IEA SHC Solar Academy: Solar Heating and Cooling Markets and Industry Trends (1)

The webinar will be moderated by Pedro Dias, Secretary General of Solar Heat Europe, Belgium. Mr. Dias holds a management degree from the Instituto Politécnico de Viana do Castelo (IPVC) in Portugal and has extensive experience in both private sectors and the non-governmental sectors. Previously, he worked in the heating sector, more specifically in gas retail and commercialisation of heating equipment.

Bärbel Epp is the founder and managing director of the German consultancy solrico. She is responsible for the international newsletter of the web portal www.solarthermalworld.org, reporting exclusively about market and technology trends in the solar heating and cooling sector globally. solrico also created the first online World Map of SHIP suppliers (SHIP = Solar Heat for Industrial Processes) see www.solar-payback.com/suppliers and carries out surveys among the around 80 companies listed on the world map annually. Since six years Bärbel Epp is SHC chapter author of the annual Global Status Report on Renewables published by REN21. Bärbel Epp graduated in Physics at the University of Oldenburg, Germany.

Werner Weiss is founding member of the Austrian research institute AEE – Institute for Sustainable Technologies (AEE INTEC) in Gleisdorf. He was the director of the institute until February 2020 and is now member of the board.

He is working in national and international solar thermal and energy efficiency projects since the beginning of the 1980ies and headed numerous national and international projects – especially in the framework of EU, IEA and UNIDO programs.

Since 2009 he is board member of the European Technology and Innovation Platform on Renewable Heating and Cooling and since 2010 the Austrian representative in the Executive Committee of the Solar Heating and Cooling Programme of the International Energy Agency (IEA). From 2010 to 2014 he acted as chairman of this IEA programme.

Since 2007 he is a lecturer at Vienna University of Technology and the University of Applied Sciences - Technikum Wien.

Dr. Harald Drück is head of the Research and Test Centre for Solar Systems (TZS) and  head of R&D at the Institute for Building Energetics, Thermotechnology and Energy Storage (IGTE) at the University of Stuttgart, Germany. His scientific focus is predominately related to development of performance test methods and certification schemes for solar systems and their components for domestic hot water production, space heating, industrial processes and solar thermal cooling as well as on the areas of heat storage, buildings with high solar fractions and smart cities.

Nationally and internationally, Dr. Harald Drück works as a consultant for a large number of public and private clients. In addition, he is involved in numerous national and international working groups and committees, e.g. as Honorary Chairman of the Solar Keymark Network and Chairman of the Global Solar Certification Network, the European Standardisation Committee CEN TC 312 and the international Standardisation Committee ISO TC 180 as well as the board of directors of the European solar thermal industry federation Solar Heat Europe (SHE). Furthermore he is operating agent of the newly initiated IEA SHC Task 66 on Solar Energy Buildings.
In addition to his work at the University of Stuttgart, Harald Drück is also head of SWT (Solar- und Wärmetechnik Stuttgart / Solar Heat Technology Stuttgart), one of the leading service providers in the field of solar thermal technology and adjunct Professor at the Raiagiri School of Engineering and Technology in Kochi, India.