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Mature European Market: More than € 2 billion and More than 30,000 Jobs

Submitted by Baerbel Epp on Wed, 10/22/2008 - 23:10.

The solar thermal market in Europe is by far a mature sector with a substantial total turnover of more than € 2 billion and more than 30,000 jobs. This is shown by the Solar thermal barometer published in October by the French-based organization Observ´ER. These figures result from some simple assumptions.  The average specific turnover per installed collector area in the five key markets in 2007 is 863 €/m2 (see table 1). There is no common agreement yet in Europe on how the turnover should be calculated; that´s why the figures differ a lot from one country to another. Despite this uncertainty, the total turnover of the solar thermal sector in Europe can be estimated from this average. The overall market volume last year was 2.74 million m2 multiplied by 863 m2, adding up to a turnover of € 2.4 billion.  

Country / year Turnover of the national solar thermal sector (Euro) Annual newly installed collector surface ( m2) Turnover per newly installed collector area (€/m2)
Germany / 2007 850.000,000 940,000 904
Austria / 2007 380,000,000 281,000 1,352
Greece / 2007 235,000,000 283,000 830
Spain / 2007 210,000,000 262,000 802
Italy / 2007 104,750,000 245,000 428

Table 1: Turnover of the solar thermal industry in the leading countries in 2006 and 2007Source: National associations (BSW-Solar, Austria Solar, EBHE, ASIT, Assolterm)  

 

The same assumptions could be made for the jobs created by the solar thermal sector. Table 2 shows the number of jobs in the five major solar thermal markets in Europe – adding up direct jobs in the industry and indirect jobs in retail, installation and maintenance. The employment in these five key markets in 2007 already exceeded 30,000 full-time jobs.   

Country / year Jobs in the solar thermal sector (direct and indirect) Turnover per job (€/job) New installed collector area per job (m2/job)
Germany / 2007 15,000 56,667 63
Austria / 2007 6,500 58,462 43
Greece / 2007 3,250 72,308 87
Spain / 2007 3,360 62,500 78
Italy / 2007  2,551 41,062 96

Table 2: Employment in the solar thermal sector in the leading countries in 2006 and 2007Source: National associations (BSW-Solar, Austria Solar, EBHE, ASIT, Assolterm)  

On average, a plus of 73 m2 of newly installed collector area in a year adds one new full-time job. Relating to the overall European market of 2.74 million m2 this results in a figure of around 37,500 jobs. In most cases, solar thermal is used together with a source of back-up heating. Therefore, solar thermal does not replace another industry’s products, but really adds new demand and jobs. Assuming that the overall growth rate in Europe in 2008 will be 20 %, the sector will create around 7,500 new jobs.

Download Solar Thermal Barometer: www.energies-renouvelables.org/observ-er/stat_baro/observ/baro187.pdf

Mature market: more than € 2 billion and more than 30,000 jobs

Submitted by Anonymous on Mon, 10/27/2008 - 11:57.

I think it is a good indication that the market is developing and certainly the domestic hot water market has signs of maturity however the solar thermal market overall has a long way to go to meet its full potential. Especially, if you include process heat, water treatment, district heating, solar cooling and heat storage.
Nigel Cotton- ESTTP

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