Frequently Asked Questions

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Solar thermal systems produce hot water whether the system is installed in Sweden, Germany, India, Tunisia or South America. The annual yield depends on the application (domestic hot water, pool heating, space heating), the local climatic conditions and system dimensioning (high or low solar fraction). The annual collector yield per square metre of collector area lies around 250 kWh/m2 for unglazed pool heating systems, 400 kWh/m2 for solar combi systems for hot water production and space heating in northern regions, and up to 700 kWh/m2 for installations in southern European regions used only for hot water preparation.

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Flat plat collectors are made of metal, glass, insulating and joining materials. Typically copper, steel or aluminium is used for the absorber configuration. The sides and bottom of the collector are usually metal and insulated with mineral wool to minimize heat loss. The glass top is made of special glass to resist facture and maximise transmission of energy. In the future, a variety of materials and combinations of materials including plastics may be used to improve cost benefits ratios, higher temperature ranges and systems performance.

Vacuum tubes collectors are made of a borosilicate glass. Mostly the absorber layer is coated on the inner tube and no metal is required. But there are also tubes with an inner metal fin absorber.

For swimming pool heating, plastic or rubber are used to make low-temperature absorber plates.

The solar collector is usually mounted on the roof and is connected to a circuit containing water with propylene glycol anti-freeze added. The tank is also made of metal, partly stainless steel, partly enamelled steel or copper.

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There is a wide variety of applications for solar thermal technology. The most common application is the heating of pool water, the heating of domestic hot water and room heating. Not very developed yet are solar cooling systems, because of the complexity of the technology and the high initial investment costs. Also, commercial applications such as in breweries or car washes, as well as in the food and textile industries, are still in their infancy.

What is the difference between vacuum tube collectors and flat plate collectors?
With flat plate glazed collectors the absorbers are fitted in a box closed by a pane of glass (88 % market share in 2006 in Europe). Vacuum tube collectors – which are the dominating technology in China (89 % market share in 2006) – have the absorber placed within a succession of evacuated glass tubes.
Generally speaking, the advantage of vacuum tubes is a higher efficiency (less space required for the collector on the roof) and higher temperatures (necessary for process heat and some solar cooling technologies). The disadvantage: The vacuum tubes produced in Europe are more expensive than the flat plate collectors but in some incentive schemes like in Germany they receive the same grants as the flat plate collectors.
In China, some locally produced vacuum tube collectors have a poor quality performance, flat plate collectors are seen as high-quality products.

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Solar thermal systems most probably have higher "first costs" than other kinds of heating systems. Also, the energy is not available 24 hours a day and not sufficiently during all seasons of the year. That means that storage systems like water tanks and backup systems are a must in all solar thermal installations.

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“Replacing imported fuels with local jobs”, this slogan of the European Solar Thermal Industry Federation (ESTIF) sums up perfectly the advantages of solar thermal technology for a national economy. The six biggest solar thermal markets in Europe – Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain, Greece and France – already exceeded 34,000 full time jobs in 2007. With an annual average growth rate of 20 % that is 6,800 jobs more each year.
Furthermore solar thermal technology is an export trigger. In mature markets solar thermal industry is reaching high export rates. In 2007, Austria produced four times as many collectors as were newly installed in the country. In Greece, for the first time in 2008, the export will exceed local sales.

Further Information: “Solar Thermal Action Plan for Europe” by the European Solar Thermal Industry Federation (ESTIF)
www.estif.org/281.0.html

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Most importantly: The energy of the sun is endless, sufficient and free of charge. Using solar water heating technology makes you independent of the rapidly increasing fossil fuel prices. It saves customers energy, money, is clean and safe and it is a long-living technology with life cycles of 25 years and more.
In the summer your system can provide 100 % of your hot water demand for showering and bathing. To make sure that you do not run out of hot water, there is always a backup system for the times the solar system cannot provide all your needs. In sunny regions such as Southern Europe and Northern Africa solar water heaters can provide almost 100 % of the hot water demand of a family.

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The ambitious scenario of the European Solar Thermal Industry Federation (ESTIF) expects Europe will reach 0.7 kWth (1 m2 of collector area) per European in 2020, equivalent to a total capacity in operation in the EU by then of 320 GWth. To reach this target, a suitable support framework will be required and solar will then be being widely used for both cooling and supplying process heat, though the majority of this capacity will still supply domestic hot water and space heating. The average yearly growth rate of the EU market necessary to reach this target is 31 % – less than the rate achieved in 2006 and only 7 % above the 2002 to 2006 average. This scenario requires – supposing a linear growth – an installation of 12.2 GWth (17 million m2) in the year 2020, six times more than in 2007, when 2.1 GWth (3 million m2) were newly installed in Europe as a whole.
Further Information: “Solar Thermal Action Plan for Europe” by the European Solar Thermal Industry Federation (ESTIF) www.estif.org/281.0.html

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You have fast-growing independent producers here which focus on the production of solar thermal components only. Some of these companies are more than 30 years old, like the German Wagner & Co, the Israeli Chromagen and the US-American Sun-Earth. But the global market leaders today are newer firms like Greenonetec in Austria, the biggest flat-plate collector manufacturer in the world, which was founded in 1991 (turnover 2007: 73 million Euro).

The giants of the European heating industry discovered the advantages of heating with the sun only ten years ago. Today all of them offer solar thermal systems and most of them have started producing their own collectors, e.g. Viessmann, BBT/Bosch, the MTS Group or the Vaillant Group.

The big players in China are the manufactures of the glass tubes for vacuum tube collectors; the three biggest among them are Linuo, Tian Xu and Bao Guang.

Another sector which is gaining strength is the coatings industry, providing absorber sheets with a certain coating which guarantees very high absorptivity and very little emissivity. The two biggest players worldwide are the German companies Alanod Aluminium-Veredlung GmbH & co. KG and Bluetec GmbH & Co. KG.

In the next few years, façade and roof specialists are likely to enter the market in Europe. Additionally, a few more national heating manufacturers will start selling and producing solar thermal systems.

Further information:www.greenonetec.com,www.sunearthinc, www.chromagen.biz, www.alanod-sunselect.de, www.bluetec-germany.de, www.bbt-thermoetechnik.de,www.vaillant-group.com ,www.viessmann.com,www.mtsgroup.com, www.wagner-solartechnik.de, www.cnbg.en.alibaba.com (Bao Guang),www.linuo.com ,www.lgtxsolar.com (Tian Xu)

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The international solar thermal market is gathering momentum. Whereas the global rate of growth stood at 12.6 % in 2004 and 10.3 % in 2005, the market growth in 2006 reached 22 % globally and is very likely to stay at this high level in the years to come. The future perspective depends very much on the market development in China. In the last seven years the solar thermal market in the People’s Republic increased at an average rate of 21 % per year.

Further information: Solar Heat Worldwide, a study from the IEA Solar Heating & Cooling Programme, May 2008 (www.aee-intec.at/0uploads/dateien565.pdf)
China catches up on technology in Sun & Wind Energy 3/2007 page 51 to 64) www.sunwindenergy.com

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By far the largest solar thermal market in the world according to newly installed solar thermal capacity per year is China. In 2007, around 15.4 GWth (22 million m2) were sold in China, which was 77 % of the world global solar thermal market with a total of estimated 19.8 GWth. In Europe, Germany – the second biggest market in the world – is dominating. With its newly installed capacity of 658 MWth (940,000 m2) in 2007, the country reached a market share of 34 % within Europe. Position three is held by Turkey, a dynamic solar thermal market which is estimated at between 350 and 700 MWth. Besides these front-runners, India, Brazil, Israel, Austria, Japan, France, Italy, Spain and Australia are countries which reached a market volume of greater than 70 MWth (100,000 m2) in 2006. Further information:Solarenergie 2007, Study by the Swiss bank Sarasin, November 2007 (Only available in German) Solar thermal Markets in Europe, Study by European Solar Thermal Industry Federation (ESTIF), June 2008 (www.estif.org)

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There are a number of mature markets like Israel, Austria, Barbados, China or Cyprus where solar thermal is used by a wide majority of people for heating the domestic hot water and sometimes for room heating. One factor that shows the market penetration of this technology in a certain country is the total capacity installed per capita. In Cyprus there were 0.68 kWth in operation per capita at the end of 2006 followed by Israel (0.5 kWth/head), Austria (0.23 kWth/head) and Barbados (0.21 kWth/head). You find niche markets when looking at market penetrations such as in the United States with only 0.005 kWth per capita or in sunny South Africa with so far not more than 0.0035 kWth per capita. Also, there is still quite a large untouched potential worldwide in using solar thermal technology for cooling and for supplying process heat.

Further information: Solar Heat Worldwide, a study from the IEA Solar Heating & Cooling Programme, May 2008 (www.aee-intec.at/0uploads/dateien565.pdf)

0.7 kWth nominal solar thermal power equals 1 m2 of collector area.

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Generally speaking, you can differentiate between naturally growing markets and incentive driven markets. In the former, low-cost solar water heaters are already an economic alternative for households to produce hot water instead of using fossil fuels or electricity. Some examples are: China, which is the biggest solar thermal market in the world, Cyprus which has one of the highest solar thermal capacities in operation per capita in the world, and Turkey, which is the third biggest market in the world.

In incentive driven markets like Germany, there are grants for households and companies. In Austria there is a nationwide subsidy scheme for hotels and guesthouses and there are grants at a provincial level for household customers.

A third category is markets driven by legal frameworks such as solar obligations. The most famous example is Israel, where the government – because of the oil crisis – passed an obligation applying to all new residential buildings as well as hotels, old people’s homes and boarding schools 29 years ago. Spain followed two years ago with a national solar obligation and Italy has had a national renewable obligation since the beginning of 2007.

Further information: “Best practise regulations for solar thermal”, Study by the European Solar Thermal Industry Federation (ESTIF), August 2007
www.estif.org/262.0.html

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