The renewed growth of the Indian solar thermal market has existing manufacturers expanding their production capacities and integrating vertically. Solar water heaters based on vacuum tube collectors are a popular product, already covering around 40 % of the newly installed 1 million m² collector area in 2011/2012, according to estimations by market stakeholders. An example is Inter Solar Systems from the northern Indian city of Chandigarh. The company has invested INR 8.6 million (about EUR 120,000) in a completely new and semi-automated solar tank production plant, which was commissioned at the end of last year. The photo shows a punching machine for vacuum tube collector tanks.
Photo: Jaideep Malaviya

2012 meant shrinking sales figures in the Austrian solar thermal market for the third time in a row. Although most states have increased their subsidies for solar thermal, 2013 does not seem to get any better. Three companies went bankrupt within the last four months. Collector prices on the market are dropping – some call it normal competition or the end of a high price era, others call it dumping. According to the sales data from Austria Solar members, the market shrank by almost 16% in 2012 compared to 2011, reaching about 200,000 m² last year.

Bosch Thermotechnology is planning to expand its business in Brazil’s commercial segment. The German boiler manufacturer, which has also been producing collectors and solar tanks for decades in Germany, has just inaugurated a new solar thermal installation at Embraer in São José dos Campos in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. Embraer, a well-known aircraft manufacturer, has had 180 collector panels with 427 m² installed on the flat roof of the kitchen building, together with four tanks of 4,000 litres each. The building includes a restaurant serving 10,000 meals per day in three shifts. The installation is part of the Solar Roof Programme coordinated by the German Energy Agency, dena, which realises showcase projects in potential export markets for solar thermal manufacturers. The project covers the solar system, its installation, several training and marketing measures and the administration by dena. 45 % of the costs are covered by subsidies from the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology. Industry partners Bosch Thermotechnology and Embraer contribute the remaining 55%.
Photo taken from the film on www.youtube.com/user/boschtermotecnologia