Opinion

Q&A: Reza Shaybani, BPVA

REI: What have you got planned for 2015?
RS: We have already seen a strong start to 2015 and we are confident that the solar industry will grow still stronger. We are supporting our members to achieve their goals. We do this by strong and positive on-going dialog with the government, organising conferences, networking events, trade missions and other educational platforms to connect them to the customers.

Our overseas activities are also coming along well. Our recent ministerial trade mission to India resulted in $1.2 billion signed contracts for the members who joined the energy minister and I. Similar activities are planned in Jordan, Morocco, Egypt and Algeria. We believe that the UK solar industry has a lot to offer the new and emerging markets. We have a lot to offer in terms of financial management, knowledge, expertise, training and market development. We are organising a number of events in the coming months which are ideal educational and networking platforms for the members and the industry.

What do you see as the growth area for renewables?
I can only talk about solar and energy storage which are our main areas. In solar we will see the cost reduction continuing in 2015 which will result in more deployment. In our view, the residential market will be very strong in the UK. Also as subsidies are reduced and energy storage system prices are coming down, more and more PV systems will be installed with storage. This is a whole new market with major potential for our members.

How is your organisation cutting its carbon footprint?
We encourage our team and all our members to pay attention to energy efficiency which in our view is a form of energy generation. We also encourage everyone to cut unnecessary journeys, be more aware of the damage to environment in using paper for example. We have banned printing e-mails in our organisation!

Reza Shaybani is chairman of the BPVA