CONA

Cona was nominated for the International UN Energy Award. Awarded by the United Nations headquarters in New York, the award "Powering the Future We Want - Recognizing Leadership and Innovative Practices in Energy for Sustainable Development" honours companies that particularly distinguish themselves in these aspects through their techniques, programmes or products with 1 million US$. Furthermore, a delegation of the Cuban Minister came to Austria and visited CONA to strengthen the cooperation with the Cuban government. The company has been cooperating with UNIDO and Cuba for many years.

The first CONA round-bale drying plant for animal feed was put into operation in Austria. Wilted forage is pressed into bales one day after being cut and dried by means of CONA solar air collectors. The material can be dried within a few days, preventing dust accumulation and mould development. The fans for drying the bales have an output of 0.2 kW/double bale.

Cona has implemented a 2^nd enlargement of the solar drying wood chip plant at the Manzenreiter sawmill in Waldenburg. This extended the sawmill's production capacity of wood chips. Around 348 m² of solar panels with a peak thermal output of 250 kW permit to dry about 8,000 loose cubic meters of wet wood chips per year.

CONA installed the first solar wood chip drying plant in Poland. The system was jointly planned and implemented with a Polish company. The solar wood chip drying plant has a peak capacity of 86 kW and consists of 120 m² solar panels and two drying chambers able to hold 90 m³ each. An entire truckload of wood chips can be dried in each compartment. The plant can dry around 2000 m³ of wood chips per year.

A 60 m² solar thermal system for drying fruit, herbs and other goods has been installed in Costa Rica. The dryers are able to hold 300 kg of fresh fruit (each of the 4 separate drying chambers has a capacity of 75 kg). The fruit is almost entirely used: the pulp is sold as snack food on the organic market and the peels are dried and processed into tea. With the solar energy storage system, the drying process can be continued at night.

Cona Solar Austria is a manufacturer of solar air collectors used for drying fruits, herbs or biomass. Cona has extensive experience with the development of solar drying plants for fruits and herbs – more than 400 plants are already in operation in Latin America. Solar biomass drying is mainly used in Austria and Germany so far. In Upper Austria more than 30 plants for wood chip drying are already in operation, using the constantly improved technology with a patented special absorber and heat exchanger.

After a two-year planning process, CONA and the Japanese company Hibiya Amenis opened the first solar wood chip drying facility in Tokio. CONA has an extensive experience with the development of solar drying plants for the application in Latin America - more than 400 plants are already in operation there. Solar biomass drying using CONA technology is an innovation so far especially used in Austria, Germany and now also in Japan. In Upper Austria, there are already more than 30 plants in operation.

CONA Solar Austria is a manufacturer of solar air collectors used for drying fruits, herbs or biomass. So far they have installed solar drying facilities on 4 continents which are used for drying more than 100 different products. Now CONA is taking its first steps in Central Asia: 460 m² CONA solar air collectors are providing energy for the drying of organic fruits, mainly distributed in Europe. Due to its modular design, the dimensioning of such a facility is very flexible.