With an installed PV capacity of 677 watts per 1000 inhabitants, Belgium ranked 6th worldwide last year, ahead of Spain or Switzerland. And the solar market continues to grow dynamically, especially in the rooftop sector. For this year, Solarpower Europe expects more than 1 gigawatt of new PV capacity to be installed in the Kingdom for the first time.
The first Solar Solutions took place last week in Kotrijk (West Flanders). Compared to large trade shows like Intersolar Europe in Munich, everything was quieter though. 125 exhibitors showed their new products and solutions on 12,600 square meters. Around 6000 trade visitors came to the two-day trade fair on October 25 and 26, 2023, most of them from Belgium, the Netherlands and neighboring France.
„High quality awareness“
But solar pioneers such as Stuart Branningan, business development director, at AEG Solar Solutions were attracted. "Belgium is a very interesting market for us with a high quality awareness, it is doing better than in the Netherlands right now," he told pv Europe. He states a high demand especially for self-consumption of solar power for private rooftop systems with an output of 7 to 8 kW. However, he sees an obstacle in the necessary national certification (Synergrid) of inverters with an output of more than 10 kW.
Hans-Christoph Neidlein
Scoring with rooftop mounting solutions
Van der Valk Solar Systems, headquartered in the Netherlands, is also very active in the PV roof market. The company can thus score well in Belgium with its wide range of different roof types. Among other things, Van der Valk showed its new cable management system in Kortrijk. Advantages include secure and tidy cable handling as well as quick and easy installation, as Marketing Manager Tamara de Peuter explained. In addition, the cable trays are corrosion-resistant and the cable trays do not need to be treated with zinc spray. In addition, Van der Valk presented its new drainage clip, which is designed to ensure that water and dirt are properly drained away from the photovoltaic system so as not to impair performance.
Menlo Electric shows strong presence – rapid internationalization
The fact that Belgium is an interesting solar market was also demonstrated by the presence in Kortrijk of the PV wholesaler Menlo Electric (headquartered in Warsaw, Poland), which is expanding rapidly internationally. According to CEO Bartosz Majewski, the company, which was founded three years ago, was able to intensify its existing customer relationships in particular at the trade fair. Founded in 2020, the company started sales in the Poland, Germany and the Netherlands at that time. It now serves more than 1,000 customers, mainly installers and smaller distributors in about 40 countries in Europe, South Africa and the Mena region. "By being active in many different regions, we can cushion the market risks in the respective countries," Majewski explained to pv Europe.
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Menlo Electric is a Top 5 distributor of Jinko Solar and Risen Energy as well as an official EU distributor of JA Solar, Tongwei, Sungrow, Solar Edge, Solax, Tsun, Deye and FoxESS. Last year, Menlo delivered over 600 MW of renewable energy solutions and this year is expected to be around 850 MW. The rapid collapse in module prices within a short period of time is also causing problems for Menlo in view of more expensive purchased inventories, admits Bartosz Majewski. But in the meantime he sees a certain relaxation on the market and also welcomes new, complementary online sales offers such as the recently founded platform sun.store, which also presented itself in Kortrijk.
The next Solar Solutions Düsseldorf will be held November 29 and 30, 2023. The second edition of Solar Solutions Kortrijk will take place on October 2-3, 2024. (hcn)
