Introduction

The international trend is increasing towards replacing the fossil fuel as a primary source for energy with alternative energy sources that are more environment-friendly and sustainable (renewable). Besides the increasing environmental requirements for sustainable development and climate protection, the compelling issue is the rising energy costs which impacts the production costs in industry and increases the burden on governments to satisfy the national demand of energy. Solar thermal has been proposed as a solution to lower the dependency on fossil fuel sources due to significant solar potential in the southern Mediterranean region. The first straight forward application which reduces the consumption of the traditional energy (electricity, oil, LPG) is the use of Solar Water Heaters (SWH). To analyse and compile the state of the art of the use of SWH technology in six countries of the region (Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria and Tunisia) was the aim of the jointly conducted workshop. This document summarizes the results of the workshop and gives a good overview about the current market situation of this promising technology that can contribute to lower the demand for fossil fuels and thus reduce the emission of green house gases.