Marco Ghirardello

Solar Power Talk: Marco, can you tell us something about your background?

I grew up and studied in Italy before starting work in the energy industry. I studied aerospace engineering where I got my first exposure to the photovoltaic industry (at the time photovoltaic cells were too expensive for common use but were in use for satellites). When I started work in the oil and gas sector I was immediately struck by the pressing issues of pollution and waste and after completing my MBA I was hired by Shell Solar in Amsterdam. That was in 2002 and from that time onwards I have worked full time in the solar industry in Europe. In 2004 I started my first company, Solar Advies, which focuses on consulting. In 2005 I started Solartechno Italy, and in February 2007 together with the Maccaferri group, a large Italian industrial conglomerate, I co-founded an even larger company called Enerray. For personal reasons (the birth of my daughter) I returned to Amsterdam in 2009 where I briefly joined Econcern, and in May 2009 I started to work full time on my own company, Solartechno Europe BV, which I own in addition to Solar Advies.

Solar Power Talk: What services do Solar Advies and Solartechno offer?

Solar Advies focuses on industry consulting (mainly investment consulting), in other words giving advice to banks or financial companies interested in investing in this industry.

Solartechno Europe BV focuses mainly on three services: distribution of photovoltaic components, installation of medium sized photovoltaic systems and large turnkey plants.

Solar Power Talk: What does a typical day involve for you?

Since Solartechno is in an advanced start-up phase my role is to manage all aspects of the company. I spend a lot of time on the operations side of the business, organizing my staff and teaching them the business, but at the same time I focus heavily on customers' needs and make sure that orders are processed swiftly.

Solar Power Talk: What is the state of the solar industry at the moment? Is now the right time for consumers to embrace solar power?

I still consider the solar industry as being in its infancy. There is great potential for technical improvement in individual products but by far the greatest cost reduction will come in the future from technical improvements in the production process and distribution methods and in the installation process itself.

The second question requires a complex answer but in short I will say that now is the right time in some countries such as Italy, Germany and France. It was the right time 2 years ago in Spain but that may no longer be the case at the moment. Additionally, it most probably is not the right time in some other countries too. Electricity production from photovoltaic systems is still too expensive compared to purchasing electricity from the grid but there are good incentive schemes ("feed-in tariffs) in many countries. These tariffs were designed to compensate for the difference in production cost between photovoltaic systems and grid purchasing 2 to 3 years ago. However, what has happened is that in the last 18 months the price of photovoltaic systems has dropped by 30 to 40 percent but incentive schemes did not - as a result there is a huge profit opportunity for people investing under today's incentive schemes. Most probably the schemes wil be lowered over the next 3 to 12 months to readjust to the new price of photovoltaic systems (I suspect this will happen in Italy, Germany, France, the Czech Republic and some other European countries).

Where there is no feed-in tariff in place it is not worth embracing solar power at the moment (in financial terms) but it may well be worth doing so when a scheme is in operation. With that said, although the price reduction in photovoltaic components this year and next will not be so rapid as the last 18 months, something like 10 percent per year is forecasted, this will still lead to some markets (mainly sunny Mediterranean countries) becoming attractive without subsidies by 2015.

Outside Europe the USA will be a huge market this year due to President Obama's incentive scheme, the lower cost of turnkeys systems, high irradiation and financial investment possibilities.

Solar Power Talk: What is the greatest challenge you curently face? What do you find most rewarding?

The greatest challenge is keeping up to date with market changes and adapting accordingly. To give an example, in July 2009 every supplier had significant inventory but at the month end they were already out of stock and the average delivery time had gone up to 4 months!

The most rewarding aspect is the feeling of building a successful company within a growing industry which will improve the quality of life of future generations.

Solar Power Talk: How important will solar power be in addressing climate change?

Right now solar generated electricity is just one very small part of the total generation of electricity worldwide. However, there is a huge potential to decrease production costs in this industry and it is also one of the most flexible technologies in terms of installation requirements (for example, you can generate tiny amount of electricity from a single solar module on the roof of a house in a north European country or a hut in central Africa or instead install in very large numbers in the desert as the US is starting to do in Nevada and California). The fact that there is a huge potential to decrease costs and that photovoltaic systems are easy to install everywhere with few constraints, combined with an expected price drop in the next few years, will make generation from photovoltaics a very attractive propositition. It is forecast that there will be 10 or more GigaWatts installed worldwide this year which in production terms will produce as much electricity as a medium sized nuclear power plant (in 2011 the projections are for an equivalent installation of 1.5 medium sized nuclear power plants).

Of course, this production is really a drop in the ocean in global terms but the potential for growth is phenomenal. At this rate if we consider that every kilowatt hour produced by a photovoltaic system will save roughly 0.4kg of CO2 emissions and 200 grams of diesel and that the 10 gigawatt peak installed worldwide in 2010 will produce 13,000 gigawatt hours of electricity per year for the next 30 years, the calculations are easy: 4800000 tons of CO2 saved a year or 144000 millions of tons of CO2 saved by the systems installed in 2010 during their lifecyle of 30 years.

Solar Power Talk: What are your plans for the future?

The short term plan is to organize and consolidate the distribution system and focus on 2 or 3 large projects in Italy. Then we aim to diversify by country, including installations in France and the Benelux region, and also distribute components outside Europe. Longer term goals involve very large systems in the south of Europe and north Africa.

Solar Power Talk: What do you do to relax in your spare time?

Looking after my young daughter takes up most of my spare time but I'm not sure I'd call it relaxing!

Solar Power Talk: Marco, thank you very much!

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Marco can be contacted via the Solartechno website or by email on marco@solartechno.com