The International Energy Agency’s Solar Heating and Cooling Programme has opened applications for the SHC Solar Award 2026, inviting companies, business consortiums and public entities worldwide to submit innovative solar thermal solutions. The competition recognizes initiatives that significantly advance the adoption of solar heating and cooling technologies and expand their market relevance. The submission deadline is 30 April 2026. Nominations can be submitted online. The photo shows the winners of the IEA SHC Solar Award 2024 from the French project developer New Heat.
Eligible projects for this year’s award must demonstrate real-world impact, not just concept work. The award targets solutions that demonstrate substantial achievement and measurable impact to deploy solar heating and cooling technology. The central requirement is measurable contribution to lowering cost and environmental impact of providing heating or cooling.
Only projects implemented within the last five years qualify, and they must already operate at least at pre-commercial demonstration level (minimum TRL 7). Startups younger than ten years receive additional consideration in the evaluation process.
Nominations can be submitted by an individual business, business consortiums, regional, provincial or national entity, or an associated entity (e.g. developer, designer or builder). An international expert jury will select the winner. The award will be presented during the EuroSun 2026 conference in Freiburg, Germany, 14 to 18 September. The top five nominations will be recognized on the IEA SHC Website.
Previous awards for outstanding solar heat projects
The IEA SHC Award has been presented at the biennial EuroSun conferences for several years now.
2024 the team of the French project developer New Heat received the award for their 10.5 MW flat plate collector field at the dairy Lactalis Ingredients in France. Together with a 3,000 m3 storage tank the system covers 20 to 30 % of the drying tower’s needs for the dairy in Northern France over the year.
https://solarthermalworld.org/news/extremely-good-and-optimistic-atmosphere/
2022 Leonhard Eins, Managing Director of the Namibian company Solsquare Energy received the trophy for the installation of solar water heaters on 58 social houses built by the grape producer ORVI – short for Orange River Vineyard Investment. The project demonstrated that affordable living and ecological standards can work hand-in-hand.
Link https://solarthermalworld.org/news/iea-shc-solar-award-winner-social-housing-project-in-namibia/
Award ceremonies at previous EuroSun conferences: EuroSun 2024 in Limassol, Cyprus (left) and EuroSun 2022 in Kassel, Germany (right) Photo: IEA SHC Programme
Nominations for the IEA SHC Solar Award to be submitted online until 30 April 2026.