Our Sales Manager, Juandré, reflects on attending Intersolar Europe
Claude Peters and I, together with some of our UK colleagues, recently attended Intersolar in Germany, where manufacturers, suppliers, distributors, service providers, project planners and developers from around the world met to discuss the latest developments and trends, and explore innovations.
Starting off with a short, but long journey to Munich, the trip started with a quick layover of 10 hours at Dubai Airport, as the flight to Munich only left later that evening. A fairly long day, seeing the most incredible diversity of people from all over the world. This reminds one again how we are all connected and that the other side of the world, is simply a flight away. In Munich, the streets were flooded with solar experts from all over the world. I found it interesting to meet individuals working in the industry at the majority of the places we went. Even some South Africans in places I would have never imagined to see a familiar face! The general consensus was that it was one of the biggest solar shows held at Intersolar in Munich they have seen.
Emerging trends
Some changes coming to the market that we found that is interesting is that modules are moving from P to N type, meaning that the new batch of modules coming in 2024 in production will be better performing compared to the current modules as they typically have done over the last few years. This simply means, more Wp with more or less the same size panel. Some panels are in the ranges of 710Wp now! Crazy.
There was a HUGE focus on energy storage from all fronts compared to last year, where the storage that was offered was much smaller and the larger focus was on electric vehicle charging. With the exciting amount of energy storage that was available at the show, it was rather difficult to speak to everyone and allow enough time to learn about the fantastic products on the market.
International connections
Our objective was to engage with service partners that would be able to deliver quality products, and most importantly, after sales service for when the batteries have been installed. There was a wide variety of energy storage solutions ranging from rack mounted, internal liquid cooled, container type and more. The international need for storage has grown so exponential that panel manufacturers have also jumped into the residential market with smaller 5–10kWp systems with their respective batteries.
The trip was overwhelmingly positive, as the RenEnergy Africa and UK teams got together to think outside the box, innovate, learn more from one another, whilst exploring the interesting things the Intersolar show had to offer. I have to believe that events like these align us even more as a team whilst learning and experiencing new things.
To end off, the trip taught me that this is a small world where we can connect with one another on so many interesting and exciting levels, learn and improve, innovate and implement what we’ve learnt. There are many options out there to choose from, but choosing the right partner is key to the success of everything I’ve spoken about.
All the best.
From left to right: Tom Lloyd (Sales Director UK), Claude Peters (MD Africa), Juandré Pitout (Sales Manager Africa), Damian Baker (MD UK) and Paul Newlove (Head of Design UK)