Vaillant Group focuses on renewable energies

• Renewable energies business field growing stronger than the market
• Increasing costs of oil and gas as well as political policy-setting are ensuring growing demand 
• Great potential for cost-savings with renewable energies and hybrid systems
  

Gelsenkirchen/Remscheid, 6 June 2008 – Vaillant Group has today begun at its Gelsenkirchen site its own production of solar collectors for using the heat of the sun. The company is thus reinforcing its strategic alignment on energy-efficient and environmentally friendly technologies for heating and cooling that work on the basis of renewable energies. In 2007, Vaillant Group increased its sales of products for the use of renewable energies by 20 per cent compared with the previous year to about €120 million. With a gain of 41 per cent, the sales of highly-efficient heat pumps made the most marked increase. The company also achieved two-digit sales growth in solar thermal and photovoltaic installations. This means that in the renewable energies sector Vaillant Group has grown much faster than the European market as a whole, which in 2007 posted an increase of about 7 per cent. The Vaillant Group objective in the renewable energies sector is to double its sales from 2007 to 2009 and further expand the company’s strong market position as a full-range supplier of energy-efficient systems.

Increasing costs of oil and gas as well as climate policy goals are driving demand for renewable energies
Sharp rises in the cost of oil and gas as well as the increasing need to push ahead on climate protection are the main drivers of the growing demand for technologies that work with renewable energies. In addition, political policy-setting at European and national level are ensuring the further expansion of technologies based on renewable raw materials. The so-called 20/20/20 formula of the European Union provides for the share of renewable energies in the energy mix being increased to 20 per cent, energy efficiency by 20 per cent and greenhouse gases being reduced by 20 per cent. Another EU measure, planned for 2009, is the introduction of an obligatory energy efficiency label for heating and hot water systems – similar to that used today on domestic appliances. This will mean greater transparency for consumers and enable them to make a better-informed and more conscious decision for energy-efficient systems.

In Germany, the Federal government has adopted an ‘Integrated Energy and Climate Programme’, a package of 29 climate protection measures. The most important of these include the obligation to use renewable energies in new buildings from 2009 and the continual increase of the grants for using renewable energies to €500 million a year from next year. Similar measures are planned or already in force in other EU countries. For instance, in Spain, Italy and Portugal the use of solar system technology for generating hot water in new buildings is already obligatory.

Great potential for cost-savings with renewable energies and hybrid systems
Energy-efficient heating technology plays a decisive role in the aim of lowering costs for consumers, sparing resources and reducing emissions. Heating for residential buildings accounts for about one-third of Europe’s total energy requirements. By exchanging old heating installations for highly-efficient condensing appliances, much more than 30 per cent of heating energy and a corresponding 30 per cent of CO2 can be saved each year. An even greater potential for cost-saving can be used by means of hybrid systems, which combine fossil and renewable energies. The focus here is above all on solar thermal installations because they can be combined with almost all heating systems from condensing appliances and heat pumps to biomass boilers. This means that compared to an old non-condensing appliance, installing a hybrid solution of a solar thermal unit and a condensing appliance can cut heating costs, energy consumption and CO2 emissions by more than 40 per cent. A heat pump also presents a huge potential for savings compared with customary heating appliances because it draws 75 per cent of the heating energy from the environment free of charge. Only 25 per cent must be added in the form of electrical power.

Strategic alignment on economical and environment-friendly systems
Vaillant Group has consistently aligned its strategy on the market trends to energy-saving and at the same time environment-friendly system solutions. “The trend is away from single heating appliances to efficient systems that increasingly are using renewable energies. As a leading systems supplier in the international heating, ventilation and air-conditioning industry, Vaillant Group will benefit from this development on a sustainable basis,” says Vaillant Group Managing Director Ralf-Otto Limbach.

Growth potential for solar thermal installations and heat pumps
With 89.7 billion kilowatt hours, the share of renewable energies in heat generation in Germany currently totals 6.5 per cent and is to be increased to 14 per cent by 2020. Solar energy, however, at present covers only 0.3 per cent of the country’s heating needs. But according to the German national association of the solar industry (BSW-Solar), this share is to rise to about 30 per cent by 2050. The thermal output of all solar installations in Germany currently totals 6.4 billion kilowatts. This prevents about one million metric tons of CO2 emissions. Besides typical installations for detached and semi-detached houses, the focus is increasingly on units for use in blocks of flats.

Sales of heat pumps in 2007 also developed positively in counter to the general development in the German heating market. The heat pump stock in Germany rose by 20 per cent year-on-year to about 300,000 installations. For 2008, the German national association of heat pump manufacturers expects ongoing dynamic growth. Vaillant Group is well prepared for this development. During the course of this year the company will expand its production capacities for heat pumps at the Gelsenkirchen site and extend the product programme by heat pumps with higher output for use in blocks of flats.


Vaillant Group is an internationally operating heating, ventilation and air-conditioning technology concern based in Remscheid, Germany. As one of the world's market and technology leaders, the company develops and produces tailor-made products, systems and services for domestic comfort. The product portfolio ranges from efficient heating appliances based on customary fuels to system solutions for using regenerative energy sources. In financial year 2007 the company, which has been family-owned since its founding in 1874, achieved with almost 12,400 employees sales totalling about €2.4 billion.


Contact
Dr Jens Wichtermann
Head of Corporate Communications
Vaillant Group
D-42850 Remscheid
Phone: +49 2191 18-2754
Fax: +49 2191 18-2895
Mobile: +49 175 2951810
jens.wichtermann@vaillant.de
www.vaillant-group.com