combi systems

• USA: SRCC Improves Process Efficiency and Works on Standard for Combi Systems-

  Since Eileen Prado has become Executive Director of the Solar Rating & Certification Corporation SRCC in summer 2010, the average time for the testing and certification process has been cut in half. Although there are new programmes coming up next year, Prado is confident that certification periods can be reduced further.
  Photo: SRCC

• Long-term Trend in Austria: Combi Systems in retrofitted Houses -

  Austrian flat plate collector manufacturers may smile again: Last year's decline seems to have been overcome. A quarterly anonymous survey carried out by an Austrian accounting company among 25 members of the solar thermal industry association Austria Solar (representing 75 % of the total market volume) showed an increase in sales of 22 % in the first quarter of 2011, compared to the previous weak year. The annual market statistics carried out by the Federal Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology (BMVIT) also show several other interesting trends, such as the one towards combi systems (see figure).
  Figure: BMVIT/Austria Solar

• France: Dissatisfying Market Development in 2009-

  Collective systems are on the rise in France: This photo shows the youth hostel of the Association Logis des Jeunes de Provence in the city of Cannes in the South of France. Photo: Enerplan

• Summer boom in Germany- Germany's solar thermal market is growing again, and this at an astonishing rate. After market sales plummeted by 37 % in the past year, the monthly sales statistics of BDH (Federal Industrial Association Germany House, Energy and Environmental Technology) – as they are available to the author – show encouraging increases in all segments. In the first half of this year, the quantity of flat-plate collectors rose by 85 % to 779,507 m² (546 MW_th), compared to the previous year. Evacuated tubes showed an increase of 55 % to 88,416 m² (62 MW_th).