Solarlite GmbH finalist of the Deutscher Innovationspreis (German Innovation Award)

Renewable energy at a reasonable price, environmentally friendly and almost everywhere available.
Solarlite GmbH based in Duckwitz, Mecklenburg-West Pomerania, makes this vision reality. Solarlite’s concept is characterized by high precision parabolic trough collectors and direct steam generation from water instead of the use of thermal oil. This innovative technology has impressed the jury of the German Innovation Award and Solarlite was honoured in the category “Startup” on the 30th of April, 2010 during the prize giving ceremony in the Hotel Bayerischer Hof in Munich.
Duckwitz, 30th of April, 2010. For the first time the German Innovation Award was awarded on the 30th of April, 2010 during a gala dinner in the Hotel Bayerischer Hof in Munich. The objective of the initiative of Accenture, EnBW, Evonik and the WirtschaftsWoche is to distinguish marketable innovations in the German economy. The jury evaluated sales opportunities, additional application possibilities and synergetic effects as well as economic efficiency and positive impacts on society and the environment.
Solarlite GmbH was honoured in the category “Startup”. The jury was firstly impressed with the revolutionizing idea to produce parabolic troughs made out of composite materials with high precision for mass-production and secondly with the ability to generate direct steam in place of evaporating thermal oil. A new phase in the development of solar technology has been reached with the Solarlite technology. The modular design based on combining a light composite construction and an efficient thinglass mirror is advantageous in various aspects, for example a central production independent of the power plant sites as well as allowing different project sizes with no limitations. The direct evaporation of water instead of thermal oil and the option of cogeneration of thermal and electrical energy makes the energy production nearly free of CO2 and more environmentally friendly. Solarlite technology is able to reduce total investment costs of a power plant project and guarantees attractive prices as well as a reliable source of energy.
The decentralized modular system of Solarlite is unique in the world and can be used in various applications such as power production for feed-in to the network or for stand-alone consumption of small and medium-sized industrial facilities. The construction method allows island solutions and smaller solar thermal parabolic trough plants starting from 500 kWe. Applications in combination with cogeneration can be used for the production of heat, absorption cooling or also for seawater desalination.
Rural regions without any grid connection located in sun belt areas can profit immensely from such technology. On 30th of April Solarlite’s CFO, Moritz von Plate, was honoured in Munich on behalf of Solarlite’s innovative founder and CEO Joachim Krüger and his 20 person team for their innovative work. Joachim Krüger was delighted by this honour: „In 2001 I first had the idea of building parabolic troughs made of lighter material in Thailand. Therefore I am very pleased that this idea developed over the last years into an innovative product by a pioneering company located in Mecklenburg-West Pomerania and was awarded with this mark of distinction.“

The product:
The Solarlite 4600 parabolic trough is a newly developed highly efficient product that can generate temperatures of up to 400 °C. Each panel has an aperture width of 4.6 m and is made of composite materials combined with an efficient thinglass mirror. This mirror reflects up to 95% of the sun’s radiation onto the receiver pipe positioned at the ideal focus of the parabolic mirror. Water passing through the receiver pipe is heated up by the concentrated reflected sun radiation and is converted into steam within a controlled process. A turbine generator produces electricity. Residual heat can be used for other applications such as seawater desalination or absorption cooling.

The German Innovation Award
Accenture, EnBW, Evonik and the WirtschaftsWoche are the initiators for the idea of The German Innovation Award to distinguish the prominent, trendsetting innovations of German enterprises which change business and markets with their innovation. The prize is awarded within the categories “Large-scale”, “Small business” and “Startup”. www.der-deutsche-innovationspreis.de

Solarlite GmbH
Solarlite GmbH develops and builds decentralized solar-thermal parabolic trough plants ( CSP – Concentrated Solar Power) for combined heat and power generation (steam, thermal energy and power). These power plants have an electrical output in the range of 500 kWe up to more than 30 MWe. Solarlite is globally the only supplier of parabolic trough plants that can be used in different applications such as electricity production or for the stand-alone electricity consumption of small and medium-sized industrial facilities. Compared to traditional parabolic trough collectors that use thermal oil and an additional heat exchanger, the direct steam generation implemented by Solarlite is more efficient, less expensive and more environmentally friendly. Solarlite was founded in 2007 by Joachim Krüger.

Solarlite GmbH
Press contact:
Catrin Gäde
Schloss Duckwitz, 17179 Duckwitz
Germany
Tel.: +49-039972-5697-28
Fax: +49-039972-5697-10
Mail catrin.gaede@solarlite.de
Internet www.solarlite.de

This release was published on openPR.