The Potential of Solar Heat in Industrial Processes. A State of the Art Review for Spain and Portugal

In this paper an overview of the potential of solar industrial process heat is given, with a special focus on Spain and Portugal: Available studies on the industrial heat demand are reviewed. Experiences with existing pilot plants for solar process heat are referenced. The present energy demand in the EU for medium and medium-high temperatures can be estimated to about 300 TWh. Recent developments in the field of medium and high temperature solar collectors are summarised and an overview of efficiency and cost of existing technologies is given. Future trends due to current research and development projects are outlined. Based on TRNSYS simulations for five cities in Spain and Portugal, an estimation of the system efficiency of solar process heat plants in the Southern European climate are given for different collector technologies. With state-of-the art technology in the Iberian Peninsulae annual energy gains of 400 – 1000 kWh/ma and resulting energy costs of 0.04 – 0.12 /kWh are obtained for solar heat at 100 oC, depending on the site and on the applied collector technology. Actually a detailed study on the solar process heat potential for Spain and Portugal is under way within the 5 Framework Programme. First interim results of this project are presented.