Important wins and outlook
During the first part of 2018, Alfen enjoyed many important new client and project wins. Some examples include:
Smart grid solutions:
- Solarcentury: connecting solar farms Twence (17.5 MWp in Hengelo, the Netherlands) and Nyrstar (45 MWp in Budel, the Netherlands) to the grid;
- Allego: New framework contract for the supply of transformer substations to connect Allego’s EV charging stations in various countries;
EV charging equipment:
- Vattenfall: expanded existing contract for EV chargers (covering the Netherlands, Germany and Sweden) to also include the UK and Ireland;
- E.On: New framework contract for supplying EV chargers across various European countries;
Energy storage systems:
- BMW: supplying a mobile integrated storage and fast charging solution to one of BMW AG’s EV test locations in Munich;
- Lidl: supplying a storage system for self-consumption of renewable energy, grid congestion management and energy trading at a distribution centre in Nijmegen, the Netherlands.
Alfen continues to anticipate positive market developments in all its business lines. Alfen’s Smart grids business line is expected to continue to benefit from grid investments by grid operators as well as continued investments in solar PV. The EV charging business line is expected to benefit from various new EV models that are announced to come to the market in 2018 and 2019, further driving the need for EV charging equipment. Driven by the increased penetration of EVs and continued roll-out of renewables, Alfen expects the demand for energy storage to further increase. In addition, the company increasingly benefits from repeat customers and its capability to offer integrated solutions across all business lines.
The company believes that it is ready to further reap the benefits from its recent and new innovations. Examples include the ‘Eichrecht’ (German regulation related to data) compliant EV charger for the German public charging market, a special substation which was developed to facilitate large-scale solar PV farms and newly developed applications for TheBattery related to mobile applications (e.g. at festivals), ultrafast EV charging and data centres.
Alfen expects to further benefit from its expanded international footprint and plan to continue expanding its international salesforce. In addition, the recent acquisition of Elkamo will add to Alfen’s international footprint in smart grid solutions. Alfen also intends to use Alfen Elkamo as a platform to grow the EV charging and energy storage businesses in the Nordics.
Based on the first half-year performance and current visibility, the company reconfirms its full-year 2018 revenue visibility of over €99m, with expected additional positive impact from the Elkamo acquisition in the second half-year of 2018.