Kirchner Solar Group Founds Subsidiary in Athens

Kirchner Solar Group has founded its subsidiary, by the name of Kirchner Solar Hellas, in Athens.The new company will contribute to developing and establishing specific regional solutions for the Greek solar market. Operations start with four Greek employees and the location will be opened on February 1. With 300 days of sunshine per year, Greece is one of Europe’s most appealing markets for solar companies.
By opening its subsidiary in Greece, the Kirchner Solar Group continues to expand its international business. The company benefits from the fact that the Greek solar market has not yet been exploited. By the end of 2010, only 200 Megawatts Peak of PV power were installed. One year later, this number had already grown to 600 Megawatts Peak.

“With our subsidiary in Athens we want to be an active player in this attractive solar market. Plus, we also want to add local economic value”, says Lars Kirchner, founder and CEO of Kirchner Solar Group. “By now, we already generate more than 50 percent of our turnovers abroad. We will keep expanding this share, although we are also very successful in our home market.” So far, the company runs international operations in Germany, Italy, USA, Canada, Uganda and the Ivory Coast.
Currently, the German solar industry is pushing its activities in Greece. The main reason for this is the large number of sunny days. By 2020, approximately 10,000 Megawatt photovoltaic capacities could be installed. Kirchner Solar Hellas will contribute to Kirchner Solar Group, which will benefit from this growth. The Greek subsidiary will closely cooperate in this process with its German headquarters in Hesse.
With its two managing directors, Volkmar Schönenberg, who will also remain International Sales Director, based at Kirchner Solar Group in Heinebach, Germany, and Stylianos Petrantonakis, who will oversee operations from Athens, the company will enter into the difficult market with the solar industry’s concentrated know-how.
Schönenberg says about his extended job profile: “I am particularly looking forward to the cooperation with the new Greek team and solar expert Stylianos Petrantonakis, who has joined us as CEO of Kirchner Solar Hellas from the PV project company Pairan. In addition, our strength will particularly show in a difficult market environment like this, because our years of experience enable us to offer a diversified portfolio. Together, we want to make our contribution to develop tailored solutions for the Greek market.“
The goal is to achieve a similar degree of maturity as in Germany.