GreenYellow wants to expand in electric mobility, energy storage and digital services in Brazil. The goal is to complement activities in energy efficiency and distributed solar generation, fields in which the subsidiary of the French group Casino has been operating here since 2013, said Roberto Zerkowsky, the company’s country head.
GreenYellow expects to invest R$350 million in the country this year. “The novelty for 2022 is the horizontal portfolio,” Mr. Zerkowsky said.
The company will bring to Brazil starting this year the charging solutions for electric vehicles offered in France, where it has more than 250 electric charging stations in operation. The focus is on projects that support electric mobility. According to the executive, there is potential to provide services for companies interested in electrifying their fleets, such as logistics firms and those that embraced a work-from-home policy.
In January, GreenYellow closed a local partnership with NewCharge, a Brazilian engineering and development company for electric power storage. “The intention is to expand the number of charging stations in Brazil. We are monitoring the expansion of electric vehicles,” Mr. Zerkowsky said.
GreenYellow is also expanding its solar power generation capacity in Brazil. The goal is to add more than 50 megawatts in generation plants to the portfolio this year and reach an installed capacity of 150 MW in the country by December.
The growth strategy may involve acquisitions of projects and development of own plants, the executive said. In November, GreenYellow unveiled the purchase of a 90% stake in five distributed generation solar plants from FazSol around Brasília, with a capacity of 4.4 megawatts-peak.
In 2021, GreenYellow grossed R$304 million in Brazil, up 83% year over year. The company operates in eight countries in the solar power, trading, energy management and energy efficiency businesses. The company entered Poland last year as part of its strategy to expand operations in emerging countries, which includes South America and Asia.
GreenYellow ended last year with an installed power generation capacity of 740 MWp around the world, up 31% year over year. The company has 3,000 efficiency projects in place worldwide, which meant global power savings of 985 gigawatt hours by 2021.
About a third of the global volume of energy saved by GreenYellow’s clients last year came from contracts in Brazil. “We are talking about R$140 million in savings [with energy efficiency], given the tariffs of the Brazilian market,” he said.
Mr. Zerkowsky predicts that the segment will grow worldwide with the crisis generated by the war in Europe, which raised energy prices. Considering the higher demand for efficiency seen before the war, the company started to offer service contracts in Brazil in the last few months.
This way, GreenYellow makes available the rental of equipment that helps save energy and takes responsibility for the operation and maintenance during the entire contract. This type of solution brings greater predictability to the customers’ cash flow, Mr. Zerkowsky said. The model was used in an agreement for the lighting of Leroy Merlin stores, for example.
Grupo Profarma, Lojas Quero Quero and Panvel signed contracts with GreenYellow in Brazil in 2021. Mr. Zerkowsky points out that, today, the group’s clients are mainly companies from the pharmaceutical, telecommunications and retail sectors, but the intention is to also cut deals with mining, metallurgy and food processing companies this year. “We are in a growth pace in Brazil,” the executive said.
According to him, the company maintains its intention to go public, as announced last year. However, there is still no definition about deadlines.
Source: Valor International