If the thermal process heat demand in industrialised countries is analysed, one recognises that there are two ranges of temperatures with a high industrial heat demand: one at a temperature range of 800°C and one in the range up to 250°C. This latter temperature range offers good conditions for the application of solar thermal collectors to cover at least part of that heat demand. The following industrial sectors are especially concerned:

• food and beverage industry

• breweries

• laundries and tanneries

• textile industry

• chemical industry

• paper and pulp industry

• investment goods industry

All over Europe, the process heat demand in this temperature range is estimated to about 400 TWh per year. The potential for solar process heat is estimated in [2] to be 90-112 GWth for the EU25 countries. The development of this market potential will open new growth segments for the European solar thermal industry. Moreover, very promising possibilities for the export of new solar thermal technology exist world-wide, especially to countries and regions with high solar irradiation. Therefore it is necessary to develop new appropriate collectors, system components, storage tanks and complete solar process heat systems in the next years. The aim should be to achieve a number of ‘good practice examples’ within the next years, so that in the future an increasing part of the process heat demand can be covered by solar thermal technology.