After a long decade of "decline", the EU solar thermal market for hot water and heating applications finally seems to have entered a new growth cycle, according to the EurObserv'ER 2019 barometer published on Tuesday 9 July.
In fact, in 2018, this market showed an increase of around 8.4% compared to 2017.
However, this growth is not uniform across countries and market segments.
The most positive development in 2018 came from Poland, where the sector jumped by 180% to 310,000m2. Other good news is the confirmation of the growth of the Greek market, which grew by 4% in 2018. The Spanish market is growing but to a lesser extent. Trends in former market drivers continued to stagnate. This is particularly the case in the German market. While it remains the largest market in the EU with 573,500m2 installed in 2018, it shows a further decline of 11.8% compared to 2017. The Italian market has also failed to stabilise. In France, the sector grew overall in 2018.
"The belated return to growth in the solar thermal market, even if it were to continue in 2019 and 2020, will not be enough for EU countries to achieve the targets they have set for 2020", the barometer specifies. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)