New Solar AiR Logos for Food Products Dried with Solar Heat Energy

Nov. 18, 2015 – The Solar Air Heating World Industries Association (SAHWIA) is pleased to announce an industry first; the inaugural set of consumer logos aimed specifically at creating awareness for food products that incorporate solar air heating in their processing. Many of the world’s crops require drying as part of their production, and solar air heating has always been an excellent renewable energy solution to reducing fossil fuel usage and creating high quality food products. Solar AiR Logos provide labeling for crops dried with solar air collectors tested to an international standard. It can also be used for buildings that are heated with solar.

The Solar AiR logos will allow the companies that produce solar dried fruit, coffee, tea, nuts, herbs, and other consumer products to proudly display their commitment to sustainability and carbon reduction on their product packaging and in their promotional material. It will also provide consumers with a choice to favor those foods and products that are dried and processed using solar.

Consumers are ascribing greater importance to the way in which their food is processed, generating more demand for clean energy throughout the entire lifecycle of the product.

The goal of SAHWIA is to promote the multitude of benefits possible from solar air heating, and as such, showcase the companies, farms and other entities that use the technology. The summary below provides a quick guide on the use of the Solar AiR logos. They all speak to the 360 degrees of sustainability that is possible with solar air heating in any business or agricultural operation.

AiR Solar Dried can be used by farm enterprises and companies which solar dry crops or produce using certified solar air heating systems. The logo may only be used on product packaging and marketing materials that promote produce which has been dried in the facility using the solar drying system.

AiR Solar Raised is used by farm enterprises and companies that raise animals such as chickens in solar heated barns; AiR Solar Produced is used by companies which produce a product in a solar heated factory and AiR Solar Heated is used by companies, governments and organizations which have a solar heated building or group of buildings.

In order to qualify for use of the AiR Solar marks a company or user must ensure that its building or process maximizes the solar energy usage with at least 75% of the available south facing wall or roof utilized (excluding windows, doors or other objects on surface) for the solar air panels.

For solar drying, the crops must be dried with solar energy when sunshine is available and can be combined with other fuel sources during non-solar periods as long as the total energy used to dry the produce is at least 25% from the solar air heating system.

Verification is normally performed at the commissioning stage by a SAHWIA member company.

SAHWIA, a member organization with members in North America and the European Union, represents manufacturers and distributors of solar air heating systems in over twenty countries. Solar air heating has become the most popular solar thermal energy technology for the non-residential sectors in North America and demand for solar air heaters are expected to grow once the European requirement for 20% renewable energy by 2020 and the Obama Executive Order for 25% renewable energy by 2025 on Federal USA buildings are implemented.

Press Contact: Victoria Hollick; vhollick@sahwia.org