Intersolar survey: Refocus gets the inside track on the solar market in Germany and beyond

40 reFOCUS May/June 2007 1471 0846/07 © 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

INTERSOLARINTERSOLARSURVEYSURVEYRefocus gets the inside track on the solar market in Germany and beyond

Intersolar 2007, to be held in the solar city of Freiburg in Germany in the next few weeks, reflects the dynamic and growing solar technology indus-try in Europe. We asked some of those companies who will be present – from different sectors of the industry – for their thoughts at a time of huge change and momentum. David Hopwood poses the questions.

Intersolar 2007 will focus on PV, solar thermal technology and solar architec-ture, and aims to bring together the

leading solar industry companies, the most significant product innovations and the lat-est market trends in these fields.

In order to give readers a preview of what to expect from the event, we approached some well-known companies and surveyed them on:

• What products and innovations they will be presenting at the show;

• The state of play in the industry, and what opportunities and challenges lie ahead.

The Intersolar survey1. What products will your company be displaying?

Studer will launch a new product – the Xtender, a combi-unit using DSP (dig-ital signal processor) technology, which the company’s Serge Remy told us is a “real technical breakthrough for hybrid systems;”

Ezinc will be displaying solar thermal collectors with high-performance selective copper absorbers; copper absorbers painted black; full-plate ultrasonic welded selec-tive copper absorbers for solar collectors; thermosiphon solar water heaters; enamel-coated thermosiphon tanks; and enamel-coated storage tanks with serpentine heat exchanger(s) or jacket heat exchangers;

Alanod will be displaying products to improve absorption and reflection, includ-ing mirotherm, sunselect, mirosol, mirosol-protect, and MIRO-SUN;

IBERSOLAR Energía will be present-ing its new product range for building integrated solar thermal and PV solutions including glass-glass PV modules, building integrated solar thermal collectors, thin-film roofing membrane and specially-designed mounting systems;

Steca – the company will present a new inverter for the grid; for off-grid it will present a new 500W inverter which can work in parallel. Michael Voigtsberger told us: “We will also display some rede-

signed charge controllers. Our solar ther-mal business will present the new TR0502and the TR0603, which works on a new platform”;

Sputnik Engineering will present its brand-new SolarMax S string inverter series. The transformerless, single phase devices have nominal powers between 1.8 kW and 4.6 kW, according to the company;

Multi-Contact will showcase its junction box for thin film modules;

AEROLINE Tube Systems will show-case new varieties of pipework systems, comprising a flexible and divisible SPLITversion, the maximal protected PRO-ver-sion as well as systems according to 100%

What do the companies who

responded to our survey do?

• Studer (Serge Remy) – sine wave inverters for

off-grid solar systems;

• Ezinc (Gokhan Serdaroglu) – components

for solar thermal systems;

• Alanod (Marc Zimmermann) – aluminium

components;

• IBERSOLAR Energía (Nick Hall) – PV / solar

thermal systems / absorption chillers / energy-

saving solutions;

• Steca (Michael Voigtsberger) – electronic

controls (charge controllers / inverters etc);

• Kyocera (Akiko Chujo) – the complete PV

manufacturing process

• Sputnik Engineering (Heike Bihlmayer)

– grid connected solar inverters;

• Multi-Contact (Hanspeter Jud) – cabling;

• AEROLINE Tube systems (Jürgen

Plechinger) – Solar thermal (heating) pipe-

work solutions;

• Phönix SonnenStrom (Andrea Zepf); PV

power plants / modules and components;

• Conergy (Alexander Leinhos) – solar-ther-

mic, PV / wind components;

• Fronius (Dorothea Wiplinger) – PV inverters

(on and off grid);

• Trina Solar (Vanessa Membrive) – monoc-

rystalline modules;

• SMA Technologie (Kai Block) – PV invert-

ers / monitoring solutions;

• Suntech Power Co (Holly Wu) – PV cells /

modules / systems;

• SunTechnics (Güde Lassen) – Turnkey

renewable energy solutions

A PV plant equipped with Kyocera modules installed on a building at the Aeberhard family’s farm in Barberêche, Switzerland, has a roof area of 960 m² and generates more than 105,000 kilowatt-hours per year. Therewith the PV system supplies approximately three times as much energy as the agricultural facility needs.

Solar survey

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42 reFOCUS May/June 2007 www.re-focus.net

Solar survey

EnEV (German Energy Regulation) and RITE (Spanish Energy Regulation).

Phönix SonnenStrom will present the Phoenix mounting systems Tecto-Sun and Tecto-Sun Plus, which obtained quality certi-fication from TÜV Rheinland;

Conergy will showcase its products in the form of three brands, clearly delimited from one other – solar wholesalers, installers,industrial or private roof-owners and inves-tors in solar power;

Trina Solar will be showing its range of components such as ingots, wafers, cells and modules;

2. What are the major challenges associated with driving solar forward?

Ezinc: “The solar thermal market in most countries depends on government subsi-dies. This makes the market very sensitive. Companies have to make end users accus-tomed to using solar systems without gov-ernment support. Government support must not be a reason for buying solar thermal systems. People must buy because they are willing to buy”;

Alanod: “The major challenge is to get into the critical mass production of collec-tors/solar systems. This will make the final product more cost effective, and therefore more competitive with conventional tech-nologies. The industry needs more awareness raising, training of installers and R&D. This could be done by promotion, demon-stration projects, regulations and incentive programs”;

IBERSOLAR Energía: “Locally and glo-bally the industry is facing the same chal-lenges. Government support is key, and in the case of solar PV, increasing production capacities and the availability of raw materi-als are very important challenges. All those involved in the industry must work hard to improve the performance/cost ratio while creating better customer support and confi-dence in the technology”;

Steca: “As an international company we are faced with different legislation and stand-ards. Also the takeup of renewable energy is inconsistent between different countries. So the end customer is still doubtful;

Kyocera: “Cost is still a big issue. However, overcoming the cost challenges is not easy with silicon prices going up. As a PV

manufacturer, we are continuing to research ways of reducing the cost and improving the quality, and we expect governments to increase financial assistance and set up legal systems”;

AEROLINE: “First of all we need good governmental support programs, which can only be influenced by the different solar associations. In addition, a standardised certification system would lead to a high degree of transparency – and quality – of different companies. Another important fact needed to improve the quality of the installation, is professional education for installers. This is the duty of companies Europe-wide. To reach the final consumer a high commitment from the solar associations is imperative”;

Phönix SonnenStrom: “Reducing the system costs and thus reducing the cost-per kilowatt hour is the big challenge for the whole solar PV industry. The key test for a customer is that a solar PV system should achieve a reasonable internal rate of return over its lifetime. The big aim is to reach grid-parity as soon as possible”;

Conergy: “By building up mass produc-tion and using economies of scale, the solar sector will provide its customers with more and more profitable and efficient systems, and will be in less need of government aid;

SMA: “Companies need to capitalise on economies-of-sale. Furthermore, improve-ments in module technology and systems technology are necessary”;

Case study – Suntech: R&D and the China factorSuntech Power designs, develops, manufac-

tures and sells PV cells, modules and systems.

Like many in this industry, trying to provide

its customers with the lowest cost-per watt

PV solution is vital, and the company has

developed a strategy accordingly, says market-

ing director Holly Wu; this encompasses its

R&D efforts, advanced technology and low-cost

China-based manufacturing:

“We have signed a number of long term sup-

ply contracts with major producers of silicon

wafers, which allow us to lock in advanta-

geous pricing over the long term, and as a

result we are fully contracted for 2007 silicon

supply (with over 70% of supply obtained

below spot market prices). Because of the

relatively inexpensive cost of labour in China,

we employ an innovative combination of solar

manufacturing equipment and labour. This

also allows us to reduce our wafer breakage

rate relative to machine-dependant peers.

“We are also rapidly developing higher con-

version efficiency PV technologies which can

utilise lower-grade and thinner silicon wafers.

These new systems will allow us to use silicon

supplies which other producers would need

to treat as unusable and decrease the cost

per watt; and Suntech is also rapidly expand-

ing production capacity to take advantage of

economies of scale and reduced costs that

come with achieving ever-increasing scale.”

The company’s R&D focuses on developing

technologies that increase the solar conversion

efficiency of products, and decrease the amount

of silicon used in production. Advancements in

these areas have a substantial impact on the

cost per watt of PV products. “Our success with

PV technologies which produce high conversion

efficiency cells utilising a lower grade of silicon

is one of our most exciting recent develop-

ments. Specifically, our semiconductor finger

technology – which is co-developed and owned

by Suntech and the University of New South

Wales – has demonstrated conversion efficien-

cies upwards of 18% with lower grade silicon.

We are confident that our technology roadmap

has the potential to deliver 20%+ conversion

efficiency rate by 2008.

“In addition to the finger technology, we are

reducing the thickness of silicon wafers used

in the production of PV cells...currently, we are

averaging a 200 micron thickness compared to

270 just a few years ago, and plan to achieve

steady reductions in the upcoming years”.

One of Suntech’s newest product offerings is

Building Integrated Photovoltaic (BIPV). These

products, which take the place of standard

building materials, have been developed for

many years by MSK (a Suntech Power company,

acquired in 2006) and have seen success in

Japan as well as traction in Europe and North

America, Wu says.

Suntech is currently expanding its market

worldwide – particularly in Europe and North

America.

At Intersolar, Suntech will exhibit a series of

BIPV modules such as roof modules, Glass-Glass

module and photovolglass module which can

be integrated into buildings.


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Solar survey

3. What are the major technological developments underway to bring the cost of solar technology down?

Ezinc: “Using alternative, substitute raw mate-rials, reducing workmanship and saving manu-facturing costs by producing large quantities”.

Alanod: “Solar cooling and solar power plants.”

IBERSOLAR Energía: “The major cost driver of the solar industry today is the raw material (polysilicon represents 40% of the module cost). Thin film solar cells require only 1% of the raw material (polysilicon) needed by wafer-based solar cells. The fur-ther development and increased perform-ance of thin-film technology is clearly very important to the industry in order the bring down costs.”

Steca: “Solar cooling will be a big issue in the next few years. As will controllers which are able to monitor complete systems in the solar thermal space. In the field of grid-con-nected PV, with the higher percentage of installed power, the interaction of the inverter and the grid will become increasingly impor-tant. There are existing inverters improving grid quality;

Kyocera: “We are looking at spherical type and dye-sensitised technologies, but these are at an early stage. We have been focusing on polycrystalline silicon solar cells since 1975, when we entered the solar energy business. We see crystalline as being the main material in solar cells for the next ten years”;

Sputnik Engineering AG: “There are a lot of technological developments regarding communication. Sputnik, for example, has just released an internet-based data log-ger and monitoring unit. With the device MaxWeb, system data is accessible anywhere and at any time”;

Multi-Contact: “The major developments are cost reduction, and higher efficiency of modules, but also systems which allow a high efficiency for installers”;

Phönix SonnenStrom: “At the moment the most encouraging developments can be seen in the thin film sector: Experienced equipment manufacturers such as UNAXIS/Oerlikon or Applied Material are coming onto the scene – offering turnkey produc-tion lines, and helping to overcome one of the most important bottlenecks – produc-tion line know how – which has slowed

down the development of thin film in the past”;

Conergy: “PV – First, of course, a contin-ued increase in efficiency, and a reduction in the cost of the solar cells and modules. New,

Sputnik Engineering’s SolarMax S string inverter



Solar survey

more efficient production methods (with lower materials usage and new cell technolo-gies) are gaining market share.

The developments in systems technology are particularly exciting, and there will be three key trends. Firstly, the technological lim-its of the products will be reached. For exam-ple, inverters with over 98 percent efficiency and a service life that is close to the 20-year life of the PV modules; Secondly, the system integration and operation of PV systems will be considerably simplified. Universally deployable products, with even greater com-patibility between components and plug-and-play solution will enable broader deployment of the latest technologies – yet require less specialist knowledge on the part of planners, installers and operators than is currently the case; thirdly, supplying large amounts of solar power to the electricity generation industry will create more added value – as will its com-bination with wind power, biomass plants, conventional power stations, load manage-ment and storage. Solar systems will produce high quality, peak power electricity. PV invert-ers will also support the grid during the night – by supplying reactive power, for example. In Solar Thermal, Conergy has now success-fully entered the Solar Assisted Cooling (SAC) market. The demand for SAC is expected to grow significantly over the next few years. At the moment especially larger industrial build-ings can benefit from solar cooling. In the near

future single-family homes in countries with high solar radiation will have the potential to be cooled down in this way too. Reduction of cost and size of SAC systems will lead to a wider acceptance of this technology. ‘Plug & Play’ is the key to exporting technologies into new international markets. This way we are able to combine state-of-the-art technologies with easy handling. All the essential compo-nents are already pre-fitted, which eliminates potential mistakes by installers who are not familiar with these systems”;

Trina Solar: “Reducing the thickness of wafers and cells; identifying new silicon sources (metallurgical silicon, granular sili-con); Automatisation of cell line to reduce breakages; increasing size of cells to increase efficiency and power of module; introducing multicrystalline casting production process”;

SMA: “The trend towards higher energy consumption leads to a substantially higher risk of energy blackouts. Between 2003 and 2005, the annual average downtime of the German electricity grid increased from 15 minutes to 30 minutes. It is therefore impor-tant for households to implement back-up solutions”;

4. Which markets do you operate in, and which have your company found difficult to break into, and why?

Ezinc: “The Turkish market is a market which has become one of the worlds’ biggest

markets, but without any protection or sup-port from laws and regulations.”

Alanod: “The leading countries in Europe are Germany, Austria and Greece. Upcoming markets are France, Spain and Italy. Outside Europe the important mar-kets are Turkey, China, and upcoming ones are USA, India and Far East. We have found countries without regulations/finan-cial incentive schemes difficult to break into (i.e. UK, Benelux, and the Scandinavian countries).”

IBERSOLAR Energía: “The Spanish Royal Decree and its subsequent modifica-tions have given the sector a major boost. Initially red tape, delays and regional differ-ences caused hold ups. Our delegations in France, Greece, Italy and Slovenia are expe-riencing similar problems of clarification of the laws and delays in their applications.”

Steca: “With respect to the standards and bureaucracy for grid connection we have found it especially difficult to enter the Italian market. In France the barriers were astonishingly low. Also a good market entry is possible in Eastern European countries”;

Sputnik Engineering AG: “Germany remains our most important market, fol-lowed by Spain. In Italy this year, we expect a growth to six megawatts. We want to increase our sales in France to five mega-watts. Since the end of December 2006, our inverters have been feeding electricity from France’s largest solar unit into the grid. The largest solar unit in the Czech Republic has been running with our devices since January 2007”;

Phönix SonnenStrom: “The reason that Germany dominates the world PV market is due to the premium feed-in tariff regulation that was introduced several years ago. This has proved itself to be an optimal tool for promoting the uptake of solar PV, and has the advantage that it is easy and straight-forward to administer. As such, the overhead costs of running this scheme are extremely low compared to other options, such as direct grants. Other countries have been closely studying the impact and effectiveness of the German feed-in tariff and many have adopted similar schemes. Spain and Italy in Europe, South Korea in Asia and the province of Ontario in Canada are prime examples. The spread of such schemes will ensure that future PV markets will be dominated by pro-active countries across the globe”;

SMA has electrified more than 200 villages in the Chinese Xinjiang, Yuannan, Qinghai and Gansu provinces with its ‘Sunny Island’ system.



Solar survey

Trina Solar: “Difficulties are experienced in countries where no subsidies are provided from governments, such as Bulgaria, Romania or Serbia”;

SMA: “Germany is in the unique position to take credit on its technology leadership, particularly in the field of PV. Strong growth is expected in North America, Southern Europe and in the Asia-Pacific region”;

5. What does the EU’s proposed ‘20% by 2020’ target signal for the industry?

Ezinc: “This target means more govern-ment support, and more government sup-

port means more solar thermal system con-sumption. Companies must take precautions against this high demand”;

IBERSOLAR Energía: “The development of new, more efficient technology – coupled with education, professional training and technical support”;

Steca: “People still need to be persuaded by high-quality products and a sustainable service that solar energy is a real alternative, and has the possibility to contribute to the general energy demand”;

Kyocera: “Because solar energy has already been recognised broadly and its market has been established, more and

more people will utilise solar energy. Generous government subsidies for PV sys-tems, compared to other renewable energy, would continue to grow the market”;

Sputnik Engineering AG: “The politi-cal pressure will lead to increasing invest-ments”;

AEROLINE: “It is the duty of politi-cians to convince those countries which are still unsure that there is an absolute need for solar energy politics, so that by chang-ing the general conditions concerning a solar/regenerative energy industry, the solar market can be pushed”;

Phönix SonnenStrom: “The solar industry is actually very well positioned to make a major contribution to this goal. Enormous investment is ongoing in new innovative PV production facilities worldwide and the European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA) expects that annual installations of PV could rise by a factor of 30 to 48 GWp by 2020. The joint EPIA/Greenpeace analysis Solar Generationalso predicts that by 2020 there will be 135 million grid-connected and 900 million off-grid PV customers worldwide, and that 1.9 million people will be employed in the solar PV industry. As such, PV can make a very significant contribution to the EU’s 20% goal”;

Trina Solar: “This has definitely been a very important step to emphasise the importance of PV industry. To take advan-tage of this, there is a responsibility on the part of the industry to reduce administra-tion procedures – by offering better service and efficiency from the different players in the distribution channel – and to increase quality, reliability and availability of PV products in order to cope with the high demand we expect to have in the coming years”;

SMA: “Although this seems to be very ambitious, we believe that this goal is feasible. This target goes along with very positive trends: With a stable business environment renewable energy companies will invest in further technology improve-ments. In addition, the industry will be in a position to take advantage of the increased volume and thus reduce the systems costs. Therefore, the renewable energy industry has the potential to become even larger than the automotive industry is today”;

Case study – SunTechnics: global reach

SunTechnics is pushing ahead with its inter-

national growth: in the past two years alone,

the planning and installation company has

established subsidiaries in the USA, Australia,

Singapore, and South Korea. New branches have

also been opened in France, Brazil and Greece,

explains the company’s Güde Lassen: “Since

opening its branch in Athens at the beginning

of this year, SunTechnics has been overwhelmed

with the demand for renewable energy systems,

especially for solar plants. This impact is also due

to the very attractive national incentive system.

The Greek Energy Act, which was implemented

in June 2006, includes feed-in tariffs which

range from 40 to 50 cents according to size

and location of the plant. Moreover, the Greek

ministry of development guarantees up to 60

percent of subsidies on the original implementa-

tion price.

“However, due to the somewhat slow and com-

plicated Greek application procedures, the appli-

cation process can take from 6 to 18 months,

depending on the size of the plant.”

Another market SunTechnics has targeted is

Italy, says Lassen: “Right after our market

entrance in Italy last autumn we had to prove

endurance: As all market participants were

waiting with tension for the new Conto Energia,

the market stagnated. Since the revised Conto

Energia has been finally announced in February,

the customers’ confidence in solar energy and

the demand has risen enormously. Finally the

Italian customers have the feeling that the

purchase of solar plants is an attractive invest-

ment in a future technology. That shows how

important a reliable political framework and

simplified bureaucratic permission process are.

Now Italy needs to focus on simplifying the

application processes as well.”

In South Korea, one of the world’s most attrac-

tive solar-energy growth markets, SunTechnics

has been represented in Seoul since August

2006; by September the first PV plant (one

megawatt) was successfully connected to the

grid. As in Germany, the construction of solar

energy systems is supported with low-interest

loans, and each kilowatt-hour of energy that

is fed into the national grid is credited with

the equivalent of 58 Eurocents guaranteed for

15 years. In addition, capital cost subsidies are

being paid. “There is no doubt that the Korean

Government Policy of Renewable Energy (RNE)

helped us enter this market quickly.”

The company has also provided systems for off

grid scenarios: In Indonesia, it has installed

energy solutions to connect the inhabitants of

a remote archipelago in the east of Borneo and

rural areas of Sumatra with a telecommunication

network. “Designed as photovoltaic/diesel hybrid

solutions, the new customised energy stations

produce a solar output of 12.5 kilowatt.”

And SunTechnics also installed a hybrid system

in India with a total output of 6.25 kilowatt. “50

photovoltaic modules were put into operation on

the roof of the orphanage and school complex

of the NLC Missionary and Orphanage Charity

situated on the outskirts of Chennai (Madras).

The modules provide electricity for lighting and

electric appliances in the building”.

At Intersolar SunTechnics will present its entire

product and service spectrum, based around

turnkey renewable energy solutions


6. How else can the world solar market be driven forward?

Alanod: “We need to sell the know-how/experience Germany has gathered over the past few years. Also, local financial incen-tives schemes and regulations are helpful to speed up this process, but with the following caveats: incentives should be part of a comprehensive approach (includ-ing awareness raising, training and demonstration projects). They should also last for several years under stable conditions as this maximises the impact on invest-ments and creates conditions for self-sustained growth. Easy and lean procedures are needed to increase effectiveness. Product requirements should be fully com-patible with European Standards, and similarly, quality criteria should be set to avoid low qual-ity installations (low performance installations).”

IBERSOLAR Energía: “The biggest difference is being seen with sector-boosting local and national government legislation. In Spain the Codigo Tecnico de Edificacion (Technical Building Code) will assure great achieve-ments in the sector this year. EU countries must unify efforts and legislation to meet the goals set out by Kyoto. We are currently a long way from this aim. Steps must also be taken to further the education and confidence amongst customers.”

Steca: “We must demonstrate that solar energy is a reliable and affordable alternative to fossil fuels. Regarding system costs, the world’s biggest market Germany has to show that price reduction is possible with large scale produc-tion”;

Kyocera: “New applications and schemes to increase the por-tion of solar energy in global energy consumption is necessary, such as a large solar power station

to provide electricity as a main energy source, as well as a power source to drive fuel cells”;

Conergy: “The solar industry must manage to bring the EU goal and vision into the specific countries. This can be done via their local interest groups. It is them who must come up with practical suggestions and solu-tions to make this vision become reality. Conergy already does so by closely working together with our German solar interest group, the BSW. Additionally, we also actively support solar interest groups in the markets we are into, and hope for even better results there”;

Fronius: “We need to create a broad base of countries that actively promote solar over a longer period of time, so there needs to be consistency and pre-dictability. It is also important to convince authorities to simplify interconnection standards and permitting processes”;

SMA: “Germany is by far the largest PV market in the world and a stepping stone for inter-national markets. Therefore, the renewable energy industry requires stability in the business environment, particularly with regard to the Erneuerbare Energien Gesetz (German Renewable Energy Sources Act). Recently, the growth of the PV industry has been limited due to the shortage of silicon. Silicon is required for the production of photovoltaic modules. In order to meet the growing demand abroad much greater production capacities are required. And further innova-tions are required to reduce the specific systems costs of a pho-tovoltaic system. (For example, SMA produces solar inverters with a world-class efficiency of up to 98%. This is particularly important, because the efficiency determines the energy harvest of the photovoltaic system”).

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Intersolar survey: Refocus gets the inside track on the solar market in Germany and beyond