MAN Ferrostaal enters solar cooling market

By Christy van der Merwe, Engineering News

Industrial service provider MAN Ferrostaal has entered the solar cooling market with its acquisition of a 20,1% stake in solar cooling systems developer and manufacturer Solitem, and would jointly market solar cooling systems in future.

The German-based Solitem group develops and manufactures solar cooling systems that convert solar energy directly into cooling. The target markets are hot, sunny countries such as those in the Middle East, where it was estimated that up to 80% of electricity was used to operate conventional air conditioning systems.

The companies estimated that the market potential was "very large", with an investment volume of more than $600-billion.

"Our systems compete directly with conventional cooling and air conditioning systems," Solitem MD Dr. Ahmet Lokurlu said.

"The economic benefits of our systems are derived from their very low operating costs, combined with recent dramatic increases in the cost of electrical power. Taken together, they make it possible to amortise the systems we have installed so far within about seven years," he added.

"Solitem had thus far installed four commercially operated systems in hotels and public buildings in Turkey, and was the only provider of such systems who can draw from practical experience," MAN Ferrostaal executive board member Dr. Wolfgang Knothe said.

This made the company "very attractive" for MAN, as the market for solarthermal systems was thought to be just starting, and the firm intended on establishing itself as one of the "first movers" in the field of solarthermal power plants and cooling systems.

Political measures aimed at CO₂ reduction for the purposes of climate change prevention were also said to be a driver of the strong growth of and considerable uptake of renewable energies.

MAN Ferrostaal aimed at becoming a market leader in the development, construction and operation of solarthermal systems. "Over the past eight months, in order to obtain access to the key technologies, the company has acquired holdings in three technology developers and signed one joint venture, Solar Millennium, the Solar Power Group and Solitem, possess technologies for the highly efficient collection and conversion of solar energy to heat. MAN Ferrostaal offered experience in power plant construction as well as in the construction of industrial cooling plants, thereby covering the conventional part of solarthermal power plants and cooling systems," the company said.