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The '''International Energy Agency Solar Heating and Cooling Programme (IEA SHC)''' is one of currently over 40 multilateral technology initiatives (also known as "implementing agreements") of the [[International Energy Agency]].<ref>[http://www.iea.org/techno/index.asp IEA multilateral technology initiatives]</ref> It was one of the first of such programmes, founded in 1977. Its current mission is to "''advance international collaborative efforts for solar energy to reach the goal set in the vision of contributing 50% of the low temperature heating and cooling demand by 2030.''".<ref>[http://www.iea-shc.org/about/strategicplan/SHC_Strategic_Plan.pdf IEA SHC mission, see page 4 of the strategic plan]</ref> Its international solar collector statistics ''Solar Heat Worldwide''<ref name=autogenerated1>[http://www.iea-shc.org/statistics/SolarHeatWorldwide/index.html International collector statistics ''Solar Heat Worldwide'']</ref> serve as an importanta reference document for governments,<ref>[http://www.usda.gov/oce/reports/energy/Web_SolarEnergy_combined.pdf USDA: ''Solar Energy Use in U.S. Agriculture – Overview and Policy Issues'', April 2011, p.66]</ref> financial institutions,<ref>Bank Sarasin: ''Solar industry: Survival of the fittest in a fiercely competitive market place'', November 2011, p. 41</ref> consulting firms<ref>[http://www.rolandberger.com/media/pdf/Roland_Berger_Clean_Economy_20100120.pdf Roland Berger Strategy Consultants: ''Clean Economy, Living Planet'', November 2009, p.22]</ref> and non-profit organizations.<ref>[http://www.earth-policy.org/datacenter/pdf/book_wote_energy_world_profile.pdf Supporting data sets for Lester R. Brown, ''World on the Edge: How to Prevent Environmental and Economic Collapse'', New York 2011, p.34]</ref>
== Membership and organization ==
== Fields of work ==
===Research, development and demonstration (RD&D)===
The IEA SHC aims at facilitating international collaboration in the research, development and demonstration of [[solar thermal energy]] and solar buildings. Their multi-year projects (also known as "Tasks") are conducted by researchers from different countries. Funding is provided by IEA SHC members, who usually pay one or more national research institutions to participate in the work.
Recent researchResearch topics include:
* [[Solar combisystem|solar space heating]], e.g. Solar and Heat Pump Systems (Task 44),<ref>[http://www.iea-shc.org/task44/ Solar and Heat Pump Systems (Task 44)]</ref> Solar Combisystems (Task 26)<ref>[http://www.iea-shc.org/task26/ Solar Combisystems (Task 26)]</ref>
* [[Solar_energy#Process_heat|solar industrial process heat]], e.g. Solar Process Heat for Production and Advanced Applications (Task 49),<ref>[http://www.iea-shc.org/task49/ Solar Process Heat for Production and Advanced Applications (Task 49)]</ref> Solar Heat for Industrial Process (Task 33)<ref>[http://www.iea-shc.org/task33/ Solar Heat for Industrial Process (Task 33)]</ref>
===International SHC conference===
In 2011, the IEA SHC Executive Committee decided to launchannounced an annual international conference on solar heating and cooling for buildings and industry. The first edition of this conference took place 9–11 July 2012 in [[San Francisco]],.<ref>[http://www.shc2012.org/ Website of the SHC 2012 conference]</ref> SHC 2013 will take place 23–25 September 2013 in [[Freiburg]], Germany. It will be hosted jointly with the European Solar Thermal Industry Federation (ESTIF), which had previously organized their own conference, ESTEC.
===Major publicationsPublications===
Apart from the reports and other publications of the research projects (Tasks), the Solar Heating and Cooling Programme publishes several cross-cutting documents, the most important one being the annual collector statistics ''Solar Heat Worldwide''.<ref name=autogenerated1 /> The SHC newsletter ''Solar Update'' is published twice per year.<ref>[http://www.iea-shc.org/newsletter/ IEA SHC newsletter ''Solar Update'']</ref> is published twice per year.
== References ==
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