The heating market for solar energy premises
The global water heating market and solar energy premises will reach the next decade - according to Lester Brown, founder of Earth Policy Institute - nearly 1.2 billion square meters of installed capacity. If other developing countries adopt water heating like China, the global total in 2020 could exceed 1.5 billion square meters, the equivalent of 690 coal -fired power plants. This represents a capital investment accumulated estimated at $ 300 billion, at around half of the cost if the power plants had been the privileged investment choice. China has installed 27 million solar water heaters on the roofs in 2010. With nearly 4,000 local companies manufacturing this equipment, these heating devices quickly penetrate the market. The Worldwatch Institute notes that 2 million Germans live in houses equipped with a solar heating on the roof.
In 1980, the Knesset (the Israeli Parliament) adopted a law imposing the installation of solar water heaters in all new houses. As a result, Israel is the world leader in the use of solar water heater per capita, with market penetration of 85 %, which saves around two million barrels of oil per year. Spain and Portugal have recently demanded that all new buildings be equipped with solar water heaters on the roofs. It is surprising that it is necessary to adopt laws to impose the use of these systems while the economic situation is so convincing. With a total annual cost and operating cost of only $ 50, less than 15 cents per day, it is ten times cheaper on its lifespan than the cheapest alternative on the market.
Solar systems surpass electric shower head heaters, even when they are as cheap as $ 25 per unit. The heating element placed inside the head consumes between 2,500 and 5,000 watts. Although these heating devices do not require a reservoir and consume little energy during the day, they consume a lot of electricity when used. It's like taking a shower with a fire spear or driving your children to school in a hummer. Anyone who relies on a time meter will pay more than three months, which solar water heaters pay for one year for operating and investment costs.
Innovation
Paolo Lugari and his colleagues from the Environmental Research Center Las Gaviotas, based in Bogota, Colombia, were challenged by Dr. Mario Calderon Rivera, president of the National Bank of Mortgages (Banco Central Hipotecário) to design a heater- Water that could operate all year round at 3,000 meters above sea level with around 200 days of covered sky. Even Israeli experts who had successfully created a solar water heating industry in the Middle East in the 1970s suggested that these climatological conditions should be based on electric heating. Paolo and his team have chosen to rethink the design and decided to rely on an innovative approach to the thermosiphon, eliminating any mobile part and choosing materials sensitive to light. The team has established itself to imagine a device that only uses standard components.
Although the leadership of the bank was ready to accept the water heating device by luminescence which works with light and not with direct sunlight, financial experts were reluctant to adopt this innovative approach. Who would support the risk of failure? Paolo and his team reviewed all the unknown factors, studied the choice of materials and evaluated once again the simple design based on gravity and convection. Paolo Lugari has decided to offer an unconditional 25 -year warranty to the owners provided that they clean the cover of the heating device once a year and maintain the insulation of the water tank. With more than 40,000 units installed in Colombia, Las Gaviotas can demonstrate 30 years later that its promise to replace any defective device was not too risky or expensive, but that it established new standards in the business world.
The first cash flow
Las Gaviotas has gained its entry into the market on the basis of a detailed cost analysis for the owner of the house, with the kind authorization of the mortgage bank. If the monthly energy bill could be reduced for the duration of the 25 -year mortgage, the new owner would decrease his monthly expenses and reduce his monthly payments, which would leave him more purchasing power for his daily expenses. Cooperation with mortgage banks and social housing services in Bogotá and Medellín has paved the way for an industry that has been profitable, while ensuring a fundamental service at very low cost.
The opportunity
Now that Las Gaviotas has proven beyond doubt for insurance companies that his apparatus meets the strictest standard ever seen on the market, the whole world is interested in adopting this design. Gaviotas welcomes any improvement made to existing models. However, after having eliminated all steering orders and electric pumps, the breakthroughs that can be expected over the years are based on choices of materials rather than fundamental changes in structure and shape. Gaviotas relied on existing experiences to design water purification systems, large water heating systems in hospitals (1,100 beds), semi-industrial solar ovens and even sterilization equipment .
Since international insurance covers the 25 -year warranty, higher investment costs can be amortized as part of the mortgage over this quarter of a century. The use of easily available parts facilitates repairs. The fact that only 15 minutes after the light has risen on the horizon, the water is hot, convinced everyone that luminescence is an effective energy source for all the places in the world in the seasons with the seasons rains and long periods of covered sky. The key to success is to cover the plates of Darrier Colophon, one of the main products extracted from the resin taken from the Regenerated Forest of Vichada in Colombia, another initiative undertaken by Gaviotas.
Indonesia was the first country to express its interest in the approval of solar water heaters. This conception has motivated Kalimantan's industrial development partners to opt for the Gaviotas business model. GAVIOTAS offered a set comprising a comprehensive computer -assisted manufacturing plan (FAO), an operational unit as well as a dismantled model in order to facilitate local industrial development, while reducing costs for consumers. The preparation state to provide a master plan for local manufacturing, based on three decades of constant improvements, provides a competitive development model for the Third World.
These systems are designed for the tropics, but some simple adaptations also guarantee their service in cold climatic areas. Perhaps it should be noted that Las Gaviotas does not pay dividends to shareholders, but that the Foundation reinvests its income in the development of many other innovations, such as the regeneration of the wet tropical forest of Vichada, which was presented in The blue economy as one of the first examples of sustainable development which will be discussed in more detail in the next articles.
