Greece

Running until 2012, “Widening the Thermal Solar Energy Exploitation by the Successful Models" (WidetheSee) is a project developed by 11 South-Eastern European countries and co-financed by the EU. It aims at promoting the usage of solar thermal technologies for domestic hot water appliances in the context of European policies concerning renewable energy sources and the reduction of fossil fuel dependence.

The solar thermal industry in Greece has not been as much affected by the financial crisis as other sectors in the country. A good case in point is Elitherm, one of the pioneering collector manufacturers in Greece, whose core business was floor heating products, piping and plastic window frames. “We had to reduce our number of employees from 150 to just 30,” explains Emmanouel Kastanakis, the owner of the company. The remaining staff is now concentrating on the production and sales of solar water heaters and photovoltaic systems.
Photo: Elitherm

This second edition of the European Renewable Energy Council (EREC) study presents the latest political, technological, financial and economic information on renewable energy technologies in the fields of heating and cooling, electricity and biofuels in order to reach the binding 2020 target of at least 20 % renewable energy from final energy consumption.

Greek manufacturer Sole has already completed its second large-scale solar thermal project in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The company installed a 1,026 m² (0.72 MWth) solar thermal system at the newly constructed Dubai Sports Complex, which provides the sports facilities with hot sanitary and swimming pool water. The photo shows Sole´s Managing Director, Vangelis Lamaris, testing the stability of the collector field.
Photo: Sole

The early bird registration for the European Solar Thermal Energy Conference (estec 2011) has been extended to 15 July. You can save around EUR 100 if you sign up for the 2-day conference before this date. It will take place in Marseilles, France, on 20 and 21 October 2011. Fees are lower for members of the European Solar Thermal Industry Federation (ESTIF) or the French Solar Association ENERPLAN.
Photo: ESTIF

Several well-known speakers shared their market figures from key solar thermal markets worldwide with the audience of the Global Solar Thermal Markets session at the Intersolar Conference at the beginning of June. Whereas India and Brazil maintain high growth rates, the European solar heating and cooling sector has to again cope with a decline of now 13 % in 2010 compared to the previous year. The chart shows the developments of markets with a volume of 200,000 and 500,000 m². It is part of the 16-page brochure “Solar Thermal Markets in Europe”, which the European Solar Thermal Industry Federation (ESTIF) presented at the Intersolar.
Figure: ESTIF

The ISOL Navigator has been launched at the Intersolar Europe in Munich at the 8th of June. The international study presents the current and future market development in 16 key solar heating and cooling countries. The ISOL Navigator is based on the “ISOL Index”, an international business climate index developed by German agency solrico at the beginning of 2010. This ISOL index is a point-based indicator (ranging from 0 to 100 points) showing the satisfaction of solar thermal manufacturers and system suppliers with current and expected market development. Company values are averaged to obtain country and regional indices.
Figure: solrico

The economic situation in Tunisia two months after former President Ben Ali left the country is back to normal. Material supply is available without delay, the grants of the incentive programme are paid and even the demand for solar water heaters slowed down only a bit. Solarthermalworld.org spoke with Amjed Sibai, Managing Director of Sines Industries, one of the largest collector and tank manufacturers in the country, about the current business situation in Tunisia. Sines was founded in 2005 by him and his brother Ismail Sibai, who transferred the technology from their Greek partner which has been in the solar thermal market since 1976.

There are two suppliers of punching machines from Israel challenging each other to have been the first to market on the market: Ravid Solar Solutions and Dagan Machine Engineering. The history of both companies shows certain parallels, as both companies were founded by former employers of Israeli collector manufacturers. The photo shows a fully automated punching machine by Ravid Solar Solutions.
Photo: Ravid Solar Solutions

Every fourth Greek household gets its hot water from heating with the sun. The solar market, however, stagnated in 2010. Substantial support mechanisms are needed to fulfil the objectives of the National Renewable Energy Action Plan.
Photo: Joachim Berner