The Status and Future of the Active use of Solar Energy

Abstract

As the first ‘scientific technical’ keynote speaker in this conference I feel honoured to present the status of ‘low temperature’ thermal applications of solar energy. As this conference is devoted to both active and passive use of solar energy I will restrict myself to the ‘active’ part of solar energy applications, whereas my colleague and friend Theo Steemers will give an introduction of the ‘passive’ solar topics. The content of my speech will be of a more general nature, because during the conference a lot of scientific and technical achievements will be discussed in the various technical sessions. It will give you an indication — at least I hope so — of where we stand now and as I think it is entirely justified, this speech will be a plea to use solar energy more than is the case today.