8 percent less solar thermal in 2018

According to the annual balance sheet of the Federal Association of the German Heating Industry (BDH) presented today, the German market for solar thermal systems has shrunk further by 8 percent to 573,500 square meters of collector area.

There was no initial spark for the heating turnaround in 2018 either. This is the central result of the annual balance sheet of the Federal Association of the German Heating Industry (BDH). Although the manufacturers organised in the BDH were able to achieve an overall increase of 3 percent compared to the previous year with 732,000 heat generators sold. However, this plus resulted exclusively from the still dynamic new construction business. "Last year, around 600,000 appliances were used in the refurbishment of existing buildings. With around 12 million obsolete systems in the portfolio, the current modernisation rate is too low. Politicians must finally provide incentives to mobilise the abundant private capital for climate protection," says BDH President Uwe Glock.

Once again, modern gas condensing technology was the technology most in demand, with 492,500 appliances sold and an increase of 4 percent on the previous year. As in the previous year, heat pumps came second in the sales statistics with 84,000 appliances sold and an increase of 8 percent. This was followed by oil condensing technology with 58,500 appliances and a slight downward trend of 3 percent. The development of biomass-based systems was not satisfactory, with 24,000 units sold and a drop of 9 percent.

In addition to the market figures, the BDH also published the results of its annual multi-moment survey. In total, the 104 companies organised in the BDH generated a worldwide turnover of 15.1 billion euros with around 75,500 employees. 680 million euros were invested by manufacturers in research and development, once again demonstrating the high innovative strength of the heating industry. "The development has mainly taken place in the area of digitalisation. Digitalised and networked heating technology will be one of the defining themes of ISH 2019," says BDH General Manager Andreas Lücke.

Source: PM BDH 7.2.2019