Do you want to know in depth the solar startup that is committed to the customer’s self-consumption experience?
Victor Gardrinier, technical expert in innovation and Blockchain, and Wouter Draijer, solar engineer, met at an event in Barcelona focused on startups.
From that moment on, solar energy became the epicentre of many talks until it finally came to fruition and was given the name SolarMente.
In our conversation, we shared the trajectory with the founders, covering interesting topics such as:
- How the business idea came about.
- What differentiates them from other solar energy companies.
- How they contribute to the care of the environment.
- Why homes should have their own installation with solar panels.
- The current situation of solar energy in Spain.
Let’s get down to business!
Why did they decide to create SolarMente? The origin towards energy sustainability
Wouter Draijer and Victor Gardrinier, founders of SolarMente, had a clear goal: to make solar energy accessible, easy and cost-effective for every homeowner in Spain.
Installing solar panels is no longer a tedious and bureaucratic process as it used to be. It is hard to believe, but it used to be quite costly for citizens who were willing to move towards solar energy, making a positive impact on the environment.
Numerous hurdles made it difficult to access renewable energy, while countries like Germany, where prices are higher and solar exposure is lower, go solar without batting an eyelid.
Of course, the first thought that comes to mind is, how is this possible with the amount of sunshine we have in Spain?
Well, this has a simple explanation. From 2008 to 2018, solar energy in Spain has not been promoted and was even taxed. However, the German country knew the benefits of this inexhaustible source of energy and did not hesitate for a second to get down to work taking measures to encourage the change.
In many cases, there is a lack of information about the solar photovoltaic sector: Is it expensive, am I eligible for subsidies, are the installations complex?
These questions need to be answered and at SolarMente we want to help you reduce your energy dependence on companies, show you how to save efficiently and make changes that contribute to sustainability.
Clear and defined objective: quality customer service.
At SolarMente, we have a clear goal: to execute installations efficiently and deliver an exceptional customer experience.
Wouter Draijer, CEO and co-founder, puts it in his own words:“For us, the customer experience is everything. Everyone is part of SolarMente, acting as an ambassador and helping our community of solar producers to grow day by day.
Interview with the founders of SolarMente
From Barcelona Activa’s centre for entrepreneurial initiatives, Victor and Wouter, tell us about their adventure in this new project to revolutionise the electricity sector in Spanish homes from a sustainable point of view.
To begin with, how did you meet and where did your relationship start?
The founding team is Wouter, who is the solar engineer, and I am the technical expert in innovation and Blockchain.
Together we built a product that makes the solar experience seamless and profitable for any homeowner. The story of how we met and created SolarMente is particularly funny.
A year and a half ago I was just moving to Barcelona. Before that, I was studying at Stanford, Silicon Valley, and I had written my thesis about the application of blockchain technology in real cases. And one of the examples was just the concept of green energy sharing.
Then I went back to Europe and got a grant from a big company called ConsenSys to develop a prototype of how blockchain and solar could coexist and allow homeowners to trade their green energy with each other.
I didn’t know that much about solar energy but I liked the idea, so I developed this concept further.
Later, I met Wouter at a startup event in Barcelona. Mainly because he was the only one who wasn’t as fluent in Spanish as I was(laughs).
And what was your initial inspiration for founding SolarMente?
So that’s where we got together and I realised that Wouter was an engineer obsessed with renewable energies. It’s what he has studied and it’s his area of expertise, so he taught me all about solar energy and the situation in Spain, and how strange it all was at the time.
I guess it was pure luck, because two weeks later the situation in the country changed and we saw a great opportunity. So we spent more time together, thinking it through and seeing if we could start a project.
A few weeks later a friend of Wouter’s, whose mother has a house in Palleja (Barcelona), thought we were already a solar company and called us.
My first thought was “Wow! No, we are not a company, we don’t know how to install solar panels but we could help you”. However, Wouter said with conviction “Yes, we do, don’t worry”. We hung up the phone and bought solar panels, got a van and tried to learn everything on our own.
Once on the roof – mostly Wouter, as you can see in the picture – he did the installation (terrible, as we didn’t know how to do it, but we still did it) and she was super happy.
Although the installation had not been perfect and we had to fix it a couple of times, the key was the whole journey the client had been through, where we took care of everything. A service she was not used to receiving from other solar companies she had spoken to before.
She thanked us and said she would introduce us to her neighbours and her gardener who was also interested. So we started… a bit by accident! But then we realised that there is not a single solar company here that offers at scale a simple and safe way to offer solar energy to homeowners.
That’s how we actually started SolarMente.
As you mentioned, there are many solar companies on the market, how is SolarMente different from the rest?
There are two main pillars here. The first is the customer journey.
As a homeowner, he thinks about his energy for about 8 minutes per year on average. We try to keep it that way, which means we take care of everything.
When you want to switch to solar, you have to consider certain aspects, from the engineering to the hardware; the installation, the paperwork and the delivery of the hardware.
With other installers, it would take about 4-6 months and more than 30 emails and calls. The worst thing about this is that as a rule the user does not understand solar energy, as it is quite complex and not something he deals with every day.
Still, they need to choose from dozens of offers and that is a horrible position to be in as a customer. Our goal is to make it an educational and amazing experience that takes just 10 minutes of your time.
The second pillar is more personal. We believe we have built a company that is only focused on fighting global warming in a cost-effective way.
We work independently of any utility provider and simply try to do things right. In the future, we will allow you to go 100% green by adding new products if the owner wishes.
In terms of sustainability, how does your venture contribute to the environment?
One of the main reasons we founded SolarMente,” says Wouter, “was with the intention that every homeowner can make a tangible contribution to the fight against climate change. Because solar energy, like other renewable energy sources, brings many benefits to the environment.
When users install one of our panels, they stop using fossil fuels and produce their own green energy.
They reduce the carbon dioxide (CO2) impact of their home from day one. This is in contrast to energy from biomass, for example, where the fumes from its combustion release not only CO2, but also other pollutants.
Moreover, new technologies will continue to evolve and renewable energies, such as solar, will improve even further. We will have advances in the sector, such as more effective storage batteries and chargers for electric cars, among others.
On the economic side, why should homes have their own solar installation and how does it help save on electricity bills?
We like numbers because they don’t lie,” says Wouter.
Our homeowners save an average of 700-1,000 euros per year, that is 30%-60%, on their electricity bill and will continue to do so for the next 2-3 decades.
Recently, we enabled smart financing. A homeowner can pay 0 euros upfront and start paying every month for up to 12 years. With this, you will end up saving as much as your monthly payment, which makes going solar really free.
Where would you like to see SolarMente in five years in the solar energy sector?
In five years we want to install solar panels on 50,000 homes and we want to not only become a solar provider in Spain, but a partner or a green energy partner in Europe and Latin America… and in the future Africa!
Which is related to the 50-year plan we have, which is to be the green energy partner for anyone anywhere in the world.
This means that we not only want to integrate hardware with batteries, with electric vehicle chargers, etc., so that users have 100% clean energy generation, but also cutting-edge technology, because this market has been at a standstill without innovation for a long time.
What is improving are the solar panels,” says Victor, “but the software that allows users to have the energy is basically the same as always and the process as well. We want to change that.
One of the big options is obviously the blockchain solution, which would allow any of our users to sell their surplus energy to their neighbours, instead of feeding it back into the grid to distributors like Endesa for a fraction of the real price.
In addition, we want to offer other features coming soon, such as automated learning technology, to increase our customers’ savings and to be able to offer a service that is truly unbeatable in the market.
Finally, what do you think about solar energy in Spain, and does it have potential?
In a nutshell, Spain has a huge potential with more than 2,900 hours of sunshine per year and it also has one of the highest electricity bills in Europe. It should be a paradise for solar energy and yet there are strong differences with other successful solar countries such as the Netherlands or Germany (with 1,600 hours of sunshine per year), which have almost 80 times more residential PV installations.
Therefore, although Spain is the country with the best solar radiation in Europe, it has approximately 30,000 solar roofs, while in Germany, for example, there are close to 2 million installations.
We hope to change that, home after home.
