About us

THERMO/SOLAR Ziar is one of the leading European manufacturers of solar thermal collectors. It was established in 1992 as a joint venture of Slovak aluminium production plant ZSNP based in Ziar nad Hronom and German thermo|solar Energietechnik, that time the largest manufacturer of solar collectors in Germany. From the start the company benefited from more than 20 years of previous experience of its founders in the field of development and manufacturing of solar thermal collectors.

The joint venture has opened the door for the products made in Ziar nad Hronom to western Europe markets. This subsequently lead to increase of quality and fast production growth. The quality of solar collectors has been positively influenced by mutual exchange of “know-how” of both partners: High efficient selective absorbing layer – the contribution of Slovak partner, and progressive deep-drawn aluminium casing of a collector – the contribution of German side.

Production of innovated type of evacuated flat plate collector began in Ziar nad Hronom in 1997. Even in present time, this collector is the only product of this type in the world. The main advantage is its high efficiency at higher working temperatures, while requirin relatively low investment cost. Its design makes it suitable especially for production of industrial heat and space heating for buildings.

THERMO/SOLAR Ziar and its original founders have during their 45 years existence produced and sold hundreds of thousands solar thermal systems. These are used especially for water heating, combination of water, swimming pool and space heating, industrial heat production, as well as other special applications.

THERMO/SOLAR Ziar is permanently investing not only into research and development, but also to environment protection during the manufacturing process. This results in 100% regeneration of anodising and pigmenting solution in the galvanic line for the production of high selective conversion layer and installation of the technology for rinsing water purification.

Current production capacity is more than 600 thousand m2 of collectors per year. THERMO/SOLAR Ziar is one of few producers in the world with all main manufacturing processes fully integrated in a single production plant (production of selective conversion layer and absorbers, sheet pressing of collector casings, final assembling of collectors). In addition to solar collectors, the company produces various types of supporting frames for fixation of collectors to all kinds of roofs, and it also supplies complete solar sets.

In 2012 the production range was extended to heat pumps. The heat pumps are connected to flat-plate vacuum collectors in an innovative way – creating energy efficient systems. This makes it possible to increase winter energy output of solar collectors approx. 4 to 5-times. At the same time, it increases the efficiency of heat pump operation of approx. 50 %. This technology can be used only in combination with the flat-plate vacuum collectors TS-400. In Germany, this technical solution is considered as technically progressive, and the end customers can receive a state subsidy for purchasing these systems.

At present, THERMO/SOLAR is the largest independent company producing solar thermal collectors in Europe.

From 2015 the company supplies complete photovoltaic systems. The assembling of these systems is based on the experience gained in the field of solar thermal collectors.

Further development stage is represented by the heat pump that is integrated into the heat storage tank. In this case, the low temperature heat can be provided not only by flat-plate vacuum collectors, but also from earth or air.

There are number of installations in different parts of the world where THERMO/SOLAR collectors work in extreme conditions or are used for non-standard solar heat utilisation processes. For example, an evacuated flat plate collector system is installed in the Environmental Research Centre on Zugspitze in German Alps, 2650 meters above the sea level. Another example is an installation in Oman designed for sea water distillation. The installation in a social residence house in the town of Slatinany (Czech Republic) is also very interesting from technical point of view, since the solar heat provides 87% of the space heating and the domestic hot water supply. This system includes a seasonal heat storage tank of 1 100 000 litres of water and a heat pump as a backup.

The company pays high attention to quality, research and development. It has unique equipment for measuring the quality of selective layer, the transmissivity of solar glass and performance parameters of collectors.

These activities were significantly intensified in 2011, when the company became a founding member of The Competence Centre–a research and development base. Among its members are The Slovak Academy of sciences, two technical universities and further seven industrial partners. Company’s educational, consultancy and publicity activities focused on solar heat utilisation are also very important. The company has been authorized by the Slovak Ministry of Economy as an accredited training centre for certification of installers of solar thermal and photovoltaic system.

The aim of THERMO/SOLAR is to achieve for its customers energy independence from monopoly energy suppliers. The company is therefore developing and testing various technical solutions that would help to achieve this aim in economically rational ways.