Latin American Solar Market Insights with Carlos Abad, CPS America | EP279

Today on the Clean Power Hour, Tim Montague sits down with Carlos Abad, the newly appointed head of Latin American markets for CPS America. Recorded at Intersolar San Diego, this conversation offers insights into the growing solar and energy storage markets across Latin America, with a particular focus on Mexico's promising 7-8 gigawatt solar market potential for 2025.

Carlos shares his journey from being an architect caught in the 2008 recession to becoming a solar industry leader. Starting with a self-built solar trailer for a farmers market in Miami to working with companies like Sun Electronics, Tesla, and now returning to CPS America, his career path demonstrates the evolving opportunities in renewable energy. The discussion provides a comprehensive overview of Latin American markets, including Mexico, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, and others, highlighting the unique challenges and opportunities in each region.

This episode is essential listening for anyone interested in international solar markets, energy storage integration, and the future of renewable energy in Latin America. Carlos' expertise in both technical installation (as a NABCEP certified professional) and market strategy offers valuable perspectives for industry professionals and enthusiasts alike.

Episode Highlights:

• Carlos Abad's journey from architecture to solar, including his first off-grid system design and NABCEP certification
• Mexico's renewable energy outlook under new leadership with projected 7-8GW solar market and 700-900 MWh storage market for 2025
• Overview of key Latin American solar markets, including Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Panama, and Colombia
• Discussion of Puerto Rico's energy transformation following Hurricane Maria and current utility restructuring
• Insights into CPS America's product strategy for Latin America, focusing on 250/600V and 350/800V inverters
• The growing importance of integrated solar and energy storage solutions

Listen now to gain valuable insights into one of renewable energy's most dynamic and promising regions from an industry veteran with over 15 years of experience in sustainable energy solutions.

Social Media Handles

Carlos Abad

CPS America

Transcript

Carlos Abad: 0:51

To me, a strategy is very important. And Mexico right now has a president that studied in Stanford, I believe, for sustainability, and she wants to push more renewables. So now we're looking for solar production plus energy storage in different programs. You know, they have a centralized energy product utility in Mexico, because it's, it's a state or country owned, and so they are pushing renewables, and we see maybe, like a seven, eight gigawatt market, and maybe 700 to 900 megawatt hour market for 2025

intro: 1:32

are you speeding the energy transition here at the Clean Power Hour, our host, Tim Montague, bring you the best in solar, batteries and clean technologies every week. Want to go deeper into decarbonization. We do too. We are here to help you understand and command the commercial, residential and utility, solar, wind and storage industries. So let's get to it together. We can speed the energy transition

Tim Montague: 1:59

today on the Clean Power Hour, we're at inner solar San Diego, and I'm with Carlos Abad. He's the head of the Latin American market for CPS America. Welcome to the show, Carlos, thank

Carlos Abad: 2:09

you. Tim. Nice to meet you and seeing in you in the show, yeah,

Tim Montague: 2:12

for sure. So tell our listeners a little bit about yourself. How did Where are you from originally, and how did you get into solar?

Carlos Abad: 2:18

Yes. So my name is Carlos Abad. I'm originally from Colombia. I'm an architect by trade. I finished my career and 2008 and there was obviously there was something happening in the market in 2008 for architects, and there's not much construction. And through my career, I always designed it sustainably, conceptually. But when I got out of when I got into the world and architecture was not such a career at the moment, okay, I turned into sustainability, and I started doing photovoltaics.

Tim Montague: 2:56

What was that they used? First 1006 2007 Okay,

Carlos Abad: 3:02

yeah, pretty early. The first inter interactive inverters came out at that time to connect with the utility in Miami, and so I needed to do something for, like, what was going to be my my play, because, you know, architect with no jobs working in in Best Buy as a receptionist, didn't, didn't work out. So I did the first farmers market in the city of Doral in Miami. And to get the permits I needed to have a way to have electricity, refrigeration and a place to wash your hands. And so I built in the at FIU, Florida International University. I built a solar trailer that had 252 50 gallon tanks. It had a VR 2424 2400 watts, 24 volts with lead acid batteries. I had a 12 volt refrigerator and four lead acid batteries

Tim Montague: 4:05

when I got that. This was a small commercial system or residential system.

Carlos Abad: 4:08

No, no. This was in a little trailer that you could move it to different places. It was for the farmers market, gotcha,

Tim Montague: 4:14

gotcha, gotcha. Yeah, all right. So you were designing an off grid system. I was, it

Carlos Abad: 4:18

was my first off grid system, conceptually through book. And then I got hired by a company in Miami. The owner of this company asked me, it's a cool story. So, so, so he asked me, Hey, now that you did this and you worked, would you want to work for me? His name was James. His name is John Kimball from Sun electronics. And I told him, yes, you could Sun electronics, Sun electronics, okay, do they still exist? Yeah, they still exist. Oh, right on. So. So I told him, yeah, you could hire me, if you hire me and four more people my wife and three architect friends that came from school, and he said, Yes, oh, wow. From there, I went to Sei. Took a lot of courses, solar energy International. Solar Energy International, yeah, in Colorado, in Colorado, I went to peonia many times. I got educated with them.

Tim Montague: 5:13

She got NABCEP certified.

Carlos Abad: 5:14

Yes, I am a Napster, professionally certified as a professional installer

Tim Montague: 5:19

the PB IP VIP. I'm a big fan of NABCEP certification. If you're not NABCEP certified, you want to be. And they have all different kinds on PB, technical sales. They have design certification, O and M, all, you know, all flavors, but the PVI, P is the most technical. Generally, I'm

Carlos Abad: 5:38

also part of their PBA exam committee to translate into Spanish for the for navsep. So, so, yeah, I do recommend navsep. Everybody at NAB said, Yeah. Much Love you. Saludos el esquere. So fast

Tim Montague: 5:53

forward, what year did you start working for CPS?

Carlos Abad: 5:57

So wait, okay, so I went to Sei studied, and they were opening the Latin American division to teach in Spanish the SEI courses. Sure. So I was one of the first instructors for them that taught in Chile, that taught in Colombia, that taught in Mexico. And I became an sei instructor.

Tim Montague: 6:20

What year was that? That was 2011

Carlos Abad: 6:23

Wow. So from 2014 years, I started working on this, and then in 2011 I think I became instructor and and then we took it from there. Then I got my naps up. I worked for a Keiko with new energy now Siemens. Then went to CPS, where I started the Latin Americas at that time, I think that must have been 2017 did it for three years? You know, we did really well. There is an organization already working in this market.

Tim Montague: 7:01

Did you relocate to Texas? Then when you No, I was out of Texas. We

Carlos Abad: 7:04

opened offices in Mexico and and we structure it in 2019 I was hired by Tesla. I worked for Tesla for four years, mainly on the large batteries, the mega packs, and then the Tesla solar roof, because I have an architectural background, yes. And then left CPS and then, and then came back to run the Latin Americans, once again. All right, come back. It's been now three weeks. No way. Yes, holy cow, yeah. It's pretty exciting time. You know, Chint is a very large corporation. It has a lot of products, so it has a full integration, which is what I like,

Tim Montague: 7:45

yeah, inverters, batteries,

Carlos Abad: 7:49

energy storage.

Tim Montague: 7:51

And, you know, in China, they're the GE of China. So they make transformers, they make substation equipment. And if you're doing community scale or larger solar projects, you can get the inverter and the transformer as package. So that can be a angle to play in terms of supply chain, it can have lower you can have lower lead times for Well, that's

Carlos Abad: 8:20

what I'm purchased, that's what I'm betting on, right? Like, we have everything in house, and that integration also, you know, connects with the other faces. So you're really dealing with only one company that does the whole thing right. We could go as far as as far as we It benefits end user, and that's how we see it.

Tim Montague: 8:43

The Clean Power Hour is brought to you by CPS America, maker of North America's number one three phase string inverter with over eight gigawatts shipped in the US. The CPS product lineup includes string inverters ranging from 25 kW to 350 kW, their flagship inverter, the CPS 350 KW is designed to work with solar plants ranging from two megawatts to two gigawatts. CPS is the world's most bankable inverter brand, and is America's number one choice for solar plants now offering solutions for commercial utility ESS and balance of system requirements go to Chint Power systems.com or call 855-584-7168, to find out more. Tell us about the Latin American market. We don't hear much about it here in the US, right? We're, we're, we have a booming solar market. We're going to do, I think we did 50 gigawatts. The word on the street is we did 50 gigawatts in 2024 up from 40 gigawatts the year before. I don't know what the predictions are, or the projections are for 2025 but anyway, we're on a tear. What is going on in Latin America?

Carlos Abad: 9:57

Yeah, Latin America is a very interesting market. Obviously, the head of the solar is the United States, because, you know, this is where the dollar is produced, and it's such a great economy, right? It's a beautiful country, Latin America is kind of like picking and bagging a little bit in US standards, which makes the cost a little bit higher, but it's also very competitive. So call

Tim Montague: 10:26

out some markets. What are some markets that are showing growth in solar because all markets ebb and flow, as we know, there is a solar coaster on a country by country basis and on a market by market basis. And in a larger country like the US, it's very regional. But what do you see happening in Latin America, correct?

Carlos Abad: 10:45

So to me, a strategy is very important, and Mexico right now has. A president that studied in Stanford, I believe, for sustainability, and she wants to push more renewable so now we're looking for solar production plus energy storage in different programs. You know, they have a centralized energy product utility in Mexico, because it's a it's a state or country owned, and so they are pushing renewables. And we see maybe like a seven, eight gigawatt market, and maybe 700 to 900 megawatt hour market for 2025 then we're looking at Puerto Rico, and mainly focusing for UL standard countries right now, because that's the product that we have here, and then we also have the IEC version. But we, you know, strategically, what are the products that we want to benefit the country we're working on? They all have different standards. They all have different programs. So let's talk about the top 10, and then if you have questions, we can talk about it. So we go Mexico, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Panama, Ecuador, Colombia, Peru, Honduras, Guatemala, Salvador. So those are kind of like the main focus where we see potential growth, maybe, like a 30 to 40 gigawatt in a conglomeration

Tim Montague: 12:20

as a whole and in the US, one of the driving forces, as my listeners know, is, for example, the RPS, the renewable portfolio standard. Does Latin America use renewable portfolio standards, or how do they incentivize the adoption of clean energy?

Carlos Abad: 12:36

Well, you know, in some countries, the high cost of energy in some other ones, that they do have regulations where you could work with digitalities and create programs that that could benefit. There's some types, some tax advantages in, in in, in some some countries as

Tim Montague: 12:52

well. Let's talk about Mexico. For example, if I'm a CNI customer in Mexico and I want to reduce my power bill, so I'm looking at renewable energy. Is it solar and storage? Are there any incentives for solar and batteries? Is it like an ITC style incentive, a tax incentive. There's,

Carlos Abad: 13:14

there is no ITC incentives, there's higher costs of energy. Yes, they Well, let me get back. Maybe there are some tax incentives, but they're not structure as we see them in the United States. So there might be some benefits depending on the location, where you are, where the benefits if you put in batteries. How is that? If there is a grid support program, I mean, everybody's piloting different programs with utilities and Mexico, even though it's not part of the United States, they have a pretty sophisticated grid, especially in the northern side of Mexico. So and then you have Cabos, which is not interconnected to the Mexican grid. And then you're running all in micro grids. I

Tim Montague: 13:59

didn't understand that word you used, which one? And then we have Los

Carlos Abad: 14:04

Cabos. Los Cabos like the going south of Mexico, yeah, COVID San Lucas, the little arm that goes outside of Mexico, which is Mexican. It's all microgrids, very wealthy. Baja Yeah, Baja California. Okay, cows, Baja California. Yeah, okay, my English is not very good looking, so, yeah,

Tim Montague: 14:27

I mean, that is the name of the state there. It's Baja California. Baja California. You're right, right, right. Okay, well, it sounds complicated. It's

Carlos Abad: 14:35

it's a work in progress. Yeah,

Tim Montague: 14:38

so Mexico, Puerto Rico, I'm curious. I heard that Puerto Rico is a good solar market. Again, we don't hear a lot about it. We hear more about the bad news that's happening in Puerto Rico, like the grid outage that happened not too far long ago. But what are you seeing in Puerto Rico?

Carlos Abad: 14:57

Puerto Rico is a very interesting market. You know, the hurricane Maria, which is what broke the whole utility then they had a chance. What four years ago now, that was like, more like seven now. Now they went from prePA to Luma, which is a change of utilities and structures. They have the BPP programs going on for residential and, I guess more commercial. You know, they're rebuilding their grid, finally, supposedly, now they're getting the money that they were supposed to get about seven years ago. So they are rebuilding, and they are, you know, there, it's also a tax haven. So there is a lot of projects that I know, a lot of megawatt hours that are being installed in the market. And us with the five megawatt hour block. And or the argon so we could have a pretty good so

Tim Montague: 15:57

we're standing here in front of the the whole Chint product lineup, from small DG three phase string to large, ground mount, 1500 volt three phase string, right, right. What? What in terms of Latin American adoption, what are some of the products that you're seeing are more popular?

Carlos Abad: 16:15

So I am going to focus on the 250, 600 volt. On the 350, 800 volt. We're going to do the CNI ESS, and then we're very focused on the power block, yeah, because, like places like Ecuador, where they're they use a lot of hydroelectric and they haven't and they're not functioning well, they're having a lot of energy cut outs. Something like that will really help them get on their feet and produce with solar energy like now, the combination of solar and energy storage is just like a symbiotic that's

Tim Montague: 16:53

the peanut butter and jelly Exactly,

Carlos Abad: 16:55

exactly

Tim Montague: 16:57

they eat in Latin America. But you tell me, you'll

Carlos Abad: 17:01

be surprised, yeah. Now we're a global we're all global now,

Tim Montague: 17:06

okay, so what else should our listeners know about the Latin American market?

Carlos Abad: 17:13

You know, CPS is focused. What my focus with, with the organization in LATAM, is service focused, engineering focus. We make products that will last. I mean, there's a lot of experience in the US, the chin group, again, it's a very large corporation, and we have an integration of a lot of systems. So I think we have the right combination for to actually make very good well installed, you know, systems in LA time at a good cost, because, you know, we have to be competitive

Tim Montague: 17:52

very well. Check out all of our content at Clean Power hour.com. Please give us a rating and a review on Apple or Spotify. Check out our YouTube channel. Reach out to me on LinkedIn. I love hearing from my listeners on LinkedIn, and with that, I want to thank Carlos Abad of CPS, head of Latin American market. Let's grow solar and storage. How can our listeners find you? Carlos,

Carlos Abad: 18:14

you guys could send me an email, Carlos dot Abad at Tim power.com it's my email. Or you could look me up in LinkedIn. Carlos Abad, CPS, or any, any keywords that you guys, last time you want to put in probably find me right away. Let's

Tim Montague: 18:31

grow solar and storage. I'm Tim Montague, thank you. Thank you. Bye.