Conergy has announced an expansion of its UK rooftops offer, in another sign that Europe’s biggest solar market is diversifying away from solar farms, which dominated installations in 2014. Specifically, Conergy -- already one of the top five builders of solar farms in Britain -- has secured senior executives from some of the biggest names in real estate and energy management, as it looks to cement its place in the fast-developing rooftop segment.
Effective immediately, Conergy UK will have two divisions: the first focused on Solar Farms, which will be led by long-time Conergy executive Birgit Eggl; and the second, the expanded Rooftops division, led by Paul Weaver.
Weaver joins Conergy from London-listed infrastructure multinational Balfour Beatty plc., where he was head of energy, responsible for both public and private sector renewable energy developments, including approximately 5,000 social housing units. Joining him in the Rooftops division is Christelle Lawson, who will serve as business development manager. Formerly sales manager at Kingspan Energy, Lawson was responsible for commercial roof-mounted systems in the South East of England. She has been responsible for more than 200 rooftop installations in her career.
Lastly, Conergy has named Nena Kogiou senior engineer for the Rooftops team. Kogiou joined Conergy in February last year from Renewable Resources, where she was head of engineering for the UK installer’s Northern office. To date, she has designed and implemented solutions for 30MW of rooftops.
“Today we’re announcing Conergy's commitment to invest in the scale-up of solar rooftops across the UK," said Robert Goss, MD Conergy UK & Ireland. "First we have brought together the best team in the country; Paul Weaver and Christelle Lawson together add hundreds of megawatts’ experience over many years in multi-residential and larger public and private sector installations. Second, Conergy will start bringing new capital to the market, which we will invest strategically, in new and scalable business models. This will give us a strong position across all market segments in the UK, alongside our long-standing leadership in solar farms.”
To date, Conergy has installed more than 700MW of solar rooftops worldwide, including for the City of Sacramento in California and Mars in Australia. Earlier this month Conergy
agreed a partnership with municipal utility network Trianel that will offer solar leasing to six million homes in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the Netherlands. Conergy has also been working with utility giant RWE to offer solar system rentals to businesses.