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In February 2013, French manufacturer Dualsun launched its hybrid solar panel, also called PVT, a technology which produces electricity and heat simultaneously. Dualsun has been the third French company after solar specialists Sillia and ABCD International to introduce this new technology to the French market. “We are really at the beginning of this combined technology in France. Most businesses on the market are still at the research stage,” says Daniel Mugnier, a solar heating expert from French consultancy Tecsol. The Dualsun unit consists of photovoltaic cells in the front and a metal heat absorber in the back, which are laminated together. The PVT element is inserted in a metal frame and installed on the roof. The photo shows the first demonstration project on the roof of a single family house in Roquebrune, France. Six Dualsun panels have been set up here for a family of six.
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.
At the beginning of December last year, the Southern African Solar Thermal Training and Demonstration Initiative (
