Since the beginning of the year, the new sales and service office of KACO new energy GmbH, one of the world's largest manufacturers of photovoltaic inverters, has been operating in Johannesburg, South Africa. Regional Director Christoph Heinermann is a proven business development expert with years of professional experience in South Africa.
The main task of the employees in-country will be to implement large-scale projects with independent power producers (IPPs) and EPCs. For two major projects, the Neckarsulmbased company has already been selected as supplier for solar inverters. AE-AMD Renewable Energy (a joint venture between Spanish AMDA energia and the South African Alt-E Technologies) and Tenesol (a SunPower company, NASDAQ: SPWR) are constructing two solar power plants in the Northern Cape province, with Tenesol acting as the EPC (engineering, procurement and construction). The "solar farms" have a combined power of 33 MW. KACO new energy is supplying 900 Powador 39.0 TL3 inverters for a decentralized implementation of both. But the company also offers solutions for centrally organized solar parks with its growing number of large-scale inverters such as the Powador XP550-HV TL outdoor. The next objectives for the South
African office are supplying projects in the industrial sector and developing the sales partner network to also serve the residential market.
"South Africa has a heavily increasing energy demand, driven by major economic growth. The current power suppliers are fortunately focusing in advance on regenerative sources of energy as the best way to meet this demand. Due to the high amount of sunshine and the available land areas, solar power plants are especially well suited to achieving this goal. That's where we come in with our expertise and proven products," states Christoph Heinermann, KACO new energy's Regional Director for South Africa. "The use of photovoltaics enables us to provide a permanent added value locally, because on the African continent, locally generated and consumed power liberates the rural population from the disadvantages of centralized electricity distribution," says Heinermann.
Heinermann, born in 1967, is a trained and educated telecommunications engineer. He started his career at Alcatel, where he developed the sales organization in the Asia-Pacific region among other accomplishments. Following similar assignments in other companies with the geographic focus on Africa, he moved to MyVas International Holdings Limited in 2009, a company that offers consulting services for start-ups and goto- market. With his extensive experience in business development, Heinermann is predestined to help KACO new energy establish itself as a leading provider in South Africa for high-quality solar inverters bearing the "made in Germany" label. This quality philosophy at KACO new energy also includes a wide range of services that the company will offer from the start in South Africa. With Anton de Swardt, Heinermann has hired an experienced head of service.
The branch office is located in Johannesburg. This choice was convenient because South Africa's largest city and the surrounding province of Gauteng is the economic and financial centre of the country, and is only 50 km from its capital Pretoria.