ImpactCity entrepreneur in the spotlight: Solar Monkey
March 20, 2023
Solar Monkey drove solar panel adoption in the Netherlands and is ready to do the same across Europe
When thinking about the energy transition, what first comes to mind are often solar panels, windmills and heat pumps. But these technologies need effective system enablers to reach the market at scale. Solar Monkey is an excellent example of such an enabler, both in their catalysing effect in solar panel adoption and as an example of business opportunities that only appear if you look deeper under the hood to see how markets really work. Solar Monkey’s software makes selling and planning solar panel installation as simple as abc. As market leader, their impact on solar panel adoption in the Netherlands has arguably been decisive in lifting the country to the global top-3 when it comes to the amount of solar panels per inhabitant. A recent €4 million investment will further accelerate Solar Monkey’s growth abroad, and help other European countries transition to renewable energy faster.
Solar Monkey’s journey started in an Amsterdam attic, after the company’s founders were confronted with the time-consuming research and planning required for solar panel installation, which also drove up prices and made the sales process exhaustive. After a journey of exploring various ideas and business models, they identified that complexity as an opportunity. They decided to facilitate installation service providers with software that made that planning so much faster and easier.
“One of our major unique selling points is the ease of use of our product. No calculations are required whatsoever, all the math is hidden under the hood of our extensively optimised user interface,”
Accurate ROI and frictionless sales
A major sales driver for Solar Monkey’s customers is the ability to accurately forecast energy yield and calculate the return on investment. This accuracy builds on Solar Monkeys ability to acquire a set of relevant data sources such as 3D maps, location-based solar power fluctuations etc. These data sources are integrated in Solar Monkey’s products. The solar panel installer only has to drag and drop the panels on an aerial image, after which they can accurately predict how much energy will be produced by those panels on the specific rooftop of their prospective customer. This smoothens the sales process, and makes it easier for customers to accept a quote for solar panel installation. “One of our major unique selling points is the ease of use of our product. No calculations are required whatsoever, all the math is hidden under the hood of our extensively optimised user interface,” says Jan Pieter Versluijs, co-founder of Solar Monkey. He believes that this feature makes their product much more attractive to use than similar solutions on the market, not the least because it minimises error.
Driving the energy transition
Their software, which is used for about 400,000 solar panel quotes annually in the Netherlands amounting to about 25-30% market share, combined with attractive subsidies from the Dutch government, has catalysed solar panel installation in the Netherlands. A fun fact is that although the Netherlands is known for traditional windmills and bicycles, the solar panel market is now larger than the bicycle market in terms of revenue.
Image: Solar Monkey’s software makes selling and planning solar panel installation faster and easier.
Part of The Hague’s impact business ecosystem
Solar Monkey is a valuable member of the business ecosystem in The Hague. “As a mature impact scale-up, Solar Monkey adds valuable experience and skills to the impact community in our city,” says Coos Santing, programme manager at ImpactCity. “They have overcome many of the challenges that the startups are facing today and can give them hands-on advice. This diversity, in business maturity as well as in expertise, culture and personality is exactly what makes business communities thrive, and what we opted for in our impact business ecosystem,” he continues.
Solar Monkey has seen this business community grow as a result of the efforts and investments of ImpactCity, ever since the company outgrew the premises of tech incubator YES!Delft and settled at The Hague Tech, a vibrant tech community at the economic centre of The Hague. More recently, YES!Delft also opened its first satellite hub at The Hague Tech, as part of ImpactCity’s efforts to facilitate the tech community. “Being part of an entrepreneurial community such as The Hague Tech has numerous benefits,” says Jan Pieter. “First of all it is really inspirational and energising to hear other businesses ideas and how they achieve results and solve problems along the way. As we grow our companies, we all face more or less similar growth pains.”
“As a mature impact scale-up, Solar Monkey adds valuable experience and skills to the impact community in our city.”
Accelerating solar panel adoption on a European scale
Looking to the future, Solar Monkey has prioritised the international roll out of their current products over developing new extensions or solutions. “Setting priorities is one of the most important things for a growing company. You can’t do everything at the same time. Our product is now ready and the Dutch market is getting saturated. It’s time for new markets to benefit from our solutions, and to expand our presence in the markets where we already have foothold,” says Jan Pieter. Of course his entrepreneurial mind is full of ideas for the near and far future, and we will keep our eye out for new success stories as Solar Monkey’s journey continues.
