S1E01

EPC Insights: Navigating Battery Storage & Solar PV Projects with Michal Adrian - InterSolar Ep-1

with Michal Adrian· Solarity· 14m

TL;DR

Battery storage integration is crucial for the energy transition.

Synopsis

Michal Adrian discusses the evolution of Solarity and its role in the solar PV and battery storage markets. He emphasizes the challenges faced by EPCs in Central and Eastern Europe due to regulatory instability and the growing importance of battery storage solutions.

Key metrics

by the numbers · 5

10 MWh
Battery project in Hungary
1.5 years
Project completion timeline
3-6 months
Program validity period
14 years
Solarity establishment
0 GW
Czech market drop

Topics

5 tags

EPC challengesBattery storageRegulatory issuesMarket expansionValue chain

Stats

Duration: 14m
Words: 2.3k
Questions: 15

Timeline

8 chapters

Introduction
Podcast introduction and guest introduction.
Company History
Michal discusses Solarity's transition from installation to distribution.
Market Coverage
Discussion on the range of project sizes Solarity covers.
Regulatory Challenges
Michal outlines the regulatory issues affecting EPCs in Central and Eastern Europe.
Battery Storage Integration
Discussion on the importance of battery storage in the energy market.
Project Timeline
Overview of the timeline from project idea to completion.
Knowledge Gaps
Discussion on the knowledge gap between technology and regulation.
Future of Energy
Michal shares his vision for the future of energy in Central and Eastern Europe.

Key insights

4 takeaways

01
Regulatory instability hinders growth
Frequent changes in regulations create uncertainty for EPCs, impacting project timelines and profitability.
02
Battery storage demand rising
There is increasing interest in battery storage solutions as a complement to solar PV installations.
03
Long project timelines
From idea to completion, battery storage projects can take over a year and a half.
04
Collaboration needed for success
Connecting with experienced partners is crucial for navigating the complexities of battery storage projects.

Pull quotes

3 quotes

It's actually killing the companies killing the profits making extra expenses
Michal Adrian
Batteries are perfect complement and can help also with the stability of the grid
Michal Adrian
There's a space for some unified legislation and approach in EU
Michal Adrian

Transcript339 cuesClick a timestamp to jump

Welcome to a new episode of the energy
bridge from Intera for Inter Solar 2025.
last day maybe our last guest. you
have been busy this all day. So we
really appreciate this this opportunity
to have you here. Here's Michael, the
CEO of Solarity. Here we have the
banner. would like to get to know you
Michael a bit better. who you are,
why Solarity, what you do and
Solarity as a company. Please tell us a
bit about yourself and also Okay. I'm
Michael founder of Solarity.
company started 14 years ago in Czech
Republic after let's say turbulent era
of PV and we started as a only
international distributor in CE and
gradually we de we developed into more
international in the end more global
distributor on four four continents and
our scope is PV from A to Z
everything what EPC our customer need
And so we deliver mostly modules,
inverter, mounting system also
accessories, cables and lately we have
started also with bigger BSS and
collaboration with Tech. Okay. And
you're based out of Prague check. Yes,
we are based in Prague and we have
different subsidiaries in Ukraine,
in Middle East, Northern Africa and
Latin America. Amazing for a company
from Czech Republic. It's really global
innocent. Hey, also tell us a bit
more about the you mentioned the
product that you're looking at..
Tell us about the new product PV.
You said there was the turbulent market
and you had to pivot. Tell us a bit more
about why people You mean the history or
the history? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, we
started before with installations as
small EPC installing company in Czech
and Slovakia. We did it for a couple of
years but then the markets from both
markets Czech and Slovak dropped from
gigawatts to zero overnight. So we had
also to switch to other markets and it
was only possible to go international
through distribution because it's very
hard to expand like EPC to new country
because of experience references
language ATC. If you could tell us a bit
more about the whole value chain. So
there manufacturers then you come at a
distributor and then there are EPCs.
What are the difference who how do you
collaborate with both of them?. And
it's more about added value. Yeah. So
how we as a distributors can help for
the installing companies EPCs and there
are many areas which manufacturers
cannot cover. Yeah. The big company
cannot have personnel in every country
and in all the teams like technical
support consulting local warehouses.
This is something what manufacturers can
can hardly manage. So that's why we
we have distribution network and
especially for small customers u
manufacturers are not willing to talk
with one inverter sales. Yeah. Exactly.
So it's impossible. That's why we
have distribution networks and
distributors and depends on size and we
can provide different value to different
type of customer different size of the
customer. So it's different if you have
small small installer of one mano or
five people and it's different if you
have like 50 50 people company. Okay.
And who are the typical size of EPC
development that you look forward to?
What are the size of PV plant project
that we look into? Yeah, we say that we
deliver from kilowatt to megawatt. Yeah.
So we actually cover multiple sectors
from residential to commercial
industrial up to up to utility and
so depends on countries some countries
are more residential sometimes it's
shifting like now or lately to
commercial so we are covering all of
these from kilowatts to me and also
we were discussing just off camera about
the regulation within the central and
east of Europe and is how it is not
uniform what are the challenges that
you're facing currently with regular
relating
first it's not clear it's delayed
it's also changing it's not working so I
would describe this in what no no
disclaim everything what is not working
in what are they no I will give you one
example from Czech Republic then when
they announced one program in Q3 Q4 last
year and only now the first projects are
really accepted and approved yeah so it
takes too long and also the different
schemes they are they're not continuing
doing there are pauses for example 6
months there's nothing to be done and
all the companies are waiting for a new
subsidy scheme so in this time there are
no contracts signed which is not good
for EPC because they have no business
they have no continuous business so it's
actually killing the companies killing
the profits making extra expenses and I
would welcome some more stabilized legal
framework and environment for example
like what what we can see in Germany
and how often you see that they the
framework is changing that is also
something troubling you, right? Often
often. Yeah. So very very often programs
are valid for just 3 months, 6 months
and they change, they stop and then then
you are waiting for new one which is
different. People don't have experience
with they need to learn it then
something is not working. For example,
some agency is not working or is not
prepared also governments are not
prepared. So this is this is issuing
some troubles mostly for EPC and project
developers. Amazing. And also Michael
you have been in the market for PV
for very long. Now there's increasing
storage solutions coming into the
market. How do you see incorporate
incorporating that into your offerings
and what have you done so far for the
battery solution? Okay. Yeah, I think
it's perfect complement. So we have
customers who installed megawatts of
power parks of PV in a in a past
and now for example they trade or they
switch to spot pricing and they see
negative pricing during the day. So then
here the battery usage is the is the
perfect compliment. So most of our
customers are coming from our like new
potential customers for BSS are coming
from our previous PV customers who
installed mostly commercial and
industrial installations. And how do you
see it expanding between the central and
eastern Europe market as well? You said
a lot of the countries they don't have
they have shitty grid if quote unquote I
can say that and why it's needed more
for those countries. Yeah. one thing
and we see it many countries the gr grid
is overloaded that's one thing a second
thing that there's a lot of permits for
new connections issued but they are
actually not used and they are blocking
connection of real projects and
yeah the stability of the grid is
a big issue so I think batteries are
perfect complement and can help also
with the stability of the grid with the
price peaks especially during noon So
there are different motivations on
different markets across central eastern
Europe but generally I see batteries as
the next big move and we see also based
on interest here at exhibition there's
huge interests from yeah big big
number of EPCs and developers and also
just coming back to solarity as a
solution provider what are the value
added services that you provide maybe
training maybe something else that you
provide to your your customer Sure.
Yeah. Like trading, technical support,
all the logistics around is like basic
stuff what more or less all man all of
distributors can can provide and
providing. What we add now more extra is
complete package for BSS. So for
those companies those EPCs which
don't have experience with building
bigger megawatt megawatt hours
storage we can provide consulting
partly design we can provide
information connection with aggregators
with the banks in multiple countries
across the region if they if they need
and if they are not experienced by
themselves. So we compile we provide
complete package the services for
BSS and do you have any successful case
study that you would like to mention?
Yeah. Yeah. We can we can mention latest
bigger projects with tech 10 megawatt
hours to be completed soon in Hungary.
Yes. And who are you doing it for?
we are doing it together with our former
customer or current customer from PV I
mean who we have long history with. So
that's the exactly good good example of
PV customer now who wanted to enlarge he
wanted battery. So he we teamed up
together and we providing other
consulting service and together with
with manufacturers and also if you could
just tell us to the community who
doesn't know for something for when
you're having a battery storage
project how long it takes to from the
starting from the distribution you
providing them with the infrastructure
to build it.. Yeah. Very much
depends on status or stage of permits.
Yeah. So from initial idea to have
permits like zonal permit, building
permit, connection permit ready can be
easily one year plus or something like
this and then u also like technical
discussion design and specification
where project can take 2 3 months and
then you have roughly 3 to four months
for production and then one month for
commissioning. So altogether we are
talking about roughly one and a half
year from basic idea until
completion. In the meanwhile do you
store all the hardware stuff within your
vicinity or it comes directly once all
the permit has been taken? depends on
the size of the project. We are
distributing also small batteries which
we have in our stock. So they are for
immediate delivery available for
immediate delivery. about the bigger
projects like hundreds of kilowatt hours
and megawatt hours are made to order and
they are coming directly from factory.
Amazing Daniel. Yeah. in the regulation
wise are there now batteries
mandatory in the energy projects or not
not everywhere more in western Europe I
would say but there are different
programs and subsidies which are
supporting or preferring batteries to be
integrated in current PV power plants or
together with new PV power plants. Okay,
great. And how do you see the
knowledge gap in central and eastern
Europe to in order to accelerate energy
transition because maybe the technology
is going faster than regulation. Policy
makers know about what is happening in
the in the market. How do you see this
knowledge gap? yes, sometimes they
issue some program which is partly
nonsense. sometimes they are too
strict like unnecessary strict they are
requiring additional testing which is
increasing the total projects capex
and they are not respecting for example
some certification from other EU
countries which is unfortunately and are
they making their own or they are
putting some extra layers or extra
requirements which is not required by
majority of our countries or they are
not respecting the basic of the
standard standard certification. Yes. So
they're requiring extra testing for
example and stuff like this. And have
you seen some space of collaboration
with academy for example in order to
constraint this gap knowledge gap? Yeah,
of course there are discussions between
acade academy and ministries and how to
make it faster easier but it's not
always successful it's ongoing and I
think we should be more decisive here
and make it more easy and faster which
is possible because we have good
examples as well within EU I think is
leading with reasonable approach in
majority of cases also sometimes Germany
is creating their own extra standards
but depends on the time but
generally I think there's a space for
some unified legislation and approach in
EU it would u yeah make all parties
involved the life much more easier
Michael one last question to you how
do you see the future of energy
within central and eastern Europe
what's the way forward
I think now what we can feel here as
well and tal last year and this year is
this transition to battery storage.
Yeah, I think this is the after PV or
SPV was a big wow 15 years ago. Now we
can see it in batteries starting from
small scale residential up to utility
scale super large batteries. So I
think this is the main main driver of C
or energy sector globally but in C as
well. How to follow up on that how fast
is it growing? Very fast. I think
expectations are super high. We see high
number of projects like everybody's
talking about it but not many companies
they have actual experience and this is
little tricky as it was tricky with PV.
also not PV projects end up well and
I think it's important to connect with
experienced parties and providers and
with quality manufacturers. Amazing.
Hey, thank you very much Michael for
talking with us and distribution is an
important part. Thank you and all the
best with the partnership with Techlan.
Yeah, we look forward. What are you
going to do next? In which countries?
Because you are world spread. Yes. Yes.
Yes. Okay. And thank you. Goodbye to all
the community. Thank you for saying the
for watching the interview and see you
the next episode. Bye-bye. Bye.

EPC Insights: Navigating Battery Storage & Solar PV Projects with Michal Adrian - InterSolar Ep-1

Regulatory instability hinders growth

Battery storage demand rising

Long project timelines

Collaboration needed for success