Friendly Energy goes abroad, signing ¤15 deal with Italy.

Israeli company to supply photovoltaic panels for solar energy production to a solar farm.

By YUVAL AZULAY
Solar Panels 311 (photo credit: Bloomberg)
Solar Panels 311
(photo credit: Bloomberg)
Israel’s Friendly Energy Ltd. and Germany’s AEG Power Solutions GmbH will supply ¤15 million worth of photovoltaic panels for solar energy production to a solar farm in southern Italy. The mono-crystalline panels are manufactured by China’s Gesolar Ltd.
A year ago, Friendly Energy, run by CEO Danny Denan, signed an exclusive collaboration agreement with Gesolar to market its products in Israel and Italy. Under a deal signed a few days ago, Gesolar will deliver 50,000 PV panels to AEG for the production of 10 megawatts of electricity at an Italian solar farm. AEG will install the panels on greenhouses beginning in early 2011, as well as at other sites.
This is the first foreign deal for Friendly Energy, founded in 2009. Over the past few months, the company installed several dozens solar energy units for private and commercial customers in Israel. According to figures provided by Denan, revenue from these installations totaled NIS 12 million, and the company’s orders backlog exceeds NIS 21 million.
“Instability in the Israeli market is driving us to seek international markets. The Italian job with AEG is our first foothold in a foreign market,” Denan said.
“The similarity between the Israeli and southern Italian market is amazing in terms of climate, so it’s convenient for us to operate there.”
He added that, before the deal was signed, AEG experts visited Gesolar’s factory to test the reliability of its systems and to monitor performance.
Friendly Energy has been trying for a long to time to lead two PV power plant ventures at Ashelim in the Negev.
“These two projects are mired in bureaucracy,” said Denan.