Brussels, 17 December 2014. At their General Assembly, on 5 December in Brussels, members of the European Solar Thermal Industry Federation (ESTIF) re-elected the outgoing Board of Directors, with Stephan Fintelmann from KBB Kollekterbau joining as the second industry representative.

The Annual General Assembly reviewed the 2014 achievements, in what is believed to be a transition year. Some important measures were put in place to create a better framework for solar heating and cooling; promoting the important role of the sector in the future energy system, as a decentralised heat supply technology.

“We strove to raise the sector‘s political profile, providing an active contribution and open cooperation with the European Commission; as is evidenced by the presence of Director Marie Donnelly from DG ENER at the ESTIF General Assembly”, said Robin Welling, President of ESTIF. He added: “We are pleased that, by re-electing all its members, the ESTIF membership expressed its confidence in the work of the outgoing Board of Directors.

In her speech, Mrs Donnelly confirmed that decentralised heating and cooling is one of the main concerns of the European Commission, which is working on finding adequate funding opportunities for energy efficiency, including renewable heating and cooling.

“Next year, the successful implementation of the Energy Labelling regulations will be the main challenge facing ESTIF and the whole solar thermal sector” said Pedro Dias, Secretary-General of ESTIF. These regulations represent a major change for the heating and cooling market and a great opportunity to seize, since solar thermal can play a vital part as system enhancer in the new “package label”.

The elected ESTIF Board of Directors: Robin Welling, President, TiSUN GmbH; Lothar Breidenbach, BDH (Bundesindustrieverband Deutschland Haus-, Energie- und Umwelttechnik e.V.);  Nigel Cotton, Chairman of the Advisory Council, European Copper Institute; Harald Drück, ITW, University of Stuttgart; Stephan Fintelmann, KBB Kollektorbau GmbH; Jörg Mayer, BSW (Bundesverband Solarwirtschaft e.V.) and  Jose-Antonio Pérez, BDR Thermea Group B.V.

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