Brussels, 2 October 2012. Following the great success of SHC 2012, the second International Conference on Solar Heating and Cooling for Buildings and Industry conference will bring even more participants to Freiburg, Germany. The IEA Solar Heating and Cooling Programme (IEA SHC) and the European Solar Thermal Industry Federation (ESTIF) will jointly host this international event on 23-25 September 2013.

SHC 2012 in San Francisco was a great event", summarizes Werner Weiss, chairman of the IEA SHC who hosted the conference." From 9-11 July, more than 200 experts from 31 countries discussed the latest developments in solar heating and cooling as well as solar buildings. We heard about technological advancements in thermal storage, about cost-competitive large-scale projects, about successful public-private partnerships to develop regional solar thermal markets, and much, much more."

For the 2013 conference IEA SHC has joined forces with the European Solar Thermal Industry Federation (ESTIF). The European trade association has its own history of five successful ESTEC conferences. The next ESTEC conference will be integrated into SHC 2013, and once again be organized by PSE AG.

The conference committee of SHC 2013 is headed by Hans-Martin Henning of the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy and Xavier Noyon of the European Solar Thermal Industry Federation. A call for papers will be published on 1 December 2012.

"We are very happy that IEA SHC has decided to host the next SHC conference in Europe", says ESTIF Secretary General Xavier Noyon." It is our aim to add a strong industry focus to SHC 2013. Clearly, SHC 2013 will be the solar heating and cooling conference of 2013".

Conference website: www.shc2013.org