Last week you got to meet Udo Möhrstedt of IBC Solar. Now it is the turn of Peter Thiele of Sharp Energy Solutions Europe to answer our six questions:
1. How are you personally – and as a company – coping with the corona crisis?
Myself as well as most of the staff is working from the home office. We try to minimize traveling. Of course serious and strict precautions have been taken for employees who have to work from the office.
2. What are you enthusiastic about, apart from your company?
Even after all these years working in the industry, I am still very enthusiastic to be part of the Renewable Energy transition, especially in the context of digitalization. The energy transition and the digital transition goes hand in hand. Smart meters, smart buildings and smart grids are part of our daily business and life and it’s fascinating to see how they can help to boost the industry and improve the use of PV systems. I am curious to follow future developments in the energy sector. Another thing I am fascinated about is the technical progress in optoelectronics, since I studied this subject more than 30 years ago.
3. What social media account or podcast makes your life better?
I like LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook. LinkedIn is a great tool for our business and its really helpful for great networking. Of course we have our own company LinkedIn account. I invite everyone to look us up and follow.
4. Whom would you like to meet/have met?
Like to: If I would have any chance I would meet Barack Obama and Clint Eastwood. I love Clint Eastwood movies and my favourite are the Dirty Harry movies.
Barack Obamas 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act investing 90 billion US dollars to promote clean energy as part of an economic stimulus plan to recover from the bank crash is an excellent example also for today’s situation worldwide. I hope the EU Green Deal will be ambitious enough to help to overcome the aftermath of the Corona crisis.
5. If you could change one thing in the world – other than the corona crisis, of course – what would it be?
I would change 2 things: The first thing is racism. There is this quote from Martin Luther King „We have to learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.“ That’s what it is about. Diversity makes this planet wonderful and instructive. Intolerance was never a helpful tool to make headway.
The second thing is access to energy and water. Solar plays a major role here and we are very active in the regions where this access is still not secured and people suffer a lot from this absence. Especially in Africa we expanded our activities the last years.
6. What aspect of your company’s work are you most proud of?
Oh, there are many things I am proud of. Sharp has more than 60 years of PV history and therewith the longest history in the industry. I am also very proud of our team with great people working hard and trying their best each day to ensure that we will continue to be a key player also for the next 60 years. (mfo)
