Solar-Pellet Combisystems : A feasibilityStudy in Toscana, Italy

Abstract: Solar thermal technology, and pellet as well, seem to be on a breakthrough to a scale market. Several barriers hamper their penetration in the society. In this work is demonstrated that non-technical barriers are the most significant. Inte target area, Val d’Orcia, where ETA is developing a project to start a pellet production plant, the feasibility of solar-pellet combisystems is investigated under different points of view. A technological investigation on solar-pellet combisystems demonstrate their technical and economical feasibility. A survey on installers underline the necessity of increasing their knowledge and skills on solar thermal plants via professional courses. A survey on farmtourisms shows that these social actors, due to their perception of solar collectors as unaesthetic, presently are not the suitable vector for diffusion of solar technology as could be expected.The economical accessibility to a solar-pellet combisystem is limited by the relatively high upfront cost. This matter has several directions of improvement. The most significant, in my opinion, is the development of ESCO’s market, which also means development for solar thermal and pellet, RES market in general.