Vaillant Group

While in most of Europe the solar heating and cooling market has been suffering from a decline in sales since 2009, Poland has experienced a slight growth in its national industry. According to data gathered by ESTIF (European Solar Thermal Industry Federation), Poland was the 8^th largest market for solar collectors in 2010. It has not had significant lows in newly installed collector area since 2000, but still needs a big jump forward to reach the target of 20 million m² in 2020 (see chart). Solarthermalworld.org talked to Janusz Starościk, head of the Polish heating organisation SPIUG, which has made the push for solar energy part of its agenda.
Source: IEO EC BREC

The ISH is becoming increasingly international. At the beginning of this March, the world´s largest trade fair for bathroom, building, energy and climate technology in Frankfurt, Germany, has counted significantly more international visitors than ever before. 35 % of the 204,000 trade visitors came from abroad (2009: 29 %), whereas the total number of visitors almost stagnated (+1.5 %). The ISH is the trade fair of the European heating industry. The five largest corporations - Bosch Thermotechnik, Vaillant, Viessmann from Germany, BDR Thermea, Netherlands, and Ariston from Italy - dominated Hall 8 with huge stands. Solarthermalworld.org presents some of the trends it discovered in the solar thermal product portfolio of Europe's heating business.
Photo: ISH 2011

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

Together, De Dietrich Remeha Group and Baxi Group have just established BDR Thermea, the third largest heating corporation in Europe. Five solar brands are part of the newly founded company: De Dietrich, Oertli, Baxi, Baymak, Brötje.
Figure: BDR Thermea

Figure of a bending machine for serpentine absorbers: the bending head is situated in the middle of a horizontal table – in some cases supported by a sliding block to obtain the best bending angle.
Photo: SMI

Inauguration of the new solar factory in Nantes, France, at the end of September: It is the second collector and absorber production unit of the German Vaillant Group.

Photo: Vaillant

What counts is the quality of the collar: Dagan´s punching machines possess a special die, which works together with the internal punch to optimize the form of the collar.
Photo: Dagan Machine Engineering

Grzegorz Wisniewski (left), President of the Institute of Renewable Energy (IEO) in Warsaw, initiated the foundation of a coalition between solar thermal manufacturers and distributors during the second Solar Energy Industry Forum in Poznań, Poland, in May this year. Photo: IEO

Quick, precise, tireless: Robots perform most of the collector manufacturing at the German heating systems manufacturer Vaillant. Photo: Vaillant

Probably one of the most up-to-date collector plants in Europe: Vaillant Group has automated their production in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. Photo: Vaillant Group