Potential for future applications
In spite of the current small contribution to the worldwide installed solar thermal power, the potential for providing heat to industrial application is really relevant.
Looking at this new promising market, several studies on the potential for solar industrial process heat have been recently performed in different countries such as Austria, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Netherlands. The main results of the potential studies performed in several countries all over the world are summarised with the key outcomes categorized by:
industrial heat demand by temperature range;
most suitable industry branches and processes for solar thermal use;
potential of application for solar thermal technologies in industry for several countries and at the European level.
