Our new series of blog posts introduces this year’s participants of Japan Energy Challenge. We spoke with Victor Sancho, Co-founder and CCO of ezzingSolar, to discuss the role his company can play in the future of Japan’s energy markets.
While the price of solar panels has been decreasing significantly, their purchase can still be a complex ordeal for consumers and businesses alike. ezzingSolar have developed an “all-in-one” software solution that simplifies PV and allows companies to develop and be profitable in distributed generation. There is a significant amount of interest surrounding these technologies, so we’ll try to shed some light into what makes ezzingSolar stand out from the rest.
Hello Victor, can you tell us a bit about the company and its founders?
ezzingSolar. Solar made easy. The “all-in-one” solution that simplifies PV and allows companies to develop and be profitable in distributed generation.
Energy Companies face the problem that nowadays selling big amounts of photovoltaic rooftop installations is not easy, especially it is not easy to be profitable and scalable competing with local installers. We have to make solar more accessible to everyone, making the process of selling, buying and installing rooftop solar much more simple.
Through our defined process and using our technological platform, we simplify this whole process, improving mainly 4 areas:
- Reducing the customer acquisition cost
- Allowing anyone (without technical background) to sell or buy a photovoltaic installation… anywhere
- Interconnecting everyone involved in the value chain to reduce overhead costs (energy advisors, sales representatives, installers, distributors, etc.)
- Creating engagement with the end customer during sales and during the after sales, being the door to cross-sell and up-sell other energy products (home energy efficiency systems).
Our technological platform is based on a successful business model. We propose a new model for companies who want to make business efficiently in the residential and commercial solar segment. We have digitalized the whole process making it much faster, easier and cost-effective.
Both us founders (Alberto & Victor), are completely complementary in our skills. I always say that we are the night and the day, and I believe that has been one of the keys to get where we are.
Although we are both engineers, my partner Alberto has always focused on the technical (product development) and strategic part of the company. On the other hand, I, Victor, have been focused on sales all my life, always international sales.
We are very experienced on the solar sector, as we have been always working on it. Alberto (+15 years experience) and I (+11 years experience) made a career for many years leading solar companies worldwide (Siliken, Solon, SunEdison, …). Over there we acquired a lot of knowledge and contacts in the sector.
Alberto led the R&D Department at Siliken and then moved to strategic positions within Siliken and later on in SunEdison, leading the whole residential division in Europe.
As Sales Manager and Business Development Manager, I traveled half the world selling solar panels, so I accumulated knowledge and especially contacts in many markets, from Europe to America and Asia. I made a career on sales in the solar sector.
How does your solution fit within the wider trends of Digitalisation and Decarbonisation in the energy sector?
ezzingSolar is literally DIGITALIZING the whole process of selling and buying solar rooftop installations through our platform.
Our vision is that in the near future, solar installations will be sold as easily as air-conditioners. Anyone will be able to buy a solar installation just using his mobile phone from the couch of his house. To get to this point we need to digitalize as much as possible the process of buying and selling solar, and this is exactly what ezzingSolar is doing.
Are there milestones you are particularly proud to have achieved as a company?
- We got some major Utility companies on board using our solution (such as ENGIE or REPSOL)
- We are selling our solutions in many countries (Spain, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, USA, Mexico)
- The Company has been growing and it is continuously growing
- We have a big pipeline of opportunities coming up throughout 2019
Let’s look at Japan Energy Challenge’s scope, what specifically attracted you about the prospect of expanding to the Japanese market?
- The electricity market is deregulated in Japan so there is huge competition between Utilities to get new clients on board and to retain the existing ones. Utilities are looking for solutions to differentiate from competitors and to create loyalty among their customers (solar PV will be the key)
- Japan is the 4th largest electricity market in the world in terms of consumption
- Japan has big ambitions for renewable energy in the coming 10-20 years. According to some reports the distributed solar market is expected to grow by 4GW per year between 2024 and 2028.
- The Japanese domestic solar market is booming
And finally, how will your solution promote the expansion and modernisation of the Japanese energy sector?
We provide a solution to digitalize the Japanese solar sector, to make easier for Japanese customers to go solar and become greener. A solution that will help almost everyone understand in a few minutes the advantages of going solar.
Our solution should help Japan speed up the transition to a fully renewable energy powered country.
ezzingSolar will be taking part in Japan Energy Challenge in London this year, you can read about the other companies taking part in this year’s edition here. You can also find out more about the program, ventures and sponsors by clicking the links.
