21 März 2018

2017 ranking of flat plate collector manufacturers

The annual ranking of the world’s largest flat plate collector producers clearly shows the market dominance of Chinese companies in 2017. The ranking is based on a survey of manufacturers between January and February this year carried out by solrico and has now been published on solarthermalworld.org.

Four Chinese manufacturers lead the list: Sunrain, Greenonetec, BTE Solar and Five Star. Overall turnover varied significantly between the listed Chinese companies. Frontrunner Sunrise East Group with its brand Sunrain claimed to have increased flat plate collector output by 44 %. Chinese-based Haier Group, majority-owner of second-ranked Austrian collector manufacturer Greenonetec, produced 20 % more flat plate collectors last year. BTE Solar announced the greatest rise in sales (+133 %), whereas fourth place Five Star saw a 13 % reduction in flat plate collector output.

The largest European flat plate collector producer was German heating technology supplier Bosch Thermotechnik, although it remained at a certain distance from the top four. Business at Bosch Thermotechnik suffered from declining solar hot water markets in Germany and Brazil. Nearly all the companies outside Germany increased production last year. For example, Greek OEM manufacturer Dimas Solar, Delpaso Solar from Spain and Italian heating equipment manufacturer Ariston saw a growth in numbers. Dutch-based BDR Thermea, which has a collector production facility in Spain, was able to keep output at 2016 levels. While Danish turnkey system supplier Arcon-Sunmark, listed on fifth position in 2015, did not make it onto the 2017 ranking, Polish Hewalex, which has likewise suffered a setback since the last ranking, managed to stay on.

Australian Solahart and Modulo Solar from Mexico managed to move up one and three places, respectively. Indian manufacturer Emmvee Solar Systems secured 21st place in the ranking. Soletrol from Brazil and Chromagen from Israel, ranked high in 2015, in 3rd and 6th place, respectively, decided not to provide any figures and were dropped from the list. Since some companies did not want to publicly share their total production output, a compromise was reached not to display figures along the horizontal axis of the ranking chart.

Read the complete article on solarthermalworld.org