On this occasion we chatted with Juan Manuel Ávila, CEO of Top Energy Mexico, who spoke to us in depth about the current challenges of the country in terms of renewable energy and the advantages of installing solar panels for entrepreneurs, since Aguascalientes has a unique position about.
In addition, he shared with us the challenges he has faced to achieve the first company in the sector to achieve the Great Place to Work recognition and the Carbon Neutral certification.
Can you tell us about Top Energy?
We at Top Energy focus on the construction of photovoltaic power plants. They are also known as solar panels, we have been in this area for a long time. We do maintenance to them and everything related to the installation of solar panels.
How do you get into the clean energy industry?
Contrary to what many people think, I am not an engineer, I have a degree, I studied Business Administration and this was due to an opportunity that I had with my partner, having founded this company 8 years ago. He was dedicated to this in Spain, and in turn he comes to this after having dedicated himself to construction, with a boom in the sector and this boom in renewable energies. My partner is in it in 2009, and in 2012 we see the Top Energy issue in Mexico.
Before Top Energy, the only thing I knew about electricity was changing a light bulb. I am not an engineer, but I specialize in regulatory matters, I quite understand it. In fact, at the time of the Energy Reform, we participated in the Distributed Generation Law that allows us to put panels on the roofs.
What else happened in that season, changes to the energy law?
At the time, when the electricity industry law was generated, it told us about how the market will operate and laws and regulations were needed, as well as guidelines for each of the parties in the market. There is a modality that then opens, distributed energy, generating where you consume.
The traditional model (in Mexico and the world) was to make a power plant that could be 800, 60 kilometers away and that is why you saw the large thermoelectric plants, dams and structures to transport that energy to the cities through distribution lines and poles. This was the case for many decades, but at the beginning of the 21st century the idea of not carrying all this energy began to become popular, not depending on said infrastructure to be able to take energy to where it was needed.
This generates benefits to the network because it desaturates, and to the consumer because it has savings, by generating the energy it consumes.
That is why the trend to see solar panels even in not so big buildings, even small businesses or houses?
It is not that before it could not be done, but there was not the legal framework that it has today. Since March 2017 we are talking about the fact that there are more and more solar panels on the roofs, better and bigger projects.
At the beginning there were only two clients, the houses in rate A (the most expensive, double an industrial rate) and the programs subsidized by FIRCO and Sagarpa, where producers were given a subsidy of one million pesos to mount panels. Then this started to make sense.
Since 2017, we see more solar panels, people saving and contributing to the environment with 100% renewable energy.
Does the owner of a MSME or someone with a roof in a house have to finance himself or is there a subsidy?
In Aguascalientes, something that we should presume is that it is a state made to take advantage of solar energy. The authorities may not have known how to take advantage of it, but very disruptive things have been done in this great state.
Let's start with the supports, no state has dependencies where the issue is so supported. It comes from SEDRAE (Secretariat for Rural and Agribusiness Development) and SEDEC (Secretariat for Economic Development), which are state institutions with two different programs, both very ambitious.
"In Aguascalientes, something we should presume is that it is a state made to take advantage of solar energy"
It consists of subsidies of up to 350 thousand pesos in the case of SEDRAE and of up to 150 thousand pesos in the case of SEDEC. The first step was through SIFIA, where financing is started for people who want to buy panels and do distributed generation.
Recently, the municipality of Aguascalientes in alliance with BanVerde and Coparmex, for the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA). You say "I don't want to apply for a loan or subsidy" for whatever reason you like or the vocation of your company, here comes the PPA with Banverde where they invest in solar panels and invest them in your factory or business, selling the cheapest energy for your company (more than the CFE) and apart they give you 6 months of energy due to the COVID issue.
If you sign with them, for the next 6 months you do not pay the CFE bill, a benefit in these difficult times. Aguascalientes is the only state and municipality, with such a bold and daring position to support entrepreneurs.
This is a flow to attend to other pressing or urgent needs.
And at the federal level, where journalistic reports usually spread a position contrary to caring for the environment or betting on traditional energies?
They do not give neutral conditions, but adverse ones. Each month, it is more each week, there is an attempt by this government to finish financially bankrupt the country. Pemex is losing money like never before, the CFE is the same. Sure, there are units where they do make money, but not in electricity generation.
The CFE has done the best it could with all the budgetary limitations in these governments, but we must turn to see the new energies, for example Distributed Generation in addition to generating savings to the network and user allows to democratize the energy transition: that everyone citizens can add and support to stop using fossil fuels. If I decide to use panels through purchase, credits or PPA, they make the decision and join this movement.
The federal administration does not allow and does not promote it, they are even blocking it.
What about the Energy Commission of the Aguascalientes Business Center?
It is one more Aguascalientes commission, like the youth or labor commission. In the case of Energy, there is a national one and here in Aguascalientes we have a local commission that has been dedicated to this for six years, in relation to the state government and generating the state energy cluster to detonate this industry that despite the decisions of the federation, In Aguascalientes we have always had an innovative vocation and why cut ourselves off from being part of one of the largest industries of the future?
Why should the entrepreneur be public and active in the media or organizations?
In my case, to publicize something that is new, through participation in the media and the dissemination of videos. I have many years with columns on the subject of energy in specialized publications, and it has not ceased to be a topic. Interest was detonated with the Energy Reform last six years, and it continues to be one of the great topics, now in this administration I have to talk about what is happening in the sector but not with an optimistic spirit but anticipating what we will have to see.
Look, the situation of less public investment in electrical infrastructure has a negative consequence for attracting investment in the country in general. If we have saturated networks, there is no investment to decongest them and have more electricity consumption, this will have an impact on attracting investment.
How do you see the business ecosystem of Aguascalientes in 2020?
In Aguascalientes I see innovation companies, because of the work of Top Energy and in Coparmex I have seen other companies in the sector that have bet on design and innovation. I and my competitors from Aguascalientes have really wanted to be innovative, with interesting projects. At least in the sector where I participate, very forward, and it is not so much the result of the sector, but how Aguascalientes moves.
There was a time when we stagnated in the same industries, but from a few years to here there is more innovation and the search to be efficient. There are local companies, perhaps not so well known, but they are leaders in their field.
"There was a time when we stagnated in the same industries, but from a few years to here there is more innovation"
You told us that you are a graduate, not an engineer, but you work in something closely related. To the audience, what can you tell them about choosing a career at such a young age or if that defines your entire professional life?
I studied at the Tecnológico de Monterrey, in the career of Business Administration. Not so many years ago, I'm not that old. The energy sector was not the first thing I participated in, I was involved in administration matters and even insurance, but life brought me here.
I what I could say to people as advice, that they listen to us today. The career defines somewhat the skills you want to have, but not the profession you want to practice.
For example, in my company all the electrical design area are architects. Someone would say to me "why do you have architects?", And it is the second most used career in Top Energy. It is that architects, due to their profession and career, develop highly defined logical - spatial skills, necessary for construction engineering plans and it is easier for them to teach them electricity than to tell an engineer, it is not that they cannot but the Architect takes more time using AutoCad. It is efficiency.
How does Top Energy earn Great Place to Work recognition?
We had a problem in the staff rotation part, people did not last even though we offer good incentives and higher than average salaries. The problem was not exclusively with Top Energy, but with the sector, because there are more and more participants in the industry. We answered him with a question: How do we distinguish ourselves from the competition? Offering added value with certain certifications and certain designs or systems.
But to reach those goals we need people with the ability to achieve all this, but also not to leave, because they train with us and it would be regrettable if they left us. The formula was to bet on the staff. We implement several programs to improve the work environment, and we are proud to be the first Mexican company in the renewable energy sector to obtain this recognition.
We are also the first company in the energy sector in Mexico to be carbon neutral, we measure, certify and mitigate our carbon footprint. This is the way in which we not only contribute to the environment by putting up panels, but we also seek not to pollute, and what we get to pollute, we mitigate.
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