The Case of Solar Thermal Technologies. OECD/IEA, Paris (2006)
Intelligent Energy Europe: Re-shaping Renewable Energy Policy Country Profiles. Intelligent Energy Europe, Utrecht (2010)
Jäger-Waldau, A., Szabó, M., Monforti-Ferrario, F., et al.: Renewable Energy Snapshots. Joint Research Centre, European Commission, Luxembourg (2011)
Jenner, S., Groba, F., Indvik, J.: Assessing the strength and effectiveness of renewable electricity feed-in tariffs in European Union countries. Energ. Policy 52, 385–401 (2013)
Klessmann, C., Held, A., Rathmann, M., et al.: Status and perspectives of renewable energy policy and deployment in the European Union—what is needed to reach the 2020 targets? Energ. Policy 39, 7637–7657 (2011)
Krozer, Y.: Cost and benefit of renewable energy in the European Union. Renew. Energ. 50, 68–73 (2013)
Labriet, M., Cabal, H., Lechón, Y., et al.: The implementation of the EU renewable directive in Spain: strategies and challenges. Energ. Policy 38(5), 2272–2281 (2010)
Marques, A.C., Fuinhas, J.A., Pires, J.: Motivations driving renewable energy in European countries: a panel data approach. Energ. Policy 38(11), 6877–6885 (2010)
Marques, A., Fuinhas, J., Manso, J.: A quantile approach to identify factors promoting renewable energy in European countries. Environ. Resour. Econ. 49(3), 351–366 (2011)
Menz, F.C., Vachon, S.: The effectiveness of different policy regimes for promoting wind power: experiences from the states. Energ Policy 34(14), 1786–1796 (2006)
Pablo-Romero, M.P., Sanchez-Braza, A., Perez, M.: Incentives to promote solar thermal energy in Spain. Renew. Sust. Energ. Rev. 22, 198–208 (2013)
Panek, A.: Impact, Compliance and Control of Legislation: Summary Report. ASIEPI, Poland (2010)
Sarzynski, A., Larrieu, J., Shrimali, G.: The impact of state financial incentives on market deployment of solar technology. Energ. Policy 46(1), 550–557 (2012)
Shrimali, G., Kneifel, J.: Are government policies effective in promoting deployment of renewable electricity resources? Energ. Policy 39(9), 4726–4741 (2011)
Solangi, K.H., Islam, M.R., Saidur, R., et al.: A review on global solar energy policy. Renew. Sust. Energ. Rev. 15(4), 2149–2163 (2011)
Stryi-Hipp, G., Weiss, W., Mugnier, D., et al.: Strategic Research Priorities for Solar Thermal Technology European Technology Platform on Renewable Heating and Cooling. RHC, ESTIF and Renewable Energy House, Belgium (2012)
Šúri, M., Huld, T.A., Dunlop, E.D., et al.: Potential of solar electricity generation in the European Union Member States and candidate countries. Sol. Energ. 81, 1295–1305 (2007)
Timilsina, G.R., Kurdgelashvili, L., Narbel, P.A.: Solar energy: markets, economics and policies. Renew. Sust. Energ. Rev. 16(1), 449–465 (2012)
Tsoutsos, T., Frantzeskaki, N., Gekas, V.: Environmental impacts from the solar energy technologies. Energ. Policy 33(3), 289–96 (2005)
Veerapen, J., Beerepoot, M.: Co-Generation and Renewables. OECD/IEA, Paris (2011)
Weiss, W., Mauthner, F.: Solar Heat Worldwide. IEA Solar Heating and Cooling Programme, Graz (2012)
Weiss, W., Biermayr, P.: Potential of Solar Thermal in Europe. ESTIF, Belgium (2012)
Yin, H., Powers, N.: Do state renewable portfolio standards promote in-state renewable generation? Energ. Policy 38(2), 1140–1149 (2009)
Acknowledgments
The authors wish to acknowledge the financial support received by the Cátedra de la Economía de la Energía y del Medio Ambiente (Chair of Energy and Environmental Economics) from the Fundació Roger Torné.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
del Pablo-Romero, M.P., Sánchez-Braza, A., Lerma, E. (2013). Solar Thermal Energy Use in EU-27 Countries: Evolution and Promotion. In: Ferreira, G. (eds) Alternative Energies. Advanced Structured Materials, vol 34. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40680-5_11
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40680-5_11
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-40679-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-40680-5
eBook Packages: Chemistry and Materials ScienceChemistry and Material Science (R0)