Aerospec Launches Mexico Office, Opening Doors to LATAM Solar Market

Aerospec Launches Mexico Office, Opening Doors to LATAM Solar Market

The solar industry is full of twists and turns. Therefore, serving the market has its own challenges and opportunities.

At the end of 2015, when the global solar market had installed 228 gigawatts (GW) of cumulative PV capacity and the US ranked fourth with just 25 GW [1], Aerospec Technologies was founded in Houston with the goal of leveraging the latest in robotics to satisfy the increasing demand for efficient solar utility maintenance.

Source: International Energy Agency’s 2015 Trends in Photovoltaic Applications report

Three years later, the global solar market has grown at an explosive pace such that by the second half of 2018, global cumulative capacity will exceed 500 GW [2]. At the same time, market growth is coming from a variety of regions: while the growth in larger countries, such as China, US, India and Japan, has flattened, growth in Latin American countries, such as Mexico, Brazil and Chile, has accelerated, making them more attractive markets.

Latin America’s share of global solar demand is expected to reach 6.2% by 2018. Mexico, in particular, will have the largest pipeline with 4 GW of projects contracted between 2018 and 2019 [3].

Source: GTM Research Latin America PV/Project Tracker

In response to these recent developments, Aerospec has opened a new branch in Mexico as a first step in expanding into the Latin American solar market. In support of this effort, Aerospec has brought on board Luis Alfonso Escobedo, former Director of Business Development at AMDA Energia as the country manager in Mexico.

During the two-year tenure at AMDA Energia, Luis developed and managed 2 GW of gas, solar and wind projects. Given his ten years of expertise in the Latin American renewable energy industry, Luis will be responsible for Aerospec’s business development and the corporate strategy in Mexico.

Through Luis’s deep understanding of the industry, regional business trends and regulations, Aerospec made several strong connections with potential Latin American customers during 2018 MIREC WEEK. During the most celebrated renewable energy summit in Mexico, Aerospec showcased its AI-powered aerial solar inspection solution and demonstrated how important process automation will be for the future of the renewable energy industry.

Luis Alfonso Escobedo (the first from the left) on the 2018 MIREC WEEK

During 2018 MIREC WEEK, Aerospec drew significant attention from a wide variety of companies, including EPC firms, independent power producers (IPPs), O&M providers and utility-scale asset managers. Five potential customers have already expressed interest in collaborating with Aerospec on optimizing their asset management process. This will aid Aerospec’s goal of breaking into the 4GW Mexican solar market by 2019.

Launching a new branch in Mexico and having a solar veteran join our team represent Aerospec’s initial steps to establishing its presence in the Latin American solar industry. In the near term, we will continue to strive toward providing our clients with a full range of technical services. These include fast and accurate anomaly detection, through our world-leading computer vision algorithms, and proactive solar asset management, through AeroSolar, our cloud-based big-data platform.

Aerospec provides you:

  • Proven expertise in the renewable energy industry
  • Reliable integration of hardware and software
  • An AI-powered platform for advanced analytics
  • Experts on board (FAA certified UAS pilots, solar researchers, certified thermographers)
  • Safety-first mindset (zero incident record to-date)

Sources:

[1] IEA: Global Solar PV Capacity Surpassed 227GW in 2015

[2] 10 Trends That Will Shape the Global Solar Market in 2018

[3] 4 Charts Explaining Latin America’s Impending Solar Boom