Solar Supplier Consolidation: Soligent Acquires Conergy Distribution Business

Solar product specialty distributors may seem like a small slice of the electrical products space, but it’s an active area for consolidation. Last week Soligent Distribution LLC, a solar products distributor based in Rohnert Park, Calif., moved to further increase its coverage in the North American solar market by acquiring the distribution assets of Conergy, a large solar developer and distributor based in Hamburg, Germany.

The addition of Conergy’s solar distribution business brings Soligent’s client base to over 5,000 dealers and installers and a presence in more than 40 countries. Soligent, which is owned by a group of private investors, doesn’t publicize its revenue stream but said it now delivers annual sales “in the hundreds of millions of dollars.”

Soligent began with the combination of two of the most successful early solar distributors, DC Power Systems and Solar Depot, by Japanese import-export conglomerate Itochu, which then sold to its present ownership group in July 2013. Three months later, Soligent acquired the distribution business of another German solar company, Energiebau Solarstromsysteme GmbH. In March this year, Soligent bought rival SunWise, San Jose, Calif., which added office locations in California, New York, Oregon, Hawaii and Arizona.

Soligent concentrates on building the base of small to mid-size independent installers, including a growing number of electrical contractors, by providing a lot of administrative support and training as well as consolidated purchasing power, inventory and logistics. The company is positioning itself to create a bottom-up alternative to more vertically integrated competitors in residential and commercial solar such as SolarCity and SunRun.

Jonathan Doochin, CEO of Soligent, said in a recent column in Solar Power World that in the solar space, “the future of distribution will be increasingly focused on services. Pure-play solar distributors, for instance, will become a source for residential and commercial financing. Permitting and project design will be automated through cloud platforms created and managed by distributors.”

Soligent launched a service in January this year, called Solar Engine, which it billed as a modular “virtual back-office” package that provides services such as preparing bids, arranging financing and supporting solar system design and deployment. According to a release the time, “Solar Engine amalgamates the talents of independent dealers into a virtual organization so that they can compete against larger dealers without giving up their autonomy or brand names and also uses its large economy of scale to reduce the cost of project management, financing materials management and other costs… Solar Engine will also provide a pathway for electricians, roofers and HVAC specialists to add solar as a service offering.”