Recording of Tuesday, May 06, 2025 | The smarter E Europe Conferences 2025 | Conference Program | Language: English | Duration: 7:45 .
Julie Horn from Virya Energy discusses the challenges of creating profitable solar energy solutions in Belgium, particularly when self-consumption is low. Virya Energy operates across 13 countries and manages around 900 megawatts of renewable assets including solar, wind, batteries, hydrogen projects, EV charging infrastructure, and conventional fuel distribution. The company aims to provide comprehensive ecosystem solutions for business customers by integrating various energy sources like solar and wind with logistics support such as electric vehicles (EVs). In Belgium's market context where high self-consumption isn't always feasible due to limited space or other factors, they explore battery storage options despite their long payback periods—initially estimated at 22 years. By employing strategies like revenue stacking through head optimization—charging during low prices and discharging during peak times—they reduced this period significantly to nine years but required complex forecasting tools. Further exploring imbalance optimization contracts shortened it further down potentially even two-year returns while necessitating advanced management systems alongside collaborative efforts among utilities plus innovative business models focused on shared revenues rather than traditional PPAs/contracts alone—all demanding new thinking paradigms within stakeholder engagement processes throughout evolving value chains involved therein ultimately delivering enhanced collective benefits overall accordingly thus far achieved so far successfully indeed!
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Julie Horn
Senior Strategy and Business Development
Virya Energy
Germany
With electricity tariffs normalizing after the energy crisis, the rush to buy rooftop solar systems at any cost has ended. However, thanks to falling product costs, residential and C&I rooftop PV remain the largest segment of new PV installations in the EU. The rise of plug-in/balcony solar systems further highlights the growing interest in building-attached solar solutions.This shift presents new challenges: Prosumers are integrating various electrification technologies to maximize self-consumption and reduce their power bills, while energy systems and regulations struggle to accommodate the surge in variable power generators. This session will provide: Insights into the latest solar electrification strategies for distributed energy needs Technical solutions and business models to transform self-consumption systems into grid-supporting assets Discussion on regulatory requirements for sustained distributed solar growth as a key pillar of the energy transition.
Further Talks of this session:
Speaker
Jan Osenberg
Head of System Integration
SolarPower Europe
Belgium
Speaker
Greg Jackson
CEO & Co-Founder
Octopus Energy Group
United Kingdom
Speaker
Speaker
Gadi Hirsch
Lead Analyst, Strategy Group
SolarEdge Technologies
Israel
Speaker
Luis Castillo
Sales & Solutions Director
Sigenergy
United Kingdom