This year’s edition of the IEA Solar Heating and Cooling Programme’s, "Solar Heat Worldwide: Markets and Contributions to the Energy Supply 2004", reports that the solar thermal sector has become a market leader in the past five years, growing 10 times faster than the overall economy. The annual collector yield (energy produced) in 2004 was 58,117 GWh - an oil equivalent of 9.3 billion liters and annual avoidance of 25.4 million tons of CO2 emissions. Initial 2005 data estimates an annual collector yield of 68 GWh, second only to wind.

Statistics in this report are based on data collected from 41 countries, representing about 57% of the world’s population and 85-90% of the solar thermal market. Data show that the installed capacity in 2004 was 98.4 GWth. Concerning the installed capacity per 100,000 inhabitants leading countries were Cyprus at 63 MWth, Israel at 52 MWth, Greece, Austria and Barbados at 19 MWth. The Most dynamic market was China with an average growth rate of 25 % annually between 1999 and 2004 and representing 44% of the world market. China was followed by Australia and New Zealand at 19 % and Europe at 13 %.

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