Innovation is the driving force

A modern company cannot compete today without continuous development, including the development of new marketable products. The growing market of concentrated solar power in particular requires investment in research and development. Solarlite has rapidly gained experience in the area of small and medium solar thermal power plants. Several pilot and test plants have been constructed. The team is constantly working on the advancement of technology and on bringing new innovations onto the market. Our focus lies on further promoting the market acceptance of solar thermal energy.

Technical developments

Solarlite has created significant innovations within solar thermal energy. With the SL 4600, the company has successfully developed a parabolic trough collector made with a combination of glass fibre composite material and an efficient thin-film glass mirror. With this we have achieved higher operating temperatures, a simpler construction, a significant reduction in weight and panel costs and thereby ultimately an increase in the efficiency of the whole power plant.

• Parabolic troughs made out composite materials:
  Simplicity of construction, together with the use of new materials and material combinations, allows mass production of an optical instrument with higher precision, whilst simultaneously greatly reducing weight and costs.
• Direct steam generation:
  This is the first time this technology is being employed by a company commercially. Solarlite has refined the operating concept and tested it in plants in Germany and Thailand. The direct evaporation of water means the use of expensive and environmentally unfriendly combination of thermal oil plus heat exchanger can be avoided. This considerably increases efficiency compared to current technology, as well as lowering costs.
• Combined heat and power:
  Solarlite power plant technology offers the option of combining heat and power generation, which increases performance and constitutes an expansion of the current operating concepts in the market that supply either electricity or process heating.