The Company
Sunvention GmbH has been developing efficient solar systems for decades. The systems are intended for rural self-sufficiency applications in sun-rich countries. The first systems are now ready to enter production. Due to their simple construction they can be produced locally, creating local employment as a foundation of a healthy regional economy.
The following machines will enter series production during 2011/2012 for delivery as a construction kit to workshops which will perform final assembly for the end-user: the Energy Power Greenhouse (EPG), the SunPulse Water solar thermal water pump, the SunPulse Electric solar thermal electrical generator and the CleanPhoton solar drinking water disinfection system.
Future product development: a solar thermal storage system, a solar cooker, a solar ’stand-alone’ system (see fact sheet SunPulse Electric), a solar dryer, a solar cooling system, a fixed-focus solar concentrator and a compact multiple-application low-temperature Stirling engine (the Y-Machine).
Sunvention’s primary development site is in an industrial zone in Lörrach, Germany. A second test-field for the South is in Tamera Peace Research Center, in the Portuguese Alentejo, and a platform orientated towards the North has been established at Solarzentrum Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in Wietow, Germany.
Sunvention systems are entering production at Indonesia’s Akademi Teknik Mesin Industri (ATMI), a Jesuit university with a worldwide network, which trains mainly young people from villages, educating them to become technicians and engineers. Sunvention is introducing solar energy technologies to ATMI by training selected ATMI engineers who are then responsible for serial production of Sunvention systems at ATMI’s modern and spacious workshops. Efficient serial production is thereby combined with education and training and effective local uptake in Indonesia and surrounding countries. This model of integrated production and education will be successively extended across other continents. Sunvention is seeking workshops interested in acting as intermediaries between production and the final consumer.
The largest single shareholder of Sunvention Group is the Leopold Bachmann Foundation in Zürich, Switzerland. Their engagement has enabled complete restructuring and refinancing of the company to orient itself fully to the above goals.
Technology and Industry Park Solarzentrum Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in Wietow, Germany: Demonstration of house-in-house concept; EPG technologies under an ETFE film with high transmission in visible and UV: tracking concentrated photovoltaic array, frequency-shifter and thermal absorber.