Before building a new solar plant a detailed study of the area where it is to be built needs to be carried out. These studies can take a week to two weeks to complete. This process can now be done in five minutes thanks to RatedPower. Andrea Barber, Juan Romero and Miguel Ángel Torrero are the three founders of this startup, which has created software called pvDesign that automates the design process and the basic engineering needed to build solar plants.
“What we want is for the software to provide, in a quick and automated way, all of the characteristics and documentation needed to build solar plants,” says Barber. To use this system, the user merely has to input the coordinates of the plot where the plant is to be built and choose the teams and parameters needed for its construction. What’s more, the software also provides documentation, such as the list of materials and measurements needed to build the plant. “It as if we were architects and were carrying out the study before construction of a new building,” says the entrepreneur.
The startup has validated its web app with fifty-odd projects for solar plants
The idea for the project came out of the experience of the three entrepreneurs while working in the renewable energy industry, in an engineering and consultancy company that provided these services manually. “That is how we saw there was a lot of demand and that there was no tool to aid the work in an automatic way,” Barber points out.
The project started about two years ago but it was not until December 2016 that they began to validate the system with some fifty-odd projects for solar plants. However, the company was not formally set up until March.
Very international software
RatedPower wants to sell its system around the world and already has clients in different countries. Most of them are large companies in industry, building and factory construction. “In Spain, the use of solar energy has been halted for many years, which is why a lot of countries in this sector left the country to build plants in other places abroad.” That is why the startup began to make sales contacts with Spanish companies that have solar plants around the world.
What’s more, RatedPower has also obtained many contacts with companies in Latin America thanks to the years that Andrea Barber lived in Brazil. “Right now we are focusing a lot on the Latin American market, as it is a region in which the development of solar plants is very recent, which means they have a greater need for tools like ours,” points out the entrepreneur.
Barber: "We want to focus on the Latin American market, because it is a region in which the development of solar plants is very recent"
PvDesign is is not free software, although the startup offers those interested in the system a 30-day free trial. Moreover, when a client is interested in the web app, RatedPower offers them an hour-long demonstration to explain how the tool works. After the trial period, there are two options for an annual license: a complete licence, which includes unlimited access to the web app for all the projects the client wants; and another option that is a basic licence, which gives limited access to the software, with the client having to pay extra for each project.
Third-placed finalists in the Cleantech Camp
The startup won third programming prize for their contribution to the area of renewable energy in the Cleantech Camp, organised by Barcelona Activa and InnoEnergy. “Taking part in this initiative was really good for us, to make ourselves known and make contact with Gas Natural Fenosa, one of the initiative’s partners,” says Torrero.
Apart from the prize money the startup won in Cleantech Camp, RatedPower has funded itself with its own resources, and revenue raised from launching on the market. Nevertheless, the company is interested in obtaining both state and European grants and is talking to different venture capital funds to get funding to help them speed up their growth.
As part of the next objective, “we want to consolidate the software as one of the main tools for designing solar plants by 2019,” says Romero. What’s more, the startup wants to gradually improve the web app based on the feedback received from its clients and to introduce new functions to make the tool even more useful.