PHOTON International The Photovoltaic Magazine

From June 8-10, Germany's largest renewable energy trade fair, Solar Energy, attracted around 300 exhibitors and 28,000 visitors. But the fourth annual Solar Energy, touted as a »World Trade Fair for Renewable Energies,« was still primarily dominated by German companies from the PV and solar thermal industries.

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Rainer Heinzel, CEO of ProFair, the organizer of Solar Energy, (right) talks with the exhibition staff of Elco Klöckner, a solar thermal manufacturer that recently expanded into the PV business.

The number of exhibitors at Solar Energy, a renewable energy trade fair held annually in Berlin, increased from last year's turnout of 250 to 300 in 2001. But the growing solar energy market was not the only reason for the 20 percent jump in attendance, which made the requisitioning of a fifth exhibition hall necessary. The decision to include electric heat pumps at the trade fair, a technology that has nothing in common with solar energy, also provided a noticeable boost in attendance.

Although Solar Energy contends to be a »World Trade Fair for Renewable Energies,« it was still an almost entirely German event. The majority of the few foreign companies that came to the fair stemmed from adjacent German-speaking countries like Austria or Switzerland; the Italian module manufacturer Helios and Sweden's GPV were among the few exceptions. Probably because of the Solar Energy's status as an end-consumer trade fair, even the larger German PV companies like Siemens Solar or ASE didn't have their own exhibitions, rather, they were represented by their distributors. Most foreign PV manufacturers active in Germany were also represented by their distributors, so that finally all the big PV module brands were exhibited at Solar Energy. At the much smaller Dutch renewables trade fair Sustain, however, the PV major players BP Solar, Shell Solar, Siemens Solar, and Sanyo exhibited directly. Another competing trade event, the Intersolar trade fair in Freiburg, could attract exhibitions from US manufacturer Astropower, Kaneka from Japan and Sinonar from Taiwan, both producers of amorphous modules, to their tradeshow in July.

Most exhibitors at Solar Energy make their money through the sale of PV and solar thermal equipment. Other renewable energy companies, such as wind or biomass companies, were barely represented.

Interestingly enough, several large solar thermal companies, many of which were formerly heating engineering companies, have discovered the PV market. The Hechingen, Germany-based Elco Klöckner Heiztechnik GmbH, a leading producer of vacuum collector systems for water heating, has joined forces with the Freiburg-based PV module manufacturer Solar-Fabrik to offer a complete PV system. Their PV package, which has been available since June, consists of 115 W modules and, depending on the number of modules, one or more »convert« inverters, also made by Solar-Fabrik.

Jörg Rosenau, Elco's sales manager, says he is irritated by the »extreme price battle« on the PV market. Elco's prices, calculated on the basis of their experiences from the solar-thermal business, are astronomically high compared to other, long-established PV businesses. For instance, Elco's costs for a 1 kW system are almost 20,000 DM ($8,650 USD), that's almost double the market price that Münster-based Energetik GmbH offers. Elco, a subsidiary of the Preussag group, is aware of the disadvantages of such high sales prices; therefore it has very moderate goals for its first PV business year. »We would be satisfied with sales of about 40 kW,« says Rosenau. Nevertheless, with an estimated total of 65,000 kW being installed in Germany in 2001, even Elco's high-priced systems should be able to find buyers.

Viessmann, another large manufacturer of heating and solar thermal equipment, also plans to expand into the PV field. Viessman, which has 90 branches in Germany and in 30 other countries, also has a very high list price for its PV systems. The Vitovolt 300, 1.3 kW system, which consists of four 320 W ASE modules and a SMA Sunny Boy inverter, costs 24,000 DM ($10,400). Because the sales price only covers material costs, customers have to add another 2,000 to 4,000 DM ($865 to $1,730) for installation costs. According to sales manager Jürgen Driescher, installers would receive discounts of 10 to 20 percent, which they would then pass on to the customers. But even with the discount, a Viessmann PV system is still about 50 percent more expensive than the cheapest available product on the market. Although in the first month of its PV business Viessmann has received few inquiries for PV systems, Driescher remains optimistic. And indeed, heating engineers offering solar thermal and PV technology have a broader spectrum of customers, and thus certain sales advantages over PV installers.

About 28,000 people visited Solar Energy in 2001, a 12 percent increase from last year's 25,000, according to Rainer Heinzel, CEO of ProFair, the company that organizes Solar Energy. Some, however, questioned these figures; citing that despite a busy first day, the following two days of the fair were plagued by a meager turnout. Intersolar, the other large German solar trade fair, has contracted an independent company that counts visitors of trade fairs. Heinzel claims that following Intersolar's example would be too expensive, and he'll refrain from doing so as long as his exhibitors do not demand it.