Study on impacts of EU actions supporting the development of renewable energy
technologies
Solar Thermal R&D Study FindingsPresented on 24/09/2018 in Brussels
Historical R&D funding
Framework programme
Solar thermal Solar thermal and other RES
EU funding
(M EUR)
Number of
projects
EU funding
(M EUR)
Number of
projects
FP5 57 47 2 4
FP6 22 22 8 2
FP7 208 53 23 9
H2020 - up to mid-March 2018 113 46 6 1
Total EU funding 400 168 38 16
EU FP R&D funding
• Funding increased considerably from FP7 onwards
Source: Cordis, 2018
Funding converted to 2016 Euros)
Comparison to other sectors
• Solar thermal received 11% of total €3.6 billion
• Dip in FP6 (4%), peak in FP7 (13%)
Source: Cordis, 2018
H2020 not for full funding period
Funding per sub-technology
• Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) received most funding
• Increased funding for solar process heating and PV-thermal hybrids in FP7 / H2020
Source: Cordis, 2018
Funding at MS level
• Stable Member State (MS) R&D funding for solar heating
• Increased MS funding for CSP from 2001 onwards
• Highest R&D budgets in Italy, Germany and Spain
• 13% of MS R&D budgets for RES to solar thermal
Source: IEA/OECD, 2018Note: 2010 & 2015 decrease partly
due to missing data for Italy
International comparison
• Combined EU FP and MS funding at world leading level
EU: MS + EU FPs
No data available for ChinaSource: OECD/IEA (2018
Research effectiveness
Patents
• EU patent registrations losing ground to strong growth from China
• No correlation between R&D funding and patent applications
• In line with other RES assessments – patents are not a common output of publicly funded R&D projects
Source: IRENA INSPIRE (2017)
Publications (1/2)
• Strong growth in solar thermal publications by EU authors
• EU funded projects generated a large number of publications and supported top publishing organisations
Source: Web of Science (2018)
Publications (2/2)
• EU successful in sustaining academic leadership in solar thermal technologies
Source: Web of Science (2018)
Other outputs of R&D funding
• EU FP funding contributes to much more than patents and publications
• Key impacts include technology advances, increased knowledge transfer and collaboration, and market access / market formation
Source: Questionnaire conducted
as part of the study
Key impacts of EU Framework Programme funding
Concentrated Solar Power
Scale-up and market creation
• EU FP funding for demonstration projects (e.g. PS10, Andasol and SOLAR TRES) contributed to market uptake of CSP in the 2000s
• More recent demonstration projects outside EU support market formation and market access outside of the EU
Source: Eurostat
Technology improvements
• EU funding enabled technology improvements and cost reductions• e.g. in heat transfer fluids, thermal energy storage, water
consumption management, and hybrid CSP plant solutions
• EU funding vital for continuity of research and sustained international competitiveness of EU industry
Collaboration and knowledge transfer
• EU funded projects such as ECOSTAR (FP6) and STAGE-STE (FP7) brought solar thermal stakeholders together
• Industry involvement in EU funded projects fostered public/private knowledge development
Key impacts of EU Framework Programme funding
Solar heating and cooling
Building integrated solar thermal
• Development of building-integrated solar thermal technologies is supported through various projects
• Examples include EINSTEIN, CHESS-SETUP and FLUIDGLASS
Solar district heating
• EU supported advancing the solar district heating market (SDHp2m, SDHplus and SDHtake-off)
• Combined with the efforts of leading Member States (e.g. Denmark) global leadership has been achieved in solar district heating
Industrial applications
• More recently, EU FPs supported the development of the solar industrial process heat market through funding of demonstration projects (e.g. SOLARBREW)
• Alignment of research activities for solar process heat is supported through the INSHIP project
Industrial leadership
• Competitive EU solar heating and cooling sector
Source: Based on Comext (2018), Lako, P (2008), Eurostat (2018), Wind, I
(2009), and Jha, V (2009)
Conclusions
• The EU has world leading R&D budgets for solar thermal energy and has been successful in establishing and maintaining a leading academic position
• EU FP funding played an important role in the development and market uptake of CSP and has been vital for continuity of research in recent years. Combined with the efforts of Spain, this has facilitated the development of a globally leading EU industry
• EU FP funding contributed to developing building-integrated solar heating, solar district heating and solar process heating for industry. Combined with the efforts of key Member States such as Denmark, this has contributed to a competitive EU solar heating industry
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