Portugal

One of the biggest Spanish collector manufacturers, Termicol, can still celebrate its 10^th anniversary this year. The company has managed to counter the decline in the Spanish market by expanding its business abroad. Today, the export of collectors generates 20 % of the company´s turnover. With its own brand, Termicol claims a market share of around 10 % in its home country.
Photo: Termicol

The historical downtown area of the Portuguese capital, known as Baixa Pombalina, has a collector area potential of 100,000 m². This is the result of the study “Carta do Potencial de Integração de Sistemas Solares na Baixa Pombalina”, which was developed within European project ProSTO - Best Practice Implementation of Solar Thermal Obligations - coordinated by Lisbon’s Municipal Energy and Environment Agency, Lisboa E-Nova, in cooperation with the city council and IGESPAR (Portuguese Institute for the Management of Architectural and Archaeological Heritage). The photo shows the Arco da Rua Augusta – the entrance to Baixa Pombalina.
Photo: Wikipedia

Apisolar, the Portuguese national solar association, expects a 30% decrease in newly installed collector area this year. The forecast until the end of 2011 is 127,000 m² (89 MW), whereas around 180,000 m² of collector area were newly installed in 2010. This year's low demand has partly been a result of the changes in the national support policy. And, some more major changes in the country’s fiscal policy are coming into effect at the beginning of 2012 - which means the downward trend is not likely to be stopped next year, too.
Source: Apisolar

This paper was presented by a group of researchers of the INETI (National Institute of Engineering, Technology and Innovation), during the EUROSUN Conference in Lisbon, Portugal, in 2008.

The paper explains the steps given to prepare a solar thermal obligation (STO) in the country. It passes in review the existing legislation and incentives for the development of solar thermal in Portugal. A regulation for thermal performance of buildings was created in 2006 to comply with the European Directive on Energy Performance of Buildings (2002/91/CE).

Two months after the new government came to power, its strategy for solar energy still remains a mystery: The new subsidy programme barely mentions renewable energies, but focuses on energy efficiency instead. Last year's two subsidy schemes for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), as well as Private Social Solidarity Institutions (IPSS) and sports facilities have also stopped. And, the tax rebates of roughly EUR 800 for residential clients who purchase renewable energies equipment have no longer been in place since an agreement of the government with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). At present, buyers of solar water heaters can only declare a limited amount as a tax benefit, which means a much smaller savings effect.

Becoming a publicly traded company by September: the first step of Sunex' strategy to enter new markets and invest in a factory outside the country. The solar collector manufacturer will be listed on New Connect, the Warsaw stock market for small enterprises. In August, Sunex already sold 0.76 % of its stocks to investors through private offers, gaining about PLN 0.55 million (EUR 0.13 million). “We have decided to enter New Connect to let the market give us a valuation of our company before we get listed on the main trading floor of the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE),” the company’s President, Romuald Kalyciok (see photo), explains. Further share sales are planned for 2012.
Photo: Puls Biznesu

A full aluminium direct-flow absorber with a newly developed coating from Finland won one of the three Solar Thermal Intersolar Awards at the Intersolar 2011 in Munich, Germany. The photo shows the respective in-line coating machine by Finnish company Savo-Solar Oy. In cooperation with the Danish company Hydro Aluminium Precision Tubing, both companies were able to impress the jury with the new developed “Savo-Solar Al-MPE” absorber. The other two prizes went to Vetter Gesellschaft für Medizinische Datentechnik, Bio- und Umwelttechnik mbH, Germany, for developing a parabolic trough collector which opens up a diverse range of installation possibilities, and to Swedish company Absolicon Solar Concentrator for a PVT collector combining solar power generation with the use of solar heat.
Photo: Savo-Solar Oy

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

MCG has plans to start producing a flat plate collector with a Compound Parabolic Concentrator (CPC) in the near future. The Portuguese company located in Carregado 50 km north of Lisbon has manufactured components for the automotive industry since 1978. “MCG possesses know-how in the area of mass assembly and production. Equipped with this knowledge, it could gain the pole position on the solar thermal market and the strength to maintain it,” MCG Solar Sales Director Paulo Neves says.
Photo: MCG

There was great interest in the two incentive programmes in Portugal whose application deadline ended on 30 November 2010. The first scheme addressed Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) which wanted to invest in a solar heating and cooling installation. The second scheme supported energy-efficient technologies in Private Social Solidarity Institutions (IPSS) and public sports facilities. Portuguese magazine Climatização has now published the related statistics by the Portuguese energy agency ADENE.