Industry consumes around one-third of the total primary energy demand. From that, around two-thirds of this industrial energy demand is used for process heating. Thus, sustainable solutions for industrial heat supply - like solar process heating - are needed for a transition toward manufacturing without carbon emissions.
At present, solar thermal energy isn’t typically applied in industry, for a variety of reasons. First, the legislative framework for renewable energies in most countries can be seen as somewhat biased toward power generation. Second, industry is often not aware of the opportunities of solar thermal technology and tends to invest its innovative capacities more on its products than its energy supply. Third, there is a lack of successful showcases proving the technology.
Nevertheless, due to the continuous growth of industry - especially in emerging markets - and limited availability of fossil fuels, solar energy will need to cover an increasing share of the industrial heat demand.
Read the rest of this article from our sister publication Pharmaceutical Manufacturing.