TOTAL SOLAR DISTRIBUTED GENERATION ( SEA )
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“ What ’ s happening with solar , especially on the rooftop side of the business , is that we ’ re flipping the model round . That disruption is the revolution that ’ s happening in power ”
— Gavin Adda , CEO , Total Solar Distributed Generation ( SEA )
Instead of building a big solar plant in the middle of the desert and then arranging transmission and distribution before retail to a customer , you can put solar right on top of somebody ’ s roof , and cut costs and ease grid congestion at the same time .”
Indonesia has more than 17,000 islands , and the Philippines over 7,000 , in a part of the world where diesel is an expensive solution for generating power . Adda realised what a great opportunity this was to start a rooftop solar business . “ When I got here , no one was doing this ,” he remembers . “ I created a startup which was merged into Total in 2017 , and that has become Total Solar Distributed Generation , Southeast Asia .”
Innovation has played a big part in Adda ’ s journey of developing a solar offering in Southeast Asia . “ When I was joining the business , major companies such as BP , Shell and ourselves were taking a good look at renewables ,” he reveals . With the core elements of businesses like these changing , it was important for Total to add new capabilities and become nimble in its approach . “ I ’ d seen the same thing happening in
DECEMBER 2019