Page 113 - A Comprehensive Guide to Solar Energy Systems

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Solar Water Heaters

Zhangyuan Wang*, Zicong Huang*, Siming Zheng*, Xudong Zhao**
*GUANGDONG UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY, GUANGZHOU, P.R. CHINA; **UNIVERSITY OF
HULL, HULL, UNITED KINGDOM
zwang@gdut.edu.cn

6.1 Introduction

6.1.1 The Marketing Situation of Solar Water Heaters
Over the last two decades, the global solar market has increased significantly. By the end
of 2014, the total capacity of the solar thermal collectors in operation in the world was
410.2 GW, of which 70.6% (289.5 GW) was in China. An overview of the different types
of collectors installed in the different economic regions in 2014 is shown in Fig. 6.1 [1].
China is the world leader in respect to solar thermal capacity, focusing on evacuated tube
collectors for the purposes of preparing hot water and providing space heating. Europe
(47.5 GW) is ranked second, largely due to the contribution of the Germany market and
the United States is ranked third due to the large number of installation of unglazed col-
lectors used for swimming pool heating.
With the total market share of 93.3%, the global market of glazed solar collectors grew
significantly between 2000 and 2011, as shown in Fig. 6.2 [1]. However, in 2014 the market
declined by 15.6% due to the shrinking of the Chinese and Australian markets [1]. The
dominance of China is driven by its large population and the interest shown in the so-
lar heating sector. The second largest market for glazed collectors, the European market,
peaked at 4.4 GW installed capacity in 2008 and has since decreased to 3.4 GW in 2014. In
the remaining markets worldwide, an upward trend was observed between 2002 and 2012,
which leveled out in 2013 and 2014.
The energy production of all water-based solar thermal systems in 2014 was 335 TWh, cor-
6
responding to an energy savings of 36.1 × 10 t (36.1 million tonnes) of oil equivalent (Mtoe)
6
and 116.4 × 10 t of CO 2 [1]. Provisional numbers for 2015 suggested that in 2015, 357 TWh
energy was produced, which included 24.8 GW newly installed solar thermal collectors.
The European Solar Thermal Industry Federation [2] has forecasted that by 2030, as a
result of research and development activities and policy scenarios, the European installed
capacity will reach 1019 GW, and this will contribute about 15% of the low temperature
heat demand. Furthermore, they predict that by 2050, the total capacity could reach
2716 GW thus providing about 129 Mtoe equivalent of solar heat, which is roughly 47% of
the overall heat demand in the EU.

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