ELECTRIC.IE • The Magazine & Website for the Irish Electrical Industry • 13 Powering a Decade of Growth: Rexel Energy Solutions Turns 10 Industry News What inspired you to join the business 10 years ago, and how has that vision evolved? I was working in a renewable energy company in Armagh, selling and project managing installations of heat pumps, biomass boilers, solar thermal systems, and solar photovoltaics (PV). We were a longstanding customer of Rexel in the UK, so the job role and the company were familiar to me, and Ireland being the small place that it is, I knew the previous Kellihers Electrical Branch Manager in Dundalk through my local GAA club. The initial job scope was to establish a Solar PV distribution arm of Kellihers Electrical from scratch and that both excited and daunted me! The Irish market was tiny and had little or no government support back in 2015. I had great mentorship from Jerry Hamilton, the head of Energy Solutions for Rexel in Northern Europe. Jerry taught me the importance of selecting the right suppliers and products, with a view to long term partnerships. From day one I have opted to work with manufacturers that wanted to grow the market in Ireland and were committed to the Irish market for the long haul. Can you share a memorable moment from the early days of RES that stands out to you? Solar PV in the early days, for a distributor, was mainly new build installations. Roofers and joiners would not have been familiar with PV mounting components, so most days were spent driving around building sites and teaching tradesmen in portacabins or up on scaffolding. Thankfully, Solar PV is mainstream now, and we get great training support from our manufacturers, particularly Van der Valk. Country Manager, Damien Phillips at Rexel Energy Solutions. Country Manager Damien Phillips reflects on the journey, challenges, and future of renewable energy in Ireland. What were some of the biggest challenges you faced in the first few years, and how did you overcome them? Almost every call with a new contact was an educational session. The knowledge on Solar PV was extremely limited, so photovoltaics had to be explained before it could be sold. This involved spending a lot of time with consultants, engineers, and architects, plus roofers and electricians. I suppose what I have always tried to do, is to demystify Solar PV. When it is stripped back to its fundamentals Solar PV is not that complicated, and we always encourage electrical contractors to get PV on their own house and live with it as it is one of the best ways to learn. The same goes for Electric Vehicle charging. How has the business changed over the 10 years, and what do you attribute that growth to? There is a lot more of everything! More installers, more homes and businesses with PV and EV chargers, more distributors, and more manufacturers. Ireland was very late in European terms, to the Solar
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