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In 2004, solar thermal energy contributed 1,608 GWh to electricity production and 130 TJ to heat production in the world. This is a very small fraction of 17,530,990 GWh total electricity production and 12,489,385 TJ total heat production. The supply of solar thermal energy in 2004 comes from 0.4 GW of electricity generating capacity and 77 GWth(Giga Watt thermal equivalent.) of solar hot water and heating (SHW/H) systems. In comparison, global electricity generating capacity was 3,800 GW, of which, renewables energy supply for electricity had a share of just 160 GW, excluding large hydropower. In the five years ending 2004, the use of SHW/H globally grew 17.0% annually. China is the largest user of SHW/H. Its share of global installed capacity was about 60.0%, moderating from 75.0% in 2001. Translated, that is a collector area of 62.24 million m2, after adding 13.5 million m2, or a growth of 26.6% for 2004. In 2005, China added a further 23.0% to their solar hot water (SHW) capacity. In other parts of the world, the EU had 12.7% of installed SHW/H capacity, Turkey 9.0%, Japan 7.0%, and Israel 4.4%. |
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| In terms of usage intensity for SHW, Israel had the highest capacity of over 700 m2 per 1,000 inhabitants. Cyprus is second with just over 600 m2 per 1,000 inhabitants, or 479 kWth per 1,000 inhabitants. In comparison, China had less than 100 m2 per 1,000 inhabitants. In the EU, there were 1.11 GWth of installed new SHW/H capacity in 2004 from a collector area of about 1.59 million m2. This is a growth of 12.0% over the previous year. In 2005, its growth accelerated to 26.0%, adding almost 2 million m2, or a capacity of 1.4. The 2005 growth rate exceeded expectations of a pace similar to that of 2004. This market activity in 2005 is translated in a turnover of about €2.0 billion. As at end 2005, the biggest solar thermal markets in the EU were Germany, Austria, Greece, |
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France, Spain and Italy. Together they formed 85.0% of the EU market. |
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Generally, energy costs from conventional fuels are about US$0.02-0.05 per kWh from power grids. Off-grid energy costs are higher. Solar hot water systems, which are a fairly well developed technology, are competitive but are less so in regions where solar power is weaker and demand for heating is greater. |
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