Despite the obvious challenges of adapting to covid affected markets over the last 12 months, Fronius UK MD Beate Ruebig remains bullish about her company’s immediate prospects, and the medium-term potential for solar and hydrogen energy.
The inverter manufacturer and energy management specialist, which employs 1,165 people across Europe, has pursued an internationalisation strategy in recent years, with 28 subsidiaries around the World, including the most recent additions of South Africa (2019) and Sweden (2020).
As the political debate about how best to deliver low carbon transport intensifies across Europe and globally, Fronius is well placed therefore to provide leadership and practical solutions in different markets, Ms. Ruebig emphasises that “green” hydrogen generated from solar or wind has “the potential to completely revolutionise the entire supply of energy.”
It is an exciting prospect for the company that has spent over 20 years researching and developing hydrogen solutions, including the recent development of a solar powered, green hydrogen refuelling station, ‘Solhub.’ Ms. Ruebig explains that Fronius has “big plans to further build on this wealth of experience at the new Fronius Hydrogen Competence Centre that opened last year at our Steinhaus site in Upper Austria. Moving forward, we will be pooling our resources here and driving forward the development of renewable mobility and energy solutions using green hydrogen.” This will include numerous collaborations, innovative pilot projects and participation in expert panels, with the innovation hub providing the ideal trial and test environment for the latest H2 applications.
The development of the Fronius Hydrogen Competence Centre illustrates the company’s wider commitment to a future powered 100% by renewables and “24 hours of sun.” It is a vision which Ms. Ruebig confirms is driving Fronius constantly to develop new solutions and products. “For 2021 we have expanded our portfolio of solutions which all revolve around efficient energy sector integration, maximum self-consumption and energy independence. In order to do this we have increased our production capacity significantly, and completely restructured our production lines with the latest technology.”
The UK residential solar market is set to benefit shortly from this approach with the offer of a new integrated GEN24 Plus hybrid inverter and BYD battery storage bundle to be launched as soon as March. This will provide greater storage flexibility and enhanced energy management functions for homeowners that want to reduce their dependence on the grid, cut their energy bills, and protect themselves against increasing electricity prices. The product launch in the UK will be a vote of confidence in a market that has struggled to recover since the closure of the feed-in tariff.
Ms Ruebig welcomed the albeit limited smart export guarantee, but Fronius wants to see further Government action to remove barriers to solar uptake in the non-residential market. Echoing calls from Solar Energy UK and other trade bodies, she urged the UK government to address “the way business rates are worked out for those with commercial solar installations, particularly high self-consumption systems if we want to see more businesses producing green electricity through solar. These rates seem to be a punishment for investment when you see valuations go up on these systems by six to eight times. This massively increases the return-on-investment period, which to some makes it unviable.”
Of course, like every other business, Fronius has been having to adapt to the challenges of the ongoing covid crisis. In the UK, this has involved new innovations and ways of working, including a new webinar series to be continued in 2021, and the launch of a new troubleshooting Solar.SOS app for installers. The app now includes a messenger function to the Fronius support team, and a facility for uploading system details and placing orders. This new online tool is supplementing rather than replacing the existing technical support hotline, which remains a key part of the Fronius offer in the UK. In addition, Fronius have developed an online interactive virtual trade show to showcase new products, providing guided tours around the booth. The virtual trade show is open to anyone to visit at virtual-fair.fronius.com
Despite the challenges posed by covid, Ms Ruebig is optimistic about the UK solar market in 2021. She predicts that the key areas of growth for Fronius in the UK will be in the commercial rooftop sector, and in the small-scale battery and hybrid inverter markets. She concludes that “The good news is that many companies who have stayed busy for the duration of 2020, or even seen an increase in business such as certain warehouses, distribution centres, supermarkets and so on, are still investing in large commercial systems which will inevitably reduce their energy costs significantly where they have high electricity consumption.”
