26 Mar 2024

Solar Heat: The Third Wave of Renewable Energy – Absolicon Leads the Way

The International Energy Agency has recently predicted that solar heat will become the third wave in renewable energy. After a decade of rapid growth for wind power and solar panels for electricity, the norhtern Sweden-based company Absolicon is at the forefront of solar heat development. Twenty years ago, founder Joakim Byström began exploring how we could solve heat supply with solar energy. Today, their concentrated solar collectors stand as a solution for some of the world's largest food companies.

Joakim Byström can now reflect on the company's journey:

"We started quickly and sold our first products as early as 2005. But our development has not been as explosive as the solar panel industry. Solar heat has not evolved at the same pace, partly because the solar panel market has received gigantic subsidies globally, which solar heat has not," he notes.

Despite competition from solar panels, Joakim does not see them as a direct rival but rather as a complement.

"Solar panels generate electricity, while we produce heat. We address different parts of the energy problem. In a typical brewery or dairy today, one-fourth of the electricity comes from wind and solar panels, and three-fourths of the heat comes from burning natural gas, oil, coal, or biofuels."

Three Times More Energy than Solar Panels

Absolicon's goal is to help industries achieve zero carbon dioxide emissions.

"The major industrial companies use large amounts of heat and have ambitious climate goals but lack solutions to achieve them. This is where we come in. Many large food industries, such as breweries and dairies, use large amounts of heat, often generated from fossil fuels," he says.

Absolicon's technology offers a solution to this.

"Our solar concentrator has the highest measured efficiency in the world for a small parabolic trough, where 76 percent of sunlight is converted into heat. This allows us to generate three times more energy per unit area than solar panels can," explains Joakim.

An example of where the technology is beneficial is at Colgate and Carlsberg in Greece, where Absolicon's solar collectors provide heat for production processes.

"At Carlsberg's facility, we use our solar collectors to produce steam for pasteurization. This steam replaces the fossil steam that was previously used," Joakim explains.

At the Carlsberg facility Absolicons solar collectors are used for production of steam for pasteurization.

Projects Around the World

He emphasizes that their technology is also superior from an environmental perspective, with significantly lower carbon dioxide emissions in production compared to other methods.

"Our solar collectors have a carbon dioxide emission of only 8 grams per kilowatt-hour, compared to 40 grams for other technologies. Additionally, we have an energy payback time of just three months, compared to two to three years for wind power and solar panels."

Absolicon has ongoing projects in places like Kenya and Mallorca and sees significant potential for solar heat globally.

"Solar heat already accounts for about one percent of the world's energy production, but with the right support and development, it could become a key component in the global energy mix. A third wave of renewable energy is needed, and that's solar heat," he says.

While solar panels and wind power have benefited from subsidies, the solar heat industry has struggled without government support.

Subsidies Benefit Chinese Factories

" In Sweden, solar panels have received 2.5 billion in subsidies, while solar heat has not received any," he emphasizes, leading to Swedish solar collector manufacturers being replaced by Chinese solar panel factories.

But Joakim sees that the main competition comes from industries continuing to burn fossil fuels.

"Our challenge is to convince global companies to reconsider their heat supply to effectively manage their carbon dioxide emissions."

Despite a turnover of just a few million, Joakim is optimistic about the future.

"We have recently sold two major projects in Egypt and Canada, worth 4 million euros each. These projects are just the beginning of a longer journey toward a more sustainable world," he concludes.

 

Click here to read more about Absolicon!