In winter, the night lasts around 18 hours in Oslo. In summer, the situation is diametrically opposite: the day seems to never end. A natural disparity of its geographical position, even more extreme in the north of Norway, which it does not seem the most suitable for an energy such as photovoltaic to find its place.
And yet it was in those extreme latitudes where Otovo emerged, back in 2016. A startup, a pioneer in the Old Continent, that seeks to democratize self-consumption of energy by installing photovoltaic panels on the roofs of any self-respecting house. It is not a company that stands out for innovating in the underlying technology, far from it: its true magic lies in reinventing the usual business model in these conflicts.
Its founder and CEO, Andreas Thorsheim, is not an engineer or energy expert. His past as an economist is, however, more linked to the creation of ‘marketplaces’ and other businesses intimately developed in the heat of digital marketing. But that doesn’t matter in this case, as he himself defends, because the key to Otovo and this industry is because “deploying solar panels is as easy as buying a t-shirt online.
[Noruega, innovación a escala humana como alternativa al petróleo]
“The idea came from a simple observation. Solar panels were getting cheaper by about 10% every year and that meant it would soon become the cheapest form of energy on the planet, even in Norway. And that, as the panel outside cheaper, the only cost that will always remain is installation, marketing and logistics; things that happen in the field, close to the consumer,” Thorsheim introduces D+I.
The leader of this startup receives this journalist in his offices on one of the busiest streets in the Norwegian capital. He does it just before jumping into the ring in a meeting with dozens of entrepreneurs and the curious within the framework of the Oslo Innovation Week. And, during the relaxed conversation, he travels between the past and the future of this sector that is so much in vogue today.
“Solar energy has come a long way in the last forty years. The first twenty focused on research and development to make better panels, the next on making them cheaper. And from now on, the challenge is to bring this fantastic technology to the people“, detailed Andreas Thorsheim.
That is where Otovo comes into play, in taking these panels to any place on the globe, “be it the Barcelona airport, Oslo, on a ship, a house or a factory”. Its founder quickly recognized that the problem to be solved was create an electronic commerce platform that would facilitate this task -from marketing to installation- and that, furthermore, would allow it to be financed like someone who defers car or mobile payments.
One of the facilities of the Norwegian Otovo with the Asturian SotySolar.
A successful model that used the limitations of its home country as an asset, in the form of the most demanding proving ground possible. “We thought we would be international from day one, but Scandinavia was a good place to try it because we have half the sun and half the price of electricity. So we had to be very good to make it work,” Thorsheim boasts. “If it worked here, we could take this model to Sweden, which is 50% better than Norway, or to France, which is 75% better, or to Spain, which is over 100%. % or 150% of potential market”.
The only point in favor of undertaking such an idea under such demanding conditions was the high degree of confidence of its consumers to make purchases online. Because, let’s be honest, spending 30 euros on a T-shirt in a virtual store is not the same as investing 15,000 euros in an installation that will be on our roof for several decades.
Solar panels ‘as a service’… and also batteries
Beyond its intermediation work between local suppliers and installers with end customers, Otovo’s success in many markets depends on a financing model for its solar panels in the purest ‘as a service’ style which is already common in other sectors such as the automobile.
“It’s a great advantage, especially in countries like Spain, because allows to bring all the future benefits of the panels to the present, lowering the monthly bill and instantly increasing your purchasing power. And we, in return, have built a little power plant on your roof that you are subscribing to, with all the information and adjustments from us, and in which we share responsibilities, commitments and risks“, indicates Andreas Thorsheim.
This idea is not original to Otovo, far from it: the subscription model was what kept the photovoltaic industry alive in the United States during the last economic crisis. More than half of the projects installed in the US during those years responded to this approach. However, it was an unprecedented format in Europe: an opportunity that our interviewee decided to take advantage of.
Also half, in this case of Otovo customers, are users of this subscription model. Germany is the most thriving European market in this sense, with Spain somewhat above the average. “And then there are France or Italy with almost zero, for various regulatory reasons,” confesses the entrepreneur, who places Poland as the jewel in the crown of this incipient sector given its flexible regulation.
Otovo continues to delve into this field, especially after closing this same course a powerful round of financing. Its purpose is to continue opening new markets, including Portugal, the United Kingdom, Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium and Switzerland. “We have sold solar panels in ten countries and, by the end of the year, there will be thirteen countries. We want to market 50,000 panels per year in 2024″, Thorsheim aspires. But also continue to expand its sights towards new product categories, such as batteries.
“If you asked me in March of last year, I would have said that batteries would be an interesting thing for consumers in 2025. But last summer we started selling them in Italy, Spain and Germany and more than 50% of consumers want these devices. I was blown away,” says the CEO of Otovo.