Product News

Inaugurating a EUR 20 million investment: Ingo Beyer, CEO of Alanod-Solar GmbH & Co. KG (left), Christa Thoben, Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, and Wilhelm Wiggenhagen, Mayor of Ennepetal, are cutting the ribbon together. Photo: Alanod

Solar cooling is a promising new field of application for solar thermal technology. A new version of the simulation software Polysun will be published in April. It will not only be able to design solar thermal systems but also solar powered cooling plants that work with compression coolers or fan coils. A version that also contains a simulation model for absorption chillers is scheduled for the summer months. Polysun is offered in Chinese, Czech, English, French, German, Greek, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish.

Horizontally installed vacuum tube collectors for flat owners and residents of high-rise apartments in India. Security standards for overhead mounted vacuum tubes have not yet been developed.

Photo: Hykon

Collector for process heat: The troughs are connected mechanically through a tracking driver. Photo: SLTL

The US-American based renewable system supplier Solar Panels Plus LLC (SPP) has launched an alternative to petroleum-based propylene glycol. The new heat transfer fluid made from corn is completely renewable and biodegradable. “The underlying corn glycol product is made by chemical giant DuPont and we developed our own formula for the production of an efficient heat transfer liquid”, says SPP COO John Williams.

Solar water heater from India: The collector manufacturer Akson's Solar Equipments has launched the Akson Maestro system with the hot water tank positioned below the collector. Photo: Akson's Solar

A hybrid air PV collector: The hot air behind the photovoltaic modules is sucked into a ventilation system. Photo: Conserval Engineering

Hybrid collector from Germany: Solar cells lie within the cover plate of an otherwise conventional flat-plate collector. Photo: Solarhybrid

The Finnish company Cupori Group Oy, which in the spring took over the copper business of Outokumpu Copper Tube, now supplies a copper tube with a particularly clean surface. At the Intersolar 2008 in Munich in June the company presented its new “Tub-e” copper tubes, although still under the old name. They are claimed to have a particularly clean surface thanks to a thermal cleaning process. According to Cupori, welding times during absorber manufacture are shorter with the new tubes.

Super solid: The Austrian manufacturer Neuma Solar presented the new collector Goliath Deluxe which can stand heavy snow loads.
Photo: Neuma Solar