Solar Thermal Energy Use in EU-27 Countries: Evolution and Promotion

Growth in the use of renewable energies in the 27 European Union (EU-27) countries over the past decade has been remarkable. Among these energies is solar thermal energy (STE). The average annual growth rate for the EU-27 countries in installed STE capacity in the period 2005–2011 was 20.82 %. While the use of STE has reached almost 43 % of National Renewable Energy Action Plan targets for the EU-27 countries for 2020, it is still nevertheless far from being used at its full potential, mainly because of barriers that hinder the installation of STE-based technologies in homes. Over recent years, various measures have been adopted in the EU to enhance and promote the use of STE. One measure has been to implement legislative regulations that require the housing construction industry to installation this type of energy in new homes. Another alternative has been to promote STE use via three forms of incentives: tax incentives, non-refundable grants and favourable lines of finance. Twenty-five of the 27 EU countries have used subsidies to promote solar thermal energy, 13 have used tax measures, 8 have used financial incentives and only 4 have adopted feed-in tariffs, with those countries with the most implemented measures being those with greatest amount of installed STE technology.