IEA SHC Solar Academy: Global Market Data of the Solar Industry - Key Insights from Solar Heat Worldwide 2025 (1)

Monika Spörk-Dür studied Plastics Engineering at Montanuniversität Leoben, Austria (MSc, focus on physical and chemical technology of plastics as well as materials testing). Since 2010 she works at AEE INTEC, with a focus on solar thermal energy and resource efficiency, scientific dissemination and solar thermal market analyses (IEA SHC Solar Heat Worldwide Report). Her experiences further cover the monitoring of energy efficient houses as well as solar thermal systems.

Bärbel Epp is the founder and managing director of the German consultancy solrico. She is responsible for the international newsletter of the web portal www.solarthermalworld.org, reporting exclusively about market and technology trends in the solar heating and cooling sector globally. solrico also created the first online World Map of SHIP suppliers (SHIP = Solar Heat for Industrial Processes) and carries out surveys among the around 70 companies listed on the world map annually. Bärbel Epp graduated in Physics at the University of Oldenburg, Germany.

Presentation: Current market figures and trends in solar district heating

Prof. Samson Mhlanga  is an Associate Professor in the Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering at the National University of Science & Technology (NUST) as well as the Country Coordinator of SOLTRAIN  projects (2017-2026), and a member of the Soltrain project since 2012.

Prof. Mhlanga holds an MSc in Advanced Manufacturing Systems (Brunel UK,), BEng in Industrial Engineering (NUST, Zimbabwe) and thus a vast experience of over 20 years in Engineering Education and Engineering Consultancy in Manufacturing Systems, Modelling Simulation and Engineering Optimization of People, Systems, Machines and Renewable Energy with focus solar thermal technologies. He is a member of the Zimbabwe Institution of Engineers since 1996 and has worked on over 150 industrial based projects at Postgraduate and Undergraduate level focusing of optimisation including solar thermal cooling, heating and drying. Aditionally, Prof. Mhlanga He is a trainer of solar thermal installers.

With a communications and marketing background, Valérie Séjourné started her career in a couple of FMCG Companies, Danone and Unilever but also as Communication Officer the French energy transition agency in Ademe. She then gained almost 25 years of experience in a well-established pan-European association in Brussels (A.I.S.E.), representing the detergent industry, and leading their sustainability strategy through many voluntary initiatives in the field of Corporate Social Responsibility, product policy/ecodesign, sustainability reporting, coordinating also several sustainable consumption campaigns across Europe. Communications, stakeholder engagement and advocacy outreach towards many different audiences at European and international levels are complementing her passion to make tangible progress for the transformation of society towards more sustainable, low-carbon, just and resilient models. She was appointed Managing Director of Solar Heat Europe in April 2023.

DI Christoph Brunner is the CEO of AEE INTEC in Austria, where he focuses on energy and resource efficiency, as well as the integration of renewable energy solutions in industrial applications. His work includes areas such as solar process heat and membrane distillation for wastewater purification and process water treatment.

He serves as the project coordinator for numerous national and international initiatives and is an Operating Agent for the International Energy Agency’s Solar Heating and Cooling Programme (IEA SHC). Christoph is also a board member of the European Technology Platform for Renewable Heating and Cooling (RHC-ETIP) and the Board of Partnerships of A.SPIRE, the European network dedicated to industrial decarbonization. In addition, he is a recognized UNIDO expert in energy efficiency and a lecturer at universities of applied sciences.