At Solar & Storage Live in London, held this April at ExCeL, Xtra interviewed Segen’s European Technical Director James Galloway.
James talked to us about his thoughts on the solar landscape’s recent changes, touching on how its impacting industry quality standards, and the opportunities the sector is seeing arise.
Interview with James Galloway, European Technical Director for Segen
“It’s quite a developing market, so all of these changes that are happening in the landscape regarding finance, service, and proposition is creating this need for new standards and quality.”
Xtra: How do you think the solar landscape is changing, and is this affecting industry quality standards?
James: The landscape is changing lots! There’s been a massive boom in solar storage in the last few years, really driven by demand from a consumer perspective as prices have increased.
Prices of utility, gas, and electricity have dramatically increased. That’s created a massive demand that we haven’t seen before. As a result, we’re seeing a lot of new entrants into the market – but especially the established market players are getting scale and getting presence.
I think there’s an awareness piece as well. The way it’s changing the landscape is that we’re moving away from a product transactional business model to an expectation for more than just the products but the total product ecosystem.
[This is] as people bring together heat pumps, EVs, and solar and battery. That creates a need for new services such as home energy management. With that combined with the digitisation of products, I think we’ll see a massive shift.
Another thing that’s changing is also affordability. Traditionally, solar storage has been seen as quite an expensive asset to put on your home or a building, but the improved availability of finance for consumers is really changing the landscape as a whole.
[Addressing] how that’s impacting quality standards, the industry generally has been led by players in the markets, the companies, and the industry as a whole. I think that’s natural for quite a fast-growing sector.
Now government is coming, with associations and trade bodies, to bring in standards, policies, and regulations which will create a framework of governance. I think that’s a good place [to be] but there’s a lot more work to be done.
It’s quite a developing market, so all of these changes that are happening in the landscape regarding finance, service, and proposition are creating this need for new standards and quality. Now it’s really important to ensure you’ve got consumer confidence in those products and services.
Xtra: What are 3 major opportunities for the UK solar market in the next 12 months?
James: I think that there are many opportunities. As only 3% of UK homes have solar and storage the question is: why don’t the other 97%? There’s a big opportunity there; I mentioned finance propositions and how you break down that upfront cost barrier.
There’s a big thing about making solar storage more accessible to larger demographics. There’s a role there with standards as well: ensuring that you get quality of installation and you’ve got bodies like the MCS who are there to ensure high-quality standards are being delivered.
There are also opportunities concerning these services, so we’ll see utilities playing a stronger role in bringing new value to the market.
Virtual power plants, VPPs, are talked about a lot these days. They’re a great way of bringing a lot of capacity to the market, especially as electricity demand is going to increase significantly over the next decade and to make sure that solar storage can secure demand for the UK.
The third [opportunity] would be [ensuring] the availability of trained installers. Such as making sure that they have access to qualifications and bringing more qualified electricians into the sector so that we’ve got secure jobs in the future. Then, we can trace out a future for employment in the UK. I think that’d be a great place for us as a nation [to be].
It’s also a place that the government and institutions can support to bring more people into the sector.
Xtra: Who are you most looking forward to speaking with at Solar & Storage Live London?
James: Our customers are always the most important thing to us. There are all sorts of assumptions that we make, so [here] we spend as much time as possible validating those assumptions with our customers. [We ask] what do they need and want?
It’s a great opportunity at the trade fair to speak to our customers, of all types and at all areas of the supply chain, and understand what they want, what’s coming next, and we can help them.
Xtra: Why is it important to be at Solar & Storage Live London, and why are events like this so important?
James: A massive benefit is awareness, and that accounts for everyone. For us the benefit is we get to speak to our customers, but also our suppliers. Our suppliers get to hear from customers and speak to each other.
I think it’s a whole awareness piece – where we can step out of our day-to-day and speak to everyone else in the industry.
It’s a great event.
Missed out on Solar & Storage Live London, or want to come back for more? Don’t miss the Birmingham edition from 24-26 September.
