The European Solar Thermal Industry Federation (ESTIF) members elected a new Board of Directors on 2 December at their General Assembly in
Reports from the development of national markets in 2008 show an increase in new installations of 45-50% to around 2,8 GWth of new capacity. For the first time the total collector area newly installed in
The ESTIF members elected a new Board of Directors and Mr Olivier Drücke as their new president. Mr Drücke is Head of Sales and Marketing of KBB Kollektorbau GmbH, a Berlin-based collector manufacturer. His vast industry experience and extensive international contact network will be very useful in his new role as ESTIF president.
A key priority of the new Board of Directors will be to support the member associations in the national implementation of the forthcoming Renewable Energy Directive. This piece of legislation is expected to have a strong positive impact on the solar thermal market in the coming years. National governments will have to be made aware that solar thermal can make a large contribution to meeting their national renewable energy target, if the right policy measures are put in place.
“The Directive contains much of what ESTIF has promoted for years”, says ESTIF President Drücke.” Once it is agreed, we must work hard to achieve good results from it in the 27 EU Member States. We will especially try to strengthen solar thermal actors, where national associations do not yet exist.”
Three other persons were newly elected on the ESTIF Board of Directors: Alexander Eichwalder of
Nigel Cotton of the European Copper Institute, who continues on the Board as Chairman of ESTIF’s Advisory Council, thanked the outgoing Board members for their excellent work in the past years. Four Board members, who had served since 2002, did not run for re-election: Teun Bokhoven of ZEN International, Horst Dufner of Solar Promotion, Gerhard Rabensteiner of Kioto Clear Energy and Gerhard Stryi-Hipp of Bundesverband Solarwirtschaft.
ESTIF organizes every two years the largest international conference dedicated to Solar Thermal worldwide. The 4th European Solar Thermal Energy Conference, estec2009, will take place on 25-26 May 2009 in
ESTIF is also a founding member of EREC, the European Renewable Energy Council, with whom it shares headquarters in
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