The innovation: simplify the adoption of solar energy in homes and small commercial and industrial projects, with a mobile application, a quick estimate of costs and benefits and turnkey installation.
Posted at 9:00 a.m.
Who ?
In 2019, Zach Magnan, finance manager of a Swiss company, Oryx Petroleum, is also responsible for the solar energy division. He saw the possibilities and in 2020 met Andres Friedman, an Uruguayan by birth and Montrealer by adoption, trained in economics, who notably worked in Mexico and Germany for Bombardier from 2004 to 2019. The two men recruited Juan Osuna, a energy consultant who knows the Latin American market well. Thus was founded in Montreal at the end of 2020 Solfium, whose first mission is to offer “an innovative model for solar energy” first for certain specific markets such as Mexico, certain countries in Africa and Europe. The company now has about 20 employees, and Mr. Friedman is the CEO, while Zach Magnan is the chief commercial officer and Juan Osuna, the chief financial officer.
The product
“Our slogan is ‘The sun has never been so close’, summarizes Mr. Friedman in an interview. It’s as simple as using Uber.”
It all starts by downloading the app solfium in the company’s first market, the state of Querétaro, in central Mexico. The potential customer enters the amount he spends on his electricity and “in three nanoseconds”, knowing the expected sunshine, he is offered by Solfium an estimate of the costs of acquisition, installation and amortization of a system using solar energy.
“If you’re interested, you talk to our teams, we assign an installer, we do a technical assessment to make sure that the technical assessment of the roof suggested by the algorithm is good,” explains Mr. Friedman.
Financing options are available. After installation, the app continues to provide energy balances. The system proposed by Solfium, manufactured by partner companies, essentially comprises solar panels and an inverter. A “standard” small house, says Friedman, will require two panels producing 1 kW and costing US$2,000, including installation. “We went up to 25 kW, so it’s more expensive, but it’s still very accessible. »
This system injects the current produced during the day into the public electricity network, which becomes a form of credit for the user who can use it when the sunshine is insufficient. Some customers also choose batteries for more autonomy.
For small industrial projects, the concept is slightly different. “We offer a turnkey solution to decarbonize their value chain, we work with them so that it is deployed with their employees,” explains the CEO.
Challenges
For the first few months, we developed the application and the technology behind it, while looking for manufacturers offering good quality products, “with limited resources,” says Mr. Friedman.
The goal now is to increase the company’s notoriety in Mexico, in particular with strategic partnerships such as the one signed with the Querétaro energy agency last June. It is planned to install 230,000 solar panels over five years with an overall capacity of 125 MW to serve 80,000 homes.
The future
In the current state of the technology used by Solfium, Quebec and Canada, with their reduced sunshine and electricity costs, are not yet profitable. “Eventually it will be,” says Friedman.
Growth is on the agenda for Solfium’s second year of existence, with revenues of 3 million US expected in 2022. We obviously hope for even more in the coming years. “Solar is a huge opportunity in Latin America, where the penetration rate of this technology is one of the lowest in the world. »
We eventually want to integrate the charging of electric vehicles and storage using their batteries, and develop energy efficiency programs.
Finally, to assume these ambitions, a round of financing is underway and should be concluded in the coming months.