Enpal founders in an interview
“Our demand is exploding”
4/8/2022, 4:24 p.m
Enpal rents solar systems and energy storage to private individuals – and is growing at breakneck speed. The company is currently experiencing a rush that the founders have not yet experienced.
Enpal’s offices at Berlin’s Ostbahnhof are not empty like in many other companies, they are full – and above all full of life and full of work. Endless tables are lined up in long rows on huge areas, and employees with headsets are sitting at them – and selling: solar systems. More precisely: package solutions with which people rent solar systems and energy storage for a fixed price. There is golden confetti on the floor in one room: there was a celebration here, a new product – because charging stations for e-cars will also be on offer in the future.
In view of the energy crisis that has been gripping Germany for weeks, there is a lot to be done. “Demand has really exploded, I’ve never experienced anything like it,” says co-founder Mario Kohle in the podcast “The Zero Hour”. “Since the beginning of the war and the rising energy prices, many people have suddenly realized that they want a solar system – or storage, heat pumps and electric cars.”
And can Enpal handle that onslaught? “We are discussing how we can manage all of this,” admits Kohle, who founded the Berlin start-up with two friends in 2017. “We are currently growing with ten new teams of craftsmen per month.” What is important is that the quality and service are maintained despite the growth. There has also been criticism of the latter in the past. “But we are able to train a person who is not afraid of heights and has manual skills to become a solar installer within a few weeks and months,” says Kohle.
Enpal has specialized in offering solar systems in combination with energy storage and, more recently, wall boxes – charging stations for e-cars – on a subscription basis. Private individuals pay off the system over 20 years and can then purchase it for a small fee. Enpal takes care of installation, maintenance and repair. The rate is not cheap, with the complete package it is between 164 and 215 euros per month. In return, the user saves electricity and petrol costs because he not only feeds in, but uses it himself – as a so-called “prosumer”. Enpal speaks of a saving of 180 euros for a “typical commuter”.
When Mario Kohle founded the Berlin greentech startup with Viktor Wingert and Jochen Ziervogel in 2017, they installed 30 solar systems in the first year. “Five years later, we’re installing 60 a day,” says Kohle. “We are the first company in Europe to have built over a thousand solar systems in the past month.”
Enpal now has 1,500 employees and around 15,000 systems in operation throughout Germany. Sales, which amounted to 56 million euros in 2020, had grown to 110 million euros in 2021. If you extrapolate the business of the first few months to this year, it could be around 240 million euros in 2022. The “Financial Times” has just placed Enpal in fifth place in a ranking of the fastest growing companies in Europe. The goals are therefore also ambitious: “We want to equip at least one million houses with our solution by 2030,” says Kohle. The growth has attracted big-name investors, including Alexander Samwer, Japanese tech investor Softbank and actor Leonardo di Caprio’s fund.
For the founder, solar solutions are less about the classic feed-in of electricity, which has been the focus since the beginning of the promotion of renewable energies – and now also plays a role in Economics Minister Robert Habeck’s “Easter package”. Enpal relies on intelligent networking of systems, energy storage and charging stations.
However, Enpal does not see itself as a beneficiary of the crisis. “There are no winners in this crisis,” says Kohle, even if it “cynically” triggered a “run on solar systems.” “We were also incredibly devastated here – and still are. But in addition to the anger, there is now a lot of energy.”
Also hear in the new episode of “The Zero Hour”:
- Why there is regular gossip in the Enpal offices
- Whether Enapl also wants to expand into neighboring European countries
- What is behind “virtual power plants”.
All episodes can be found directly at AudioNow, Apple or Spotify or Google.