It is now one year since the 35-year-old Andreas Thorsheim said up the job as produktdirektør in Opera Software to bet on solcelleselskapet Otovo together with Andreas Bentzen, Simen Jørgensen and Lars Syse Christiansen.
Otovo has today 11 employees and close to 300 residential customers around the country, and next year launches the company, as the first solcellebaserte power company in Norway, the concept of “nabostrøm”. It will say that you can buy and sell electricity locally by sending it to your neighbor if you have something to spare.
For Thorsheim, it is important to create technological changes that make our lives easier.
– To be able to see that one helps to change and create better products, it is what drives me in everyday life. It was what drove me when I was to start the E24 in Schibsted, and it was what drove me when I was working with to develop a user-friendly web browser Opera Software.
In Otovo is the driving force to make solcelleteknologi available for most people. We must cross the barriers of the solar cells will be just as natural for hvermansen as triple-layered windows, ” says Thorsheim.
Good starting year
the Quartet in Otovo so that they would be able to tapping into a one hundred customers in the course of 2016. With almost 300 sales have the audience thus become much larger than what they had hoped for.
Thorsheim adds that solar power until now has been reserved for cabin owners in this country, and this company is now working to change. Although the quartet in Otovo has over five decades of experience from the solar charger, software and customer care behind it, ” admits Thorsheim that the first year in the oppstartbedriften has been characterized by “the novice’s mindset.”
– the Communication about what solar charger is must be changed from focusing on whether to bet on the monocrystalline or polykrystallinske panels, about takvinkler and equipment, to make this technology accessible and understandable for people.
We must recognize that stuff can’t most people. It requires, unfortunately, the prior knowledge from the
Otovo
- Otovo was started in January 2016 and has today 11 employees.
- Gründerkvartetten in Otovo consists of Simen Jørgensen, Andreas Bentzen, Lars Syse Christiansen and Andreas Thorsheim.
- Andreas Thorsheim managing director at Otovo.
- Thorsheim is the former director of both Opera Software, Schibsted and The new york times. He holds an mba and bachelor of.oecon, Norwegian school of economics. In addition, he has a Master of Science in International Management from the London School of Economics.
- the Company supplies solar cells on private houses and commercial properties and has sold nearly 300 solar arrays in 2016.
- Otovo is also strømselskap with “Nabostrøm” as its product. It consists of a normal strømavtale, with additional special terms and conditions for the sale of overskuddsstrøm.
- Otovo owned by the founders, Agder Energi Venture, Selvaag Bolig, StartupLab and several smaller investors.
the customer before you become their own kraftverksjef. What will we do something with, ” he says. Otovo-the boss believes it to starting your own business can be compared with småbarnstilværelsen.
– It is very comparable with multitaskingen to get småbarnslivet to go up. The most challenging is enough versatility in the problems. There are full days of meetings and utstyrsforhandlinger, then back home for a few hours with family life, before the days ends with kveldsøkt from half past eight until around midnight, ” he says.
Plan 2017
Thorsheim meet changes with open arms, and miss neither to be the director in Schibsted or Opera Software.
– When one has ridden out of the city, so starts you on a new adventure. That’s the way I see it. I am not afraid of changes. I tend actually to welcome them, and I’m of the school that believes that both the media and the utility industry must adapt to the everyday life they operate in, ” he says.
Now working the team in Otovo diligently with suppliers to plan 2017, and there is also a constant product development in the softwaresiden. The goal of Otovo is to give ordinary people the same tools as the pros in the electricity market have had, and give people the ability to create power even.
– The more solar energy that is produced here in the Nordic countries, the more utkonkurreres evil force from abroad. The development of clean power is one of the biggest tasks of our generation is facing, it we take seriously in Otovo, ” he says.
Even though when the us president, Donald Trump, has said that he will be gearing up the coal industry and openly denies that climate change is man-made, is not Thorsheim further concerned about the solar industry. He believes not that Trump can put a stop to Elon Musks solenergiplan.
” No, not in the short term is the demand in China and the united STATES is positive and there is a large overcapacity in the market. 2017 is going to be a good year, but in the longer term, it is enough this maktskiftet unfortunate for the industry, ” he says. The entrepreneur considers it as a possible scenario that Parisavtalen will be reversed in the near future. The way to save the climate through karbonskatt will be a lot harder to go now, think Thorsheim.
– Now it is up to tekologiutviklerne and the local politicians to save the climate. It is simply the “do it yourself” that counts now. It is Elon Musk and lokalpolitikeren, not Obama and Ban Ki-moon, who must sort it out.
the energy Sector endevendes
“the energy Sector is torn to shreds,” wrote Thorsheim in a comment in the nettmagasinet Energy and Climate in last summer. The media industry is endevendt, now is the energy sector next, he considers.
– In the Norwegian energy market, we have centrally-produced power that is sent in the power lines to the houses of the people where the power is used. Each household relate passively as a consumer, and have not had the same tools that storkundene in the electricity market – such as Norsk Hydro – as the manufacture, trader and saves power depending on prissignaler in the market, ” he says. But all this is about to change now.
One of the definitions of disrupsjon is according to Thorsheim that “one of the things that have only been available for the wealthiest is available for hvermansen.”
– It is very much focus on the hardware now, but a technology that crushes all is the price of the software. The cheapest way to save power is not via the batteries, but by a small computer to turn off the tap on the water tank, ” he says. Thorsheim don’t think it’s a long time until we get the site on the home charger and the timer on the water heater. The market made soon of the new hardware and software in house has come to control the consumption of our.
This we will see already in 2017. Sharing will also be a big topic within the energy sector forward, ” he says.
Free electricity to the neighbor
The most effective is according to Thorsheim producing most of the power in which it is used. The solar-company founder, supports up to Elon Musks theories.
Musk think a third of the power is going to be produced on the forbruksstedet. We have a liberal strømmarked here in Norway. What we differ on in Otovo compared with the u.s. solselskapene, is that people get paid for the electricity they do not use of the power company, not through subsidies from the state. From the new year, we begin with the concept of “nabostrøm”, where you and your neighbor can trade power from neighbor to neighbor. We are the first to offer people more than the spot price when we purchase their stream. That’s what I call delingsøkonomi in practice, ” he says.
the Future think Thorsheim will be characterized by a few giant utility companies, and far smarter grid companies that know more about what happens where the power will be used.
– Otovo and the type of companies are going to have a position in people their homes and most people are going to pay less for more kilowatt-hours than they do today. My dream of course is to succeed with Otovo and to succeed with to move the front in the battle against climate change in the right direction, ” he says.
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