The Development Trend of Flat Plate Solar Collectors(Ⅱ)

What are the main application scenarios for flat plate collectors? Solar thermal, solar water heaters systems, and air collectors.

  1. Application Prospects Of Flat Panel Solar Collectors

As a relatively mature solar thermal utilization product, solar water heaters (systems) have been widely used worldwide. It has played and continues to play an important role in reducing conventional energy consumption and promoting energy conservation and emission reduction. China has the world’s largest production capacity for solar water heaters (systems) and is also the world’s largest application market for solar water heaters (systems). At present, with the continuous rise of world energy prices and the increasing awareness of environmental protection worldwide, facing the severe situation of energy conservation and emission reduction, China is accelerating the development and utilization of renewable energy, the progress of solar energy technology and products, and the development of solar water heaters combined with building technology, which will continue to maintain the rapid growth momentum of solar water heaters (systems).

Flat panel solar collectors and water heaters have great advantages in the utilization of solar thermal energy, especially in addressing global environmental challenges and achieving energy-saving and emission reduction targets. With the continuous progress of society and technology, flat panel solar water heaters have made significant technological advancements in the integration of solar energy and buildings in recent years. The improvement of residents’ living standards has also made the development and production of high-quality solar water heater products the future direction of development. With the improvement of flat panel solar collectors and water heaters technology, flat panel solar collectors and water heaters will achieve greater development and their market share will continue to increase.

In recent years, flat panel solar water heaters have shown an explosive growth trend in the urban engineering market, with a year-on-year increase of over 50% nationwide, and some enterprises even achieving a growth rate of 100%. In this context, many companies that originally produced vacuum tube solar water heaters have launched flat plate solar water heater production lines. In the context of energy conservation and emission reduction, in recent years, various regions have issued “mandatory installation orders” for solar energy products. According to incomplete statistics, dozens of provinces and cities across the country have clearly stipulated that new buildings must be equipped with solar water heaters.

In 2010, the output value of China’s building energy-saving industry had approached 30 billion yuan, and by 2012, it will reach a scale of 66.4 billion yuan. The importance attached to the solar energy industry has intensified competition among solar energy companies as they grow and develop.

In fact, compared to vacuum tube solar water heater products, flat plate products are more suitable for integration with buildings and are more conducive to promoting the development of building integration. Vacuum tube solar collectors are mainly used in the rural market, but with the continuous deepening of urbanization construction in China, flat plate solar collectors with advantages such as safety, reliability, efficiency, pressure resistance, and easy integration with buildings have great development opportunities. With the acceleration of the integration of solar water heaters and buildings in China, significant progress has been made in the research and development technology of flat plate solar collectors in recent years. The flat plate solar collector used in the 2008 Beijing Olympics was a German product. At the 16th Asian Games held in Guangzhou, a domestically produced flat plate solar collector was used, and its performance was praised by the Asian Games Organizing Committee. With the acceleration of urban development, flat panel solar water heaters are becoming increasingly popular in the market and have become an industry trend.

Looking back at the development in recent years, according to data from the China Solar Thermal Utilization Industry Association in 2010, the annual production of vacuum tube water heaters by solar water heater manufacturers in China increased by 15% year-on-year; The production of flat plate collectors increased by 50% year-on-year. The second half of 2011 was a period of rapid development in the domestic tablet industry, mainly reflected in three aspects: firstly, many manufacturers launched new tablet projects; Secondly, the production and manufacturing technology continues to improve; Thirdly, the rapid advancement of product technology research and development. The recent positive trend in the flat panel solar energy market is actually due to the rapid rise of the urban market. Vacuum tube solar energy, which accounts for 80% to 90% of the rural market, may not show obvious performance, but flat panel solar energy has a significant positive performance in the urban market of solar water heaters.

During the 12th Five Year Plan period, the government proposed multiple target measures on energy conservation and emission reduction, the development of clean energy and renewable energy, and made every effort to develop low-carbon and carbon free energy such as solar energy.

Looking at the application of solar energy, the more economically developed the city, the lower the utilization rate of solar energy. Vacuum tube solar collectors are mainly used in urban and rural areas. Their excellent frost resistance, low cost, and easy installation have led to significant development in vacuum tube collectors. But with the continuous deepening of urbanization construction in China, especially the high-rise construction of urban residential buildings, vacuum tube collectors are no longer able to meet the requirements of integrated solar energy buildings and aesthetic safety. This poses a new challenge for how solar energy can be applied in urban high-rise buildings, and how to solve the system integration and ensure user needs has become an urgent task.

With the increasing attention of the country to building energy conservation, the Ministry of Construction has successively introduced measures such as renewable energy city demonstration and green building labeling evaluation. Solar energy, which has the greatest potential for building energy conservation, will be further developed and utilized. Flat plate solar collectors have the advantages of safety, efficiency, pressure resistance, and easy integration with buildings, which provides great development opportunities for the development of flat plate solar collectors. Flat plate solar collectors can be integrated with high-rise buildings in various ways such as embedded, wall mounted, sunshade panel, and floor standing. By using a separate pressure bearing and non freezing liquid secondary circulation operation mode, the integration of solar energy and buildings is ensured to be aesthetically pleasing and safely operated. At present, with the improvement of national living standards, more and more users have actively requested the use of flat plate collectors, and the number of manufacturers producing flat plate collectors is rapidly increasing. This also reflects that flat plate collectors are particularly suitable for application in urban residential areas and have good development prospects. In the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games, which was the second largest sports venue and Asian Games Village after the Olympic Games, flat plate solar water heaters were used. However, in the 2008 Olympic Games, German flat plate solar water heaters were used, indicating that the technological innovation of domestic products has made great progress in recent years.

Flat plate collectors can not only be used as water heaters, but also new collector products can be developed based on their processes, such as using their efficient selective coatings, optimized fin structures, and air flow channels to develop high-efficiency air collectors. Air collectors can be used for active and passive heating and industrial and agricultural drying, and have broad application prospects. Compared with vacuum tube air collectors, flat plates have the advantages of low flow resistance, high efficiency, easy installation, and reliable operation; Similarly, based on flat plate collectors, laser welding and overall lamination processes can also be used to develop photovoltaic thermal comprehensive utilization products, such as photovoltaic water heaters, photovoltaic heat pumps, solar direct evaporative heat pumps, and so on.

The preparation of solar hot water is only the most basic mode of solar energy application. Solar heating, drying, power generation, lighting, cooling, and their industry applications will become increasingly widespread. With the continuous deepening of measures such as the application of renewable energy, promotion of green buildings, and demonstration cities of renewable energy by the country, flat plate collectors with their unique advantages will surely achieve rapid development.

After the rapid development of vacuum tube solar energy in various objective environments and conditions in the last century, various vacuum tube technologies also made rapid progress and eventually occupied more than 90% of China’s solar thermal utilization market share, while the main consumer force has always been in the secondary and tertiary market terminals. In recent years, with the implementation of mandatory installation policies and numerous subsidies for solar water heaters by the government, the proportion of solar energy sales in primary markets in various regions has relatively increased. It has become inevitable for enterprises to focus on both urban and rural areas in their sales direction. With the development of new rural construction, many rural areas have begun to develop land and build modern residential areas. Following the example of cities, real estate developers have started to uniformly install solar water heater projects in order to enhance competitiveness, resulting in a decrease in the retail market share of solar water heaters. The integration of solar water heater projects and solar buildings has gradually become a key focus of solar water heater sales; At the same time, in order to strengthen the pace of urban construction and continuously improve people’s living environment, many public facilities will choose solar water heaters. Most developers of newly built residential areas have already regarded solar water heaters as part of their property construction. As a result, from rural to urban areas, the market for solar water heater projects has become particularly important and has almost become a major focus for enterprises. So in the domestic environment, various types of solar water heater projects have become a must compete share for various enterprises.

Looking back at the development history of solar energy over the past 20 years, vacuum tube solar water heaters have held a huge market share for a considerable period of time. In recent years, with the rise of large and high-rise buildings in cities, the applicability of vacuum tube solar energy has been somewhat limited. At the same time, the strong pressure resistance highlights the advantages of combining solar energy with building integration, making flat panel solar energy increasingly popular among users in the market. In fact, compared to vacuum tube solar water heater products, flat products are more suitable for integration with buildings and are more conducive to promoting the development of building integration.

According to the 2010 data from the China Solar Thermal Utilization Industry Association, the production of vacuum tube water heaters by solar water heater manufacturers nationwide increased by 15% year-on-year last year; The production of flat plate collectors increased by 50% year-on-year. Under the guidance of market prospects and strong support from relevant policies at all levels of government, the flat panel solar energy market is experiencing greater development. In 2008 and 2009, the annual growth rate of flat panel solar water heaters was 46%, while that of vacuum tubes was 35%. In 2010, the annual growth rate of flat panel solar water heaters reached 50%, showing a faster growth trend in the solar thermal utilization industry than vacuum tube solar energy. The second half of 2011 was a period of rapid development for the domestic tablet industry.

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