Transparency for Customers and Investors in Solar-Diesel Hybrid Projects: OneShore Energy wins support of HTGF for tapping into this fast-growing market

OneShore Energy stands for efficient, cost-optimized combination of solar and diesel systems to provide stable, reliable power generation in off-grid areas. The software product suite developed by OneShore allows for standardized, validated planning and operation of facilities, creating transparency for customers and investors. This is a key element in reliable forecasting of expected yields and reducing the traditionally high levels of financing costs. The High-Tech Gruenderfonds (HTGF) is financing the innovative Berlin-based company.

The price of solar systems has dropped sharply in recent years, in  contrast to  diesel gener-ators still used in over 95 percent of off-grid locations, such as in Africa and on islands. Utili-ties and electricity producers have avoided the combination diesel generators and solar sys-tems, worried about the stability of island grids and concerns about the difficulty in estimating the necessary investments and yields. OneShore Energy has created a software to solve this problem. Its OneAnalyser, OneDesign and OneOptimiser suite can help off-grid systems cut their diesel consumption by as much as 40 percent.

Philipp Kunze, the company’s founder and managing director, says: “OneShore’s software-based product suite is the first of its kind to establish a solid data basis for solar-diesel hybrid customers, and provides significantly greater security for investors seeking to establish whether the systems can provide the predicted yields. This in turn can be used to cut invest-ment volumes and financing costs by reducing the investment risk.” The product suite also works with a high degree of automation, allowing for significantly lower costs in the planning and operation of solar-diesel hybrid facilities.

Klaus Lehmann, Senior Investment Manager at High-Tech Gruenderfonds, says: “Following on the heels of the enormous market growth and the significant cost reductions for solar sys-tems, we see some 500,000 island networks at present in the market for solar-diesel hybrid facilities, representing an enormous as-yet-untapped potential that will only continue to grow. OneShore is the first company to address the issues at hand here with its integrated, soft-ware-based approach: a significant reduction in diesel consumption, reliability and grid stabil-ity, investment security and the ability to secure financing. These factors are crucial to the success of a solar-diesel hybrid project.”

OneShore’s products have already been installed at customers in a variety of industries in Tanzania and Kenya, including hospitals, hotel resorts, remote village grids and industrial facilities.

About OneShore Energy
OneShore Energy GmbH is a Berlin-based company involved in off-grid energy generation, serving markets such as Tanzania, Kenya and Greece. OneShore’s software-based product suite features its OneAnalyser, OneDesign and OneOptimiser that allow for standardized, validated planning and operation of solar-diesel hybrid facilities, all while establishing trans-parency for customers and investors. This in turn can be used to cut investment volumes and financing costs significantly by reducing investment risk. Customers are enabled to reduce their diesel consumption for off-grid systems by roughly 40 percent. The focus is on ensuring the stability of the island grids. OneShore’s management team possesses many years of experience in the area of solar-diesel hybrid facilities.

Press contact:
OneShore Energy GmbH
Philipp Kunze
Phone: +49 30 2089 81721
presse@oneshore.com
www.oneshore.com

About High-Tech Gruenderfonds
High-Tech Gruenderfonds invests in young, high potential high-tech start-ups. The seed fi-nancing provided is designed to enable start-ups to take an idea through prototyping and to market launch. Typically, High-Tech Gruenderfonds invests EUR 500,000 in the seed stage, with the potential for up to a total of EUR 2 million per portfolio company in follow-on financing. Investors in this public/private partnership include the Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy, the KfW Banking Group, as well as strategic corporate investors including ALTANA, BASF, Bayer, B. Braun, Robert Bosch, CEWE, Daimler, Deutsche Post DHL, Deutsche Telekom, Evonik, Lanxess, media + more venture Beteiligungs GmbH & Co. KG, METRO, Qiagen, RWE Innogy, SAP, Tengelmann and Carl Zeiss. High-Tech Gruenderfonds has about EUR 576 million under management in two funds (EUR 272 million HTGF I, EUR 304 million HTGF II).

Contact:
High-Tech Gründerfonds Management GmbH
Klaus Lehmann
Schlegelstraße 2
53113 Bonn
Tel: + 49 228 82 30 01-15
Fax: + 49 228  82 30 00-50
k.lehmann@htgf.de
www.htgf.de