Solar Thermal Action Plan for Europe (STAP)

The Solar Thermal Action Plan for Europe (STAP)  offers a comprehensive strategy for market development, including EU-wide targets for Europe by 2020, based on a shared analysis of the market and technological situation and perspectives.

The STAP offers a comprehensive set of guidelines for best practice policies to promote the use of solar thermal heating and cooling. These guidelines are based on experiences and case studies from many countries. They offer a blueprint for industry and policy makers at local, national and European level to help them implementing effective and successful policies to address the most pressing issues for solar thermal at this stage.

The STAP represents the combined and shared view of the large majority of the market players members of ESTIF, active in the solar thermal market throughout Europe and beyond. It has been developed with the support of the EU project Key Issues for Renewable Heat in Europe. Some of the documents have been published in 2006, others in 2007.

• A full colour brochure including statistics, targets for 2020, the market development strategy and a short summary of the policy guidelines (January 2007, available also on paper)
• A number of downloadable charts and diagrams
• In depth studies and materials on the following issues:
  
  1. Regulations and solar obligations  (webpage with a number of documents)
  2. Financial incentives (August 2006, 67 pages, 672 kB)
  3. Innovative applications: State of the art, and policy recommendations 
      - solar assisted cooling (August 2006, 21 pages, 2,2 MB)
      - solar industrial process heat (August 2006, 15 pages, 370 kB)
  4. Quantifying energy delivery by measurement and simple calculation (August 2006, 16 pages, 303 kB; June 2007, 5 pages, 60 kB)
  5. Setting verifiable targets at national and EU level (June 2007, 10 pages, 126 kB)
  
• A single consolidated PDF, including all contents above, but with a simplified format of the contents of the full colour brochure (June 2007, 233 pages, 2,1 MB)

• Solar thermal heating and cooling (ST) saves scarce and precious gas, oil, electricity and biomass
• ST reduces emissions and increasing the security of energy supply
• Solar thermal is one of the most cost effective renewable technologies, available nearly everywhere in Europe
• Solar thermal is key for the future heating supply
• There is a huge unexploited potential for solar heating and cooling
• Few countries have started a serious market development, but most EU Member States are still in the starting blocks
• Growth throughout Europe will create substantial economies of scale and thus cost reductions
• Public policies are decisive to kick-off growth towards critical mass
• Once the market reaches a critical mass, policy support can be gradually reduced
• A comprehensive support strategy is needed to address at the same time the barriers to growth
• The single most important instrument to promote solar thermal are solar obligations
• Specific guidelines on key policy issues are provided

The Solar Thermal Action Plan for Europe has been produced within the project "Key Issues for Renewable Heat in Europe" (K4RES-H) , coordinated by ESTIF, and supported by the 'Intelligent Energy - Europe' programme of the European Commission.

The following K4RES-H project partners have contributed to the solar thermal section of the project:

• Agencia d’Energia de Barcelona (BEA)
• Energie 2000 - Energieagentur im Landkreis Kassel
• EC-JRC - European Commission, Joint Research Centre
• IDAE - Instituto para la Diversificacion y Ahorro de la Energia
• WIP

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