A sunny forecast for solar water heater

It is a solar power concept, popular during the whole time, Calvin Coolidge was President was - but now it's ready for a comeback.

Solar thermal water heaters that use solar energy as gas or electricity as a source of energy, could grow in popularity in the next few years, according to analysts and panel installation company. While the idea already caught fire in China is it registers barely a blip in the United States

"The idea that we is not about thermal solar system crazy", said Bill Green, partner at VantagePoint venture partners, which specializes in clean technologies.

 

Interest, however, begins seep Alex winch, President of the Mondial energy said. Mondial installed solar systems in large buildings and then their money through the resale of the heat of them deserves generated back to the client. The Toronto-based company has systems in 100-unit senior living centers in Canada taken, and it recently signed memoranda of understanding for installations in a few hotels in the United States.

Solar thermal can gas even not for Sunshine takes places known, noticed winch. His first project was the beach solar laundromat in Toronto. There is snow in the city right now, but the system at the beach has generated solar 382 kW in last week, after the online energy meter.

"I'm in my Office, and I'm literally look at a snowdrift that is four metres thick," winch said. "The gas boilers gets water, the 10 to 20 degrees warmer than it normally would be is."

Partly driving the interest - in addition to global warming and rising energy costs - the fact that the systems work is quite good. It is installed the solar systems much easier to extract heat from the Sun as electricity, after Gary Gerber, CEO of sun light and power. Solar thermal heating to use ultimately about half of heat that hits it; the two of them-until three times more efficient than the solar cells, which turn sunlight into electricity.

You are also not nearly as ugly as you might think. Although roof used water tanks in some parts of the world, the most homeowners for systems tend, where the tank remains below decide. Metal and glass surfaces with the masses gather heat 4 x 10 M on the roof. Rheem, Soleko and a lot of companies make the components that Sun light or poco subsequently install solar installers.

"We can offer usually 60 to 80 percent of a home hot water with one or two 4-by-10-(Fuß)-Panels and a reservoir," Gerber said. A typical solar system with a 120 gallon tank cost $7,000 to $10,000, before a $2,000 around federal discount. The break-even point for homeowners comes in 10 years or less.

Same old solar?

If solar thermal water heating make a comeback, it will be repeated an example be the story. Solar thermal heating systems in places like Florida, Los Angeles and Berkeley were popular from about 1900 until the 1920s.

Utility companies however confident consumers switch to gas, even offered to exchange their solar heating those with free gas after Chris Beekhuis, Chief Technology Officer at Fat Spaniel, a Mondial partners, monitors for which offers performance of solar-electric and thermal systems in households and businesses. Solar largely disappeared over the next two decades, Beekhuis said.

Conspiracy theorists can show history as another example of oil companies scheme. Natural gas was however quite cheap at the time.

"No one motivated, balanced to the price of gas", Beekhuis said. "Now there is an environmental problem and a cost issue."

In the vast majority of cases, never quite separate owners of gas pipelines. Solar heaters can not collect heat during the night, after all. Winch, though, said the economic arguments in several instances than you think would do. Nunavut in far northern Canada, gets only 75% of the heat from the Sun, Toronto gets. But gas costs there eight times as much, so thermal solar system makes sense.

In sunnier areas can isolate solar landowner from fluctuating Gasrechnungen. Under its contracts, Mondial, its heat over a fixed interest rate to sell votes for a 10-year period, and that under the current cost of gas, said winch.

China has already taken on the thermal solar system concept. About 80 percent of the capacity for solar was installed in China in 2005, David Edwards, an analyst at investment bank ThinkEquity Partners. Overall, 60 percent of the world's solar thermal water heating are capacity in this country.

And in Israel must be houses or condominiums with eight or fewer units have solar heaters. In cities such as Jerusalem, you see many of the older roof equipment.

Michael Eckhart, President of the American Council on renewable energy, added that the momentum in China could all opportunities for U.S. companies in the market to get stunt. Last year, China produced $3 billion of solar thermal products.

"As we were (more recently) manufacturers were asked whether to export", he said. "The solar water industry this way comes quickly."