Solar energy. It's one of the most sustainable ways to generate energy. And while private individuals have been flocking to solar energy for years, businesses are making the biggest contribution. Especially for the latter group—we're talking about solar parks with thousands of solar panels—maintenance is paramount. Eelco Hoogduin is the director of Zonnepark Services Nederland, the market leader in maintaining these large parks.
Solar energy is nothing new to Eelco. He has been active in the sector since 2012, and after gaining considerable experience, both nationally and internationally, he started as Director of Zonnepark Services Nederland in July 2021. And whether it concerns large solar parks on roofs, on the ground, or even on various bodies of water, they have the perfect solution for maintenance.
From Utrecht to Zuidbroek
The energy market is much more complex than it initially appears, as quickly becomes clear during the conversation with Eelco. "The operators of the large solar farms have to report their expected energy yield daily. Factors like the installation's design and the weather play a major role in this. If there's insufficient supply, for example due to an outage, the lost production has to be purchased at an imbalance price. This means that an outage has a direct impact on your wallet. You lose revenue, and you have to buy extra, often at higher rates," Eelco explains.
Zonnepark Services has people in the field to resolve malfunctions, saving a lot of money. "We have various SLAs with our customers to get everything up and running again within an agreed-upon time. That's also one of the reasons why we have GPS trackers in the fleet "We need to be able to plan quickly and intervene quickly. If a report comes in at 4:30 that a transformer isn't sending data, we can immediately see on the screen who's nearby. We'll take care of the rest," Eelco continues.
The focus is on nothing but maintenance. This eliminates distractions, allowing the administrators to focus on one thing, and they do it well. Monitoring and management of the company is handled from Utrecht. The second location is in Zuidbroek. From there, maintenance is managed and scheduled. This could involve preventative inspections or repairs in response to reports.
Sustainable and efficient
Because Zonnepark Services focuses on maintenance, and there are more than a thousand solar panel installers in the Netherlands, the focus is on efficiency. "We want to work sustainably and run an efficient operation," says Eelco.
We also receive many requests for projects that are not properly constructed. It's difficult to guarantee performance on poorly constructed installations. We focus on solar farms and business roofs, for example, on the Maasvlakte or logistics centers in the Eindhoven region. These start with around 5.000 panels. Our larger clients have around 80 to 90 hectares of panels. That means we maintain around 300.000 solar panels.
Finding high-quality staff is certainly a challenge, but it's never been a problem for Zonnepark Services. Eelco: "We do see that the rest of the market is struggling. But we're creative and find people in ways other companies don't. We simply do things better than the rest. That's the trick."
And it's understandable that the organization clocks up a considerable number of kilometers for this. A satisfied Eelco concludes: "We don't want to burden our mechanics with the hassle of recording mileage. And neither do the tax authorities. That's why we've now set up mileage tracking through TrackJack. It's convenient, works well, and greatly improves the efficiency of our planning."