The European solar thermal market remained static in 2011, close to the 2.6 GWth installed in 2010
Some important markets continued to grow such as the biggest European market, Germany, and also Poland. Others went through a very difficult time, especially in Southern European countries, such as Italy, Spain and Portugal; however, Greece bucked this trend with a slight market growth. There were some positive developments for both large and very systems, but these alone cannot offset the downturn experienced in more traditional market segments.
With almost 2.6 GWth installed in 2011, the total installed capacity in Europe is now 26.3 GWth, generating 18.8 TWh of solar thermal energy while contributing to savings of 13 MMt CO2. Despite the impact of the economic and financial crisis, the solar thermal sector still shows an average growth of 3.9% and 9.0% over the last five and ten years, respectively.