Industrial solar thermal applications in Greece: Economic evaluation, quality requirements and case studies

Industrial solar thermal installations of the 1980s had to face problems of poor quality and high maintenance requirements. During the 1990s the situation began to change and today in Greece there exist installations which are both economically attractive and offer significant energy saving and environmental benefits. Good potential for applications of solar thermal systems exist in sectors such as agrofood, textiles, chemicals and beverages. In this paper these systems are evaluated in economic terms in comparison with energy equivalent systems such as diesel, LPG, fuel 1500 and natural gas. The development of local solar thermal markets is described and eight successful applications of solar thermal systems in Greek industry are presented.