MINUTES Subject: ESTTP Steering Committee meeting Date/Time: 8 February 2011, 11:00-18:00 Place: Brussels, Belgium Participants: Lex Bosselaar, Jan-Olof Dalenbäck, Harald Drück, Hans-Martin Henning, Gerhard Stryi-Hipp (chairman), Werner Weiss, Theodor Zillner, Luc Bourdeau (guest) Secretariat: Pedro Dias, Simone Landolina, Xavier Noyon Editor: PD Distribution: RHC-Platform Secretariat, ESTTP Steering Committee 1. Welcome 2. Updates on Solar Thermal R&D activities - Updates from countries (by SC members) 3. ST-TP contributions for Smart Cities - Workshop on Smart-Cities: ST-TP inputs - Large systems: challenges in research and standardization 4. ST-TP: research agenda & cooperation - ECTP & E2BA: main priorities and future cooperation - IEA SHC Roadmap & collaboration with IEA - FP7 Call 2012: topics and actions for ST 5. ST-TP: priorities for 2011 - Goals and activities of ST-TP in 2011 - ST-TP Solar Thermal Roadmap 6. Any other business Presentations 1 Welcome and approval of the agenda Actions Gerhard Stryi-Hipp welcomed the participants and presented briefly the meeting agenda. There were some readjustments done to the agenda, mainly on point 6, where a discussion on the RHC Annual Conference and the proposals for the session of the solar thermal panel was required. 2 Updates on Solar Thermal R&D activities Updates were given on the situation in the countries of the participants in the meeting. Gerhard Stryi-Hipp presented the latest news for Germany. The
DSTTP (German Solar Thermal Technology Platform) has published its SRA at the end of 2010. This document reflects the technology priorities for solar thermal in Central European countries, nonetheless including more broad topics such as cooling. The main challenge for DSTTP will be the funding, has it will have to work with industry funding from now on. A steering committee composed in equal numbers by representatives from industry and research will be formed. The platform will continue to organise a biannual meeting. In terms of research funds, there was an overall increase for RES (6%) with an amount of 8 meur expected for solar thermal, besides indirect support related to calls on storage, buildings or energy efficiency. The German market suffered a very significant decrease (+/- 25%) for the second year in a row, which places many producers in a difficult situation. Lex Bosselaar presented the update for The Netherlands. The expectations are not the best, as the new government is reducing investment and the funds allocated for public bodies, affecting also the work done on research. There are reduced RES targets and the government intends to cut their direct investment and rely on industry investment (ex: green deals). This is affecting also solar thermal, which needs to rely on industry funds for R&D (and some possibilities for short term research on buildings). In order to adapt to this reality, ECN closed the building group which will now be taken over by TNO (with reduced staff). In terms of the ST market, it remains small and without prospects of a strong push in the near future. The energy policy of this government is more focused on nuclear and also on gas, as a result of the strong lobbies in the country and for RES only wind and biomass are well covered. Jan-Olof Dalenbäck presented an update on Sweden. There is not new support for ST and the existing subsidies shall phase out in the coming years. The RES targets for Sweden are not ambitious, considering the current reality so there will be no problem to reach the European RES-targets by cogeneration with biomass and new wind power. SEAS is trying to gain strength by joining forces with the pellets industry, namely in running a joint campaign, besides work already done on training and certification of installers. It is possible that a Renewable Energy Alliance is formed in Sweden. As for the research in ST, it remains very difficult, as public support only amounts to 50%, while the rest needs to come from industry. Theodor Zillner presented a short update on the situation in Austria. Funds for research in ST and related topics, such as storage, is quite
interesting and they are quite pleased with it. The main question concerning the market is that the support for renewable energy has been reduced in the generality of the states, affecting also solar thermal. And also the form of support is changing, focusing on the reimbursement of the interest related to loans for investing in RES. Pedro Dias provided a short update on the situation in different countries, namely referring the introduction of incentives related to the production of renewable energy, such as in the UK (Renewable Heat Incentive) and in Spain (new law proposal under discussion). 3 ST-TP contributions for Smart Cities Workshop on Smart-Cities: ST-TP inputs Gerhard Stryi-Hipp provided an introduction to the goals and agenda of the workshop on Smart Cities, taking place the following day, organised by the RHC-Platform and with the financial support of the Austrian Federal Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology. The group discussed some important points that should be raised during the workshop and that should be suggested for the final recommendations. These suggestions included the need for long-term planning, including always RHC and making an adequate use of local RES resources and addressing innovative RES-RHC-solutions. Besides, it should provide possibilities for new RD&D. In particular points such as storage are a must. Large systems: challenges in research and standardization The group discussed the main needs in terms of large systems. This application has had a tremendous growth in some countries and should continue has there are no serious technological (or standardisation) bottlenecks. Though some developments are necessary, namely on the design of the systems, with tools that would assist on the system design, facilitating calculation, for instance, on the hydraulics of the systems. Chairmen: Secretariat: Overall, the conception, installation and operation of these large systems are still a big challenge and more demonstration is required. In particular for industrial process heat, questions with stagnation temperatures are quite relevant and require further research.
4 ST-TP: research agenda & cooperation ECTP & E2BA: main priorities and future cooperation Luc Bourdeau, Secretary General of ECTP presented this organisation and E2BA. He explained how these entities were formed and evolved, and what the main priorities of their work are (presentation attached). The group then discussed the role of TPs and common difficulties. The differences between the different sectors and on the engagement of the industry in R&D activities, as well as on the respective Technology Platforms. The potential for cooperation was also addressed. E2BA is now working on the revision of their new roadmap, as the existing one focuses mostly on the short-term. This development would also take into account initiatives such as the SCI (Smart Cities Initiative). A new project Building-up is being started and in the framework of this project stronger cooperation with other TPs (even outside project consortium) is envisaged. This project aims at providing input for the revision of the E2BA roadmap and will therefore look for experience exchange with sectors to energy efficiency and buildings. Group of experts will be constituted with the participation of representatives from other sectors. The chairman of ESTTP proposed a common platform between different platforms as an interlocutor for the European Commission on the Smart Cities related topics. IEA SHC Roadmap & collaboration with IEA The IEA SHC Roadmap is now underway. Funding has been assured and the first activities are being planned. The first workshop will be mainly targeted at European participants and shall take place the 27-28 April in Paris (IEA HQ). The second workshop will try to get participants from different regions and shall take place in September next to ISES World Congress (Kassel, Germany). The third workshop shall take place in Asia, most likely in November. The process will count with a strong involvement of the IEA-SHC and will try to be balanced, therefore the strong involvement in the workshops, namely from the industry is crucial. From the side of IEA this process is being followed by Milou Beerepoot and Cédric Philibert. - FP7 Call 2012: topics and actions for ST
Taking into account that the EC is now discussing the FP7 call for 2011, the Steering Committee discussed some of the topics that are considered to be most relevant for solar thermal, in line with what is included in the ESTTP s SRA and considering what was already included in previous calls. After identifying the main topics, several members of the Steering Committee where charged with writing proposals on different topics, with the support of the Secretariat. For the discussion of the proposal it was considered that the call should also serve to fill in the gap of missing R&D programs with solar thermal in different countries. The main topics identified were: High solar fraction on the way to the solar active house Medium temperature range solar collectors Solar renovation, including multifunctional components Cost-reduced solar thermal systems with improved reliability (pre-manufactured components) System technology of large solar thermal systems Solar district heating In order to be able to send the ST-TP contribution before the upcoming meeting of the Programme Committee (foreseen for 17 February), it was agreed that these proposals should be compiled, revised and sent out by the 14 th February. 5 ST-TP: priorities for 2011 RHC-Platform Annual Conference Simone Landolina provided an update on the work of the RHC- Platform and informed that the contract for the SecRHC-Platform is now underway, having started officially on the 1 st January 2011. He also presented an update on the preparations of the RHC-Platform Annual Conference, that will take place in Budapest the 5-6 May and presented the draft programme. The Steering Committee then discussed some proposals for the two sessions dedicated to the solar thermal technology panel. It was agreed that the first session should provide an update and analysis of the successes of the ESTTP and the implementation of its strategic
research agenda. The second session shall be focused on the future priorities for the ESTTP and how to implement them. New Steering Committee The Steering Committee (SC) discussed the procedure to constitute a new SC. It was debated if this should be done by means of an open vote by the members of the panel but there were concerns that this option would not guarantee a necessary diversity in the SC, both geographical and also per area of work (industry, research and others, such as MPs or officials). Therefore it was agreed that the best would be to have a selection committee, constituted by respectable and exempt individuals/organisations. The call shall be further discussed but should be based on the previous one used. Revision of the SRA The group tackled also the question of the revision of the current version of the SRA (strategic research agenda). This version is now almost 3 years old and important developments took place in the meantime, besides the launch of national SRAs. Furthermore a revised version will be an important input for the work on the common SRA of the RHC-Platform. Therefore it was decided to launch a call to the ST panel looking for members interested in participating in a taskforce in charge of this revision. In case there is a wide interest, the division of this task-force into two or more working groups will e considered. This process should be launched before the Annual conference but the work of the task-force should only start after it, also in order to take into account the discussions happening there. On the framework of the SecRHC contract it is foreseen to launch a subcontract for the technical revision of the updated SRA, which shall be launched soon. 6 Any other business No further points have been raised and a next meeting was not yet scheduled.