Solvis

In Germany, the disparity between the photovoltaic market on the one side and the solar heating and cooling market on the other is increasing. “Whereas in 2004, the turnover of the PV sector with EUR 1.2 billion was twice as high as the turnover of the solar thermal industry, it rose to ten times the revenues of the solar heating and cooling sector last year,” Joachim Berner, journalist and solar thermal expert, argues in an article in Sonne Wind & Wärme.. In absolute figures: EUR 1.2 billion of solar heating and cooling versus EUR 11 billion of photovoltaics.
Figure: Schüco

Prospects for the German solar thermal industry remain gloomy. For the second time in a row, the market has shrunk significantly. The installed collector area in 2009 (1,615,000 m²) was already 23 % less than the record figure in 2008 (2,100,000 m²). In 2010, however, installation figures have again been down from last year's figures by around 20 %. “The drop in installations is hurting the industry badly, because most German collector and tank manufacturers have just invested in new production facilities, which are now running below capacity,” Helmut Jäger, Second Chairman of solar industry association BSW Solar and Managing Director of Solvis, a manufacturer and supplier of renewable heating systems, says.

Jubilee collector on display in the headquarters building: This collector panel completed in December 2009 the total of 3,000,000 m² of produced collector area Turkish manufacturer Ezinc Metal San. has produced since it started production in 1983. Photo: Ezinc