More than 500 clients on the Iberian Peninsula, including individuals and a wide range of different sized companies, understood the message of Energia Independente (EI), a start-up focused on the solar business created within the scope of Galp's entrepreneurial ecosystem: to multiply the use of solar panels for the production of clean energy in a simple and sustainable manner, with the advantage of generating revenue for users. In just a few months of activity – the company was founded in October 2020 – EI embraced the mission of bringing solar energy to as many roofs as possible in Portugal and Spain, guaranteeing a solution tailored to each client. A kind of personalised massification, explains Ignacio Madrid, the company's CEO. “We think it´s an extremely attractive product for clients, as it has a number of advantages”. The main one, guarantees the executive, is the option of personalising each agreement. “The proposals we make to clients are based on real data, and that´s a differentiating factor”, he emphasises.
The starting point for this ‘made to measure initiative’ was the mapping of all the roofs in the Iberian Peninsula and the integration of other information such as the slope of each roof and the number of hours of sunshine. As such, when clients receive the company's proposal, they have the guarantee that the calculations have been made right down to the smallest detail. “We work with technology that enables us to do this. We don't go on averages, we analyse the data”, assures Ignacio Madrid.
In addition to this information, EI also takes into account the client's individual consumption habits, the consumption of each building, with an immediate calculation of savings conducted through the use of technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), big data and satellite images. This process is constantly updated and upgraded due to the fact “our clients generate millions of records every month that we can explore, analyse with the use of AI, and conduct pattern recognition, meaning all this work can be turned into benefits for clients”, explains Jorge Báez, the CTO at EI. “We use big data to transform all this information into something useful and easy to understand”, adds the CEO.
MISSION: TO LEAD THE WAY IN THE SOLAR SECTOR
In order to meet its goal of market leader, EI aims to reach as many clients as possible in as little time as possible. To achieve this, the goal is to “grow in an exponential manner this year, and to build the foundations to guarantee continuous growth”, says Ignacio Madrid. The goal consists of growing more than 10 times in relation to 2020, investing in the development of all the necessary technological resources and in partners that, through their technological specialties, can help the company to achieve this result. “We want to grow, while running a highly scalable business that enables us to be the key player in the market”, reveals the head of EI.
At the same time, and to ensure their technological solutions are always state-of-the-art, EI is creating an ecosystem of partners, whose solutions and know-how set this offer apart. “We strive to find the best technology in the market to generate new applications”, declares Jorge Báez. Our current team of partners numbers around twenty, however, “we are looking for more”, says the head of the company´s technology department. In Ignacio Madrid's opinion, EI is unlocking a world of opportunities in various ways. “That's why we have opened up our ecosystem to enable the best organisations in the world to participate in our initiative with the best practices and the best products”.
