Solar thermal energy is a relatively new technology which has already shown enormous promise. It is a larger energy source than is commonly perceived and it consists of three technologies. The report consists of three sections each covering one of these technologies and its markets.

- Low temperature ST Collectors for water, building and process heat
- Solar thermal cooling
- CSP - Concentrated Solar Power - Solar thermal power generation
-- STEG (Solar Thermal Electricity Generation), Rankine-Cycle STPP
-- ISCC (Integrated Solar Combined-Cycle System

ST collectors have more capacity and produce more energy than wind power and more than geothermal, solar PV and ocean energy combined. By 2009 there were147,000 MW of wind power, 174,000 MW of solar thermal collectors for water heating and building heating or cooling installed, but only about 1,000 MW of high temperature solar thermal collector generating capacity and about 17,000 MW of solar PV capacity.
The major direct use solar thermal market is China, which leads the world by a long margin, followed by the United States, Germany and Turkey. Although the installed capacity of CSP, solar power generation is still small it has started to take off in the last two years, notably in Spain and the United States.

Key topics covered:
- The main technologies
- The different components of the technologies
- The development of solar thermal technology
- The world market for direct use solar thermal appliances
- Major direct use solar thermal country profiles
- Solar thermal power generation technology
- The current status of CSP solar thermal electricity generation, with profiles of the major markets
- Costs and future cost development of STP solar thermal power

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