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Not all land in Europe get lots of sunshine . You ’d call up Spain would be big on solar Energy Department generation since it ’s one of the sunniest countries in Europe — peak sun hoursin Spain put iton parwith the U.S. West Coast , after all . However , Spain still jail behind Germany and the Netherlands in terms of installed domestic solar panel , which could be partly due to a historical “ sun tax , ” a revenue enhancement on solar installations , that the country scrapped only in 2018 . Several years on , some startups are last taking steps to make the most of this opportunity .
Barcelona - basedSolarMenteaims to turn solar installations into a mainstay of Spanish houses . Its CEO and Centennial State - founding father , Wouter Draijer , told TechCrunch that he was spurred to come out the company when he flew to Barcelona and had a bird’s - eye scene of how few Spanish rooftop had solar venire compared to his home country , the Netherlands . He teamed up with Victor Gardrinier , a French subject who hit the books at HEC Montreal and Stanford , to bulge out the company .
Draijer say the company started off as an installer of solar panels in Spain , but after the pandemic , it resolve it should offer a solar vitality management system . In hindsight , that was probably a sassy move , considering the panel induction grocery store is already overlay by specialised companies , and the fall cost of control board could make DIY efforts more attractive for homeowner . It also has a few startup to vie with , includingLumio Solar , which gain ground the most sustainable startup award at Madrid ’s South Summit 2023 , andTornasol , whose kits can be installed on balcony and paid for in installments through BNPL platform seQura .
“ Solar is not a production , ” Draijer said , explain why most Spaniards ca n’t or just do n’t desire to pay upfront for solar panels . What he means is that masses handle more about what panels can do for them rather than owning them .
That ’s why SolarMente offers subscription - based energy management service , which include installing solar panels without upfront costs . And instead of targeting people who live in apartments , the party prefers to betray to single houses because it ’s easy from a regulation standpoint and because the chance is bigger , Draijer order .
“ We start with solar , but most of our client can come back to us because we study their information , and we put a battery and EV courser , a heat heart , and then we start managing that get-up-and-go . ”
Recently , the Y Combinator alum tot actor Leonardo DiCaprio to its jacket table , becoming his first investment in Spain .
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Solar arbitrage
Management of how much energy is consumed and when is a must with solar , because , asGardrinier explained in an X threadback in 2023 , “ there is an arbitrage between the terms at which family buy energy from the storage-battery grid and the damage at which household betray energy back to the grid . ”
Gardrinier told TechCrunch that the arbitrage was what barrack him to focus on the company ’s energy management , and he was initially interested in seeing how households with solar venire could trade their solar energy with peers on the blockchain .
That interest helped SolarMente pull ahead ablockchain - center hackathonand launch avirtual barrage fire armed service , but the next step of the inauguration ’s journey does n’t involve full - on trading . alternatively , the startup want to enable homeowner to optimise their energy pulmonary tuberculosis with a ace app that helps them decide when to consume or sell the energy the solar panels generate .
Of the squad , Gardrinier is also the most nearly involved with fundraising , and make some context on SolarMente ’s financing so far : “ As I like to think of it , with every turn you de - risk your caller and your squad a fiddling bit more . So with our YC round , the first $ 2 million seed turn , with a very introductory squad , we bear witness that solar could perchance work in Spain . And then we did a much giving round last year of mostly debt ; we build ahuge debt structureto finance our solar installations . And with that we wanted to prove that you could put up solar as a subscription armed service at the price of your gymnasium rank , and make it democratise . ”
DiCaprio ’s fresh announce investment is part of a larger ejaculate round of fairness financing focused on getting SolarMente where it needs to be to resurrect a Series A. “ We ’re using this round to really power our super app for home energy , ” Gardrinier said .
Celebrity endorsement
Although this is DiCaprio ’s first investment in Spain , the actor has been investing in technical school startups since at least2011 . He has also been magnificently vocal about clime change , to which he called care in his acceptance spoken communication at the 2016 Oscars observance .
Not all of the actor ’s investment have to do with climate and green tech , but sustainability is a theme across many of those , which includeAllbirds , Beyond Meatand Styrofoam renewal companyCruz Foam . For SolarMente , it also helped that one of their summer 2021 YC mass mate , water risk direction platformWaterplan , was already in touch sensation with DiCaprio .
Draijer and Gardrinier eventually met DiCaprio , Gardrinier read , and “ every time we discussed the business and imaginativeness for energy modulation , [ DiCaprio ] would put up his phone and show us one of the labor he ’s working on — decentralised storage , etc . ”
It likely helped that SolarMente ’s approach was n’t entirely new to the actor . DiCaprio previously invested inBright , a startup that works on installing solar exponent in nursing home and businesses across Mexico . Just like SolarMente , it calibrate from Y Combinator , and in July 2023 raise a$31.5 million Series C.
Could Bright and SolarMente partner one twenty-four hour period ? We ’d say perchance . But first , SolarMente want to further thrive across Spain , where its subscription solar offer just became available nationwide , Draijer told TechCrunch .
Considering how sunny Spain is and how underequipped it still is , there ’s no doubt that SolarMente has room to grow . Solar is one of the cleanest forms of vitality , and the EU is determined to make sureit taps the giant ball of nuclear optical fusion in the skyto reduce its dependence on fossil fuels . Indeed , as part of the REPowerEU design , the European Commission is considering a path to introduce rules that would mandate installing of rooftop solar energy panels on most novel and public and commercial buildings by 2026 .
While SolarMente ’s nidus on private homes make it a fairly “ upscale ” offering , it can still recreate a part in reducing the emphasis that vacillate energy Leontyne Price have caused Spanish households . As a fillip , its approach could also play a role in facilitate EV adoption , another country in which Spain hasroom for improvement .
