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02 MARKET AND INDUSTRY TRENDS
inspection reports under one certification scheme and to apply
for certification in another. 84
In Austria, where market penetration is high and the number
of new installations has declined, companies have found new
business opportunities in the replacement market. 74 This sales
segment is gaining importance in countries that have a long
history of solar thermal deployment, including also Germany,
Greece, Israel and Turkey; in Israel, for example, more than 80%
of the collector area installed between 2010 and 2014 was used
to replace existing systems. 75
Despite the market contraction in Germany throughout 2012–
2015, German flat plate collector manufacturers continued to
dominate the ranking of the world’s 20 largest manufacturers
with regard to collector area produced in 2014 (latest data
available). Five German companies were on the list: Bosch,
Viessmann, Vaillant, Thermosolar and Wolf. 76 China ranked
second for number of manufacturers, with four (Five Star,
Prosunpro, BTE Solar and Sunrain), and Turkey placed third
with three producers (Ezinc, Solimpeks and Eraslanlar). For the
first time, a Polish company, Hewalex, was among the top 20. 77
The world’s three largest vacuum tube collector manufacturers
– Sunrise East Group (includes the Sunrain and Micoe brands),
Himin and Linuo-Paradigma – all are based in China. 78
Since 2012, the European industry has worked hard to overcome
two main barriers that prevent rapid growth in the solar thermal
market: high system prices and a lack of transparency in
solar yield. To further progress in addressing the first of these
barriers, in 2015 the Solar Heating and Cooling Programme of
the International Energy Agency (IEA SHC) launched a project
to investigate ways to reduce the purchase price of solar thermal
systems by up to 40%, covering all aspects of the supply chain. 79
Ongoing efforts to reduce prices for high-end consumer
systems began to bear fruit in 2015. Several manufacturers have
developed standardised and pre-fabricated solutions to reduce
post-production costs. For example, Aschoff Solar (Germany)
and Sunoptimo (Belgium) focus on solar circuit hydraulics that
they pre-mount in containers for on-site installation by overseas
clients. 80 Other companies are manufacturing domestic hot
water supply stations that are pre-mounted to the tank. 81
Additional 2015 innovations that attracted regional attention
are the switching absorption layer of Viessmann that avoids
stagnation temperatures, and a well-designed polymer collector
from Sunlumo (Austria). 82
Another 2015 development that aids in cost savings in the
industry was reached within the Global Solar Certification
Network, developed by the IEA SHC. 83 Researchers and industry
representatives worldwide agreed on a mutual recognition
approach that will maintain existing national and regional
certification schemes, allowing manufacturers to use test and
Labelling of solar thermal systems and collectors also was
an important issue in Europe during 2015. After two years of
preparation, the labelling of water, space and combi heaters
under the Ecodesign Directive (2005/32/EC) became mandatory
in all 28 EU Member States in September. 85 Even so, there was
great scepticism among Europe’s collector manufacturers about
whether or not the energy labelling will increase demand for
solar thermal systems, since heat pumps receive a high rating
even without the use of solar power. 86 Also launched in 2015
was a voluntary collector label by the newly established Solar
Heating Initiative; the label, Solergy, rates collectors based on
their annual energy output. 87
An increasing number of small countries worldwide showed
interest in joining regional quality infrastructure (QI) schemes
(certification procedures, standards, product labels) in 2015,
as QI is crucial in emerging markets to promote customer
confidence. 88 Examples of such schemes include the Solar
Heating Arab Mark and Certification Initiative (SHAMCI) in the
Arab region, and the initiative of the Pan American Standards
Commission (COPANT). 89
For medium-temperature process heat applications, parabolic
trough remains the dominant collector technology, followed by
linear Fresnel collectors. 90 An increasing number of companies
manufacture concentrating solar thermal collectors; as of late
2015, at least 39 manufacturers were producing 76 collector types
in 13 countries worldwide, with the majority of these companies
headquartered in Europe. 91 Several additional companies that are
new to the process heat sector – including Artic Solar and Skyven
Technologies LLC (both United States) and Oorja Energy (India)
– were developing concentrator collectors as of early 2016. 92
Because the industry is still in the early stages of development,
product scale and components differ significantly from one linear
Fresnel or parabolic trough collector to the next. 93
In dense urban environments, where rooftop space is restricted,
solar PV / solar thermal hybrid (PV-T) systems have become an
option for generating both power and heat. 94 As of early 2015,
a large variety of PV-T technologies was on the market with
different target applications, installed costs and performance
characteristics, and dominated by unglazed PV-T elements. 95
The global solar cooling industry followed two divergent trends
in 2015: a shift towards large-scale systems with a better
performance; and the development of plug-and-play system kits
with cooling capacities below 5 kW. 96 Among the 45 sorption
(heat-driven) chiller manufacturers worldwide, several European
manufacturers – including Purix (Denmark), Solarinvent (Italy),
Solabcool (Netherlands) and Meibis (Germany) – launched or
developed a new generation of compact and easy-to-install solar
cooling system kits up to 5 kW in size in 2015. 97
Compact storage technologies are a key research field in the solar
thermal industry. 98 With both types of materials used for compact
storage – phase-change materials (PCM) and thermochemical
materials (TCM) – heat can be stored in a more dense form and
with lower losses than is possible with conventional heat storage
systems, such as hot water storage tanks. 99 In early 2015, the IEA
SHC defined measurement standards for PCM and preliminary
estimates of their maximum costs. 100
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