Two worlds in solar water heating -

Draft results of a recent global best-

practice study for the Central Energy
Fund (PTY Ltd)

Michael Grupp, Joan Beall, Hannelore Bergler (Synopsis,

Lodève, France)
Marlett Balmer, Mmathabo Murubata (PDC, Pretoria, RSA)

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 Table of contents

• SWH for South Africa: import or local production ?

• Data base of offers from 13 (out of 29) countries

• Analysis of prices and models

• Recommendations for incentives without regrets

• Remarks on “virtual feed-in”

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 SWH market - supply and demand issues

Supply:
• Who wants to export to South Africa ?
• Types proposed for export
• Prices and conditions
• Comparison with locally produced models

Demand:
• SWH types adapted to the South African market
• Income categories and the corresponding SWH
types

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 The Solar Water Heater Types

• historically, there was diversity: split systems,

monoblocs, integrated SWH, glazed, unglazed…
• today, only a few types have survived: splits and
mono-blocs
• differents versions of these are available
• ISWHs have retired to niches

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 The global Solar Water Heater market

Two worlds:

• “Low-price” countries (Group A): mainly simple

small gravity flow, open-loop systems

• “High-price” countries (Group B): all system

types, but mainly sophisticated large, pumped,
closed-loop… and expensive systems

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The top seller: the vacuum tube mono-bloc

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The Garden Shower

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The “wheel-barrow” water heater

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 The Shower bag

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The SOLVIS solar heater/sanitiser

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The solar heater/sanitiser - instructions

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 Collector aperture and tank volume

Collector aperture distribution (all systems) Tank volume distribution (all systems)

40 40

35 35

30 30

25 25

20 20

15
15
10
10
5
5
0
0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500 550
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
tank litres
aperture m²

Group A B A/B B/A

S m² 3,8 4,1 0,93 1,08
V litre 225 258 0,87 1,15

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Ex-factory prices - high (Group B) and low-
price countries (Group A)

Group A B A/B B/A

Price 626 1809 0,35 2,89
Price/m² 176 461 0,38 2,62
Price/litre 2,9 6,8 0,43 2,34

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Retail prices - high and low-price countries

Retail prices Group A and B

20

15

Group B
10
Group A

0
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000
Euros

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Ex-factory prices : order of 100 units

Ex-factory price per unit (100)

20

15

10

0
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000
Euros

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Ex-factory prices per m² of collector aperture:
- South Africa and the rest of the world -

Ex-factory price per m² collector area (100)

20

15

10

0
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800
Euros

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 The “virtual electricity feed-in” by SWH

• We all know: feed-in laws can’t be applied for heat.

• Or can they? In the RSA, SWH mainly replace

electricity in "geysers". Use of a SWH therefore is
equivalent to the production of electricity (one could
call this "virtual" electricity feed into the grid)

• Why not apply the successful German feed-in law?

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The CEF Solar Water Heater Study

Thanks to CEF/EDC

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