Viessmann

May 25, 2020
Solar hybrid system heats hostel in Russia’s far east

After more than a year in operation, the solar hot water and space heating system put up at St Timon’s Mountain Shelter in Russia’s Kamchatka region has proved to be both reliable and eco-friendly. Run together with a biomass boiler and a PV system, the 30 m² field of vacuum tube...
March 20, 2020
World’s largest flat plate collector manufacturers in 2019

One-half of the world’s largest flat plate collector manufacturers participating in the most recent survey expressed satisfaction with how business developed in 2019. One-third achieved production volumes ‘as expected’ and only one-fifth seemed dissatisfied. The large manufacturers again...
December 13, 2019
Large-scale solar heat is cost-competitive in Germany

In Germany, seven solar district heating plants with a total capacity of 26.6 MWth either came online or are still under construction this year. This is a significant increase compared to the end of 2018, when total SDH capacity reached 43 MWth (33 systems) according to Solites, a research...
July 30, 2019
“Digitalisation improves and streamlines the entire process”

Digitalisation is quickly transforming the heating market: While consumers are increasingly turning to online sources for advice, a growing number of heaters are being connected to the cloud. In an interview with solarthermalworld.org, Steffen Zimmermann, Managing Director of...
May 3, 2019
World’s largest flat plate collector manufacturers in 2018

2018 saw much consolidation in the global collector industry. In spite of a shrinking market around the world, however, the largest flat plate collector manufacturers managed to increase production output by 7 %. Their success was due to steadily growing sales in China and the bright...
April 4, 2019
Remote control cuts energy bill

The heating industry is becoming increasingly digital, as evidenced by several new types of remote-control devices that were on display in the Energy halls of this year’s ISH, the world’s leading trade fair for bathroom design, building services, HVAC systems and renewable energy. The event...
February 4, 2019
Five new solar-bioenergy villages in Germany

Five German bioenergy villages added solar fields to their district heating systems in 2018. It was a significant increase over 2017 and 2016, when only one larger field was commissioned once a year. Each village benefits from 100 % solar energy in summer, which leaves time to overhaul...
March 19, 2018
World’s largest flat plate collector manufacturers in 2017

The 2017 ranking of the world’s largest flat plate collector producers clearly shows the market dominance of Chinese companies. Even second-ranked Greenonetec, an Austrian collector manufacturer, is now majority-owned by the Chinese-based Haier Group. The...
January 3, 2018
Solar thermal goes digital

On 14 December 2017, members of industry associations Austria Solar and BSW-Solar met founders of start-ups to draw up digital strategies for solar thermal. One of the key findings from the one-day workshop in Vienna, Austria, was that “traditional solar thermal companies cannot take on...
November 26, 2017
IEA SHC Task 54: Solar Thermal Cost Reductions

The objective of IEA SHC Task 54 is to reduce the purchase price of solar thermal systems by up to 40 % across the entire value chain. To achieve this, the project partners have been evaluating technical and non-technical cost-saving potential, with low-cost materials, such as polymers, and...
September 3, 2017
Serbia: EU Supports 903 m² Solar District Heating Installation

Throughout the last years, the EU has been criticised for many things, and the UK has now been the first to decide on leaving. Still, there are good examples of how the union can benefit even non-member countries. For instance, there is a project called Energy Efficiency – The Premise...
August 1, 2017
Germany: Tool to Calculate Solar Feed into District Heating Network

Interest in solar district heating is growing in Germany. A map by German research organisation Solites shows the systems currently in operation to be 23 totalling 49,600 m² of collector area (34.7 MW_th). Last year saw the addition of four installations with a combined area of 12...