Thermal heating and cooling includes a multitude of applications in Southern Africa such as hot water preparation in the household, hospital or hotel sector, space heating and cooling of buildings. In industry, in addition to the drying of agricultural products, it also includes the provision of process heat, such as low-temperature applications in the food and beverage industry.
To illustrate the magnitude of the potential, heating and cooling for private, commercial and industrial purposes accounts for almost 50% of the total final energy demand in Southern Africa.
In order to demonstrate solar thermal systems for the above applications, SOLTRAIN is again supporting the installation of at least 100 demonstration systems in its fourth phase. Since the start of this phase in July 2019, 38 applications for the installation of solar thermal systems have been submitted. Of these, 31 systems with a total collector area of 500 m² have been approved so far.
