How is your impression about the solar business this year?
Well, I've been involved in it now for 32 years and every year you see new players arriving, new technologies and changes every year. So it's a fascinating industry to be involved in.
Are you optimistic about today and the future, about the next 32 years?
Yes, exactly. The political situation at the moment is really helping us in this industry to move forward and bring renewable energy to thousands more people. So I can't be anything other than really optimistic and happy about the mood of the industry.
You are offering very interesting things to the people who are demanding solar energy now. What do you have in your pocket?
Well, I think the thing is this: AEG is the brand that we're representing and it's also a lifestyle brand. So people are expecting the same level of luxury and quality that the AEG brand represents. What we're trying to do here is to encapsulate that in a series of products that look and feel and represent the AEG brand. From the solar panels through inverters and storage units and even electric vehicle charging. We're probably unique in the industry in that you can get all of those products under the same brand.
Your direct customers are not the homeowners. It's the installers. What do they get out of a cooperation with you? What are their advantages?
You're absolutely right. Installers are key to the whole industry. They make many decisions themselves. And I think, again, what we're offering them is this opportunity to provide an holistic 360-degree solution to an end user. Something that the end user recognises and feels comfortable with in the sense that there's a quality and understanding of quality behind AEG. People feel comfortable with that. The installers also feel comfortable with that because they don’t have to worry about the products performing as they're expecting them to.
An important thing is the after sales service. And there are cases of warranty, as well, right?
Absolutely. We have to live and breathe by the standards of AEG, and therefore it's not just around making sure the products look nice and work, it's what happens if something goes wrong and we have to be really on the ball and ready to respond in the way that an AEG customer would expect us to respond. And so we've worked hard on our after sales service and being quick to help those installers get the right product and the right solution.
There is an economic side to it, retaining the margins, if you buy from one supplier...
The issue is we have been in an industry that has been driving the costs down over the past years to get to the point where we can produce electricity on someone's home at a competitive price. We've got there now. What we need to do is make sure that we've got a sustainable industry where there's enough margin in the business to enable us to repeat what we're doing. And sometimes I think we've lost sight of that issue of having a sustainable business with sensible margins and a product like an AEG project allows people to sell for that slightly more premium price.
What is the storage size of your systems?
We have two types of storage. We have the residential storage, if you like, which is a four, eight or 12 kilowatt-hour solution, depending on your requirements in the home and how much energy you use in the evening. But then we also have higher capacity units, which are ten, 15 and 20 kilowatt units, and those you can link together. So you can end up with a much larger energy storage solution for a small business, for example.
The demand is rising in the markets all over Europe, all over the world. How do you prepare to meet this wave of demand?
It really requires a lot of hard work in our supply chain. We work really hard to select the right manufacturers that produce the right quality and then we work with them over a long period of time and maintain their loyalty. And I think they can also see that the quality of an AEG panel reflects well on them as well, because if they are producing that level of quality, then they can represent that to their other customers as well. So I think this ability to have this brand allows us a little bit more accessibility to the supply chain. (HS/mfo)
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