We’re nearing the end of the blog series excerpting my recently published book, Building a Brilliant Tomorrow, as I delve into the second part of the discussion around the fifth and final of Inovateus’ PEACE core values: esprit de corps, or team spirit. I noted in the previous post the somewhat obvious truth of how critical teamwork is to the success of Inovateus—or pretty much any organization. In the following segment, I share an example of how we worked together as a team along with our customers and partners toward a common goal, navigating some difficult challenges along the way (including the bankruptcy of a key component supplier), and successfully completed one of the largest commercial rooftop solar PV systems in the Midwest.
***
The first challenge that came up at IKEA Perryville was that the utility company there, Delmarva Power, imposed a maximum of two megawatts of solar energy per meter. The solution was to install multiple meters, which was possible because of the building’s size, but which required two interconnect approvals from Delmarva.
Around the same time, Uni-Solar was starting to have financial trouble. Chinese manufacturers were beginning to mass-produce solar products, and they were competing heavily on price with the U.S. manufacturers. Prices started to drop precipitously in solar energy, mostly because of the unbelievable undercutting of prices by Asian manufacturers. Since Uni-Solar was a niche product, made of amorphous silicon, it reached a point where it couldn’t compete with traditional polycrystalline and monocrystalline solar panels. Uni-Solar couldn’t change its manufacturing process fast enough to lower the cost of making its panels.
It was a disheartening time for us at Inovateus because we had essentially started our business model by being a Uni-Solar distributor and by learning from Stan Ovshinsky, the founder of Uni-Solar and Energy Conversion Devices. We had built a great relationship with Uni-Solar, and we were one of their go-to companies and partners.
From left to right: Tom Kanczuzewski, George Howard, Stan & Iris Ovshinsky, Nathan Vogel and John Cernak.
So we had some tough decisions to make. We had just won a big contract with IKEA, and we knew that the Uni-Solar product was ideal for the IKEA roof, but we weren’t sure if Uni-Solar was going to be able to make or deliver the product for the job.
Eventually, we devised a plan whereby IKEA would buy the solar panels directly from Uni-Solar and warehouse them until we had the roofing work completed. This involved having our logistics team work directly with IKEA, and our purchasing team help facilitate a sale between the manufacturer and the customer. They were measures we hadn’t implemented before. It took a lot of teamwork with Uni-Solar, IKEA, and others to make all this happen. As part of the deal, we agreed to work with IKEA and bring in professionals to help with the panels should anything go awry after Uni-Solar folded, because the technology wasn’t going away. And in the worst case, the manner in which we installed the panels would give us options for removing or replacing them down the road.
With only one interconnect approval at the IKEA Perryville site, we moved ahead with both it and the Westampton project. Even though they were big undertakings, the projects were on schedule.
Phase one had been completed on the first meter at Perryville, and we were pushing ahead with phase two when Uni-Solar went out of business. The company could no longer compete with the flood of products from the Asian market.
We reassessed the roof and found that the section of the roof we still needed to complete actually could meet the pounds-per-square-foot installation of traditional polycrystalline solar panels if we were to use a different racking product. We pitched the idea to IKEA, and it was approved. It took another six months to get final approval from Delmarva on the second meter, which allowed us to finally move forward and complete the project.
Our engineering team members, who had been leery about the IKEA projects in the first place, helped us overcome some major hurdles with Delmarva and persuaded the utility company to move forward with our installation. At the time, the standard inverter was rated to handle 600 volts, but after some conversations with the utility company, we ended up using 1000-volt inverters, which was, then, something of a first.
So, at the end, we were able to get more power for IKEA. We did some things that hadn’t been done before. We worked with one of our partners and key manufacturers as it went bankrupt and eventually shut down. And we developed new teamwork skills that really enforced our core value of esprit de corps.
We’ve since continued to work with IKEA on other projects, which is somewhat unique in the solar industry where repeat business is not all that common. I attribute that to our team spirit.
In the next and final installment of this series of blog excerpts from Building a Brilliant Tomorrow, I will talk about the story of our Friday morning think-tank sessions at Inovateus.
By TJ Kanczuzewski, president/CEO, Inovateus Solar
