Prime Energy Cleantech News: Solar Thermal Industry in Germany
Prime Energy Cleantech: Germany is Europe’s largest solar thermal market with approximately 1.13 GWth of newly installed solar thermal collector area and a turnover of EUR 1.2 billion in 2009.
The Market
Germany is Europe’s largest solar thermal market with approximately 1.13 GWth of newly installed solar thermal collector area and a turnover of EUR 1.2 billion in 2009. The overall solar thermal capacity in operation was 9 GWth in 2009. More than 40% of the installed solar thermal system capacity in Europe is installed in Germany. 1.35 million plants with a surface area of around 12.9 million m² of flat plate plus tube collectors on household roofs provide domestic hot water and space heating with solar energy.
The basic solar thermal market drivers include: growing levels of awareness from end-user groups and high oil and gas prices and the Federal Government’s Market Incentive Programme (MAP).
Advantages & Opportunities
Significant investment opportunities exist at all steps of the solar thermal industry supply chain. The widely untapped opportunity in nonresidential applications will be more heavily exploited through newly developed technology.
Germany offers investment incentives of up to 50% of capital expenditures. Additionally, there is extensive support
for employment and research and development (R&D). All investors may profit from public funding, regardless of whether or not they are from Germany. There is a large selection of programs available, designed to support a wide variety of business activities at different stages of the investment process. R&D cooperation with some of Germany’s most prestigious research institutes (e. g. ISFH, Fraunhofer ISE, ITW Stuttgart) ensures advances in production technologies and processes in order to facilitate further cost reduction.
Local production ensures faster time to market and avoids high long-term transport inventories. Local producers benefit from “Made in Germany” quality. Germany offers a skilled and flexible labor force, state-of-the-art infrastructure, a reliable investment environment, and easy access to all other rapidly growing European markets, such as Spain, Italy, and France.
