Eguana Technologies appoints former Mercedes-Benz Energy executives

The Canadian battery storage company has hired Marcus Brunner and Dr. Andreas Rueckemann, both formerly of Mercedes-Benz Energy.

October 16, 2018 Eckhart Gouras

Image: Eckhart Gouras for pv magazine

Calgary-based battery storage manufacturer Eguana Technologies Inc. announced last Friday that it has appointed former Mercedes-Benz Energy executive Marcus Brunner as Chief Sales Officer to drive the company’s global growth. According to Eguana’s CEO Justin Holland “Mr. Brunner, the former Chief Sales and Marketing Officer at Mercedes-Benz Energy, has an extensive history of sales and marketing execution including Mercedes-Benz, General Electric, Zumtobel and Avnet Technologies. Under his leadership we expect to accelerate growth in all global markets.”

At the recent AllEnergy exhibition in Melbourne, Australia, pv magazine interviewed Holland about the company’s solutions and global expansion. In the U.S. and Australia the key product is the Evolve Residential Energy Storage System, which starts at 13 kWh battery capacity and runs in modular fashion to 39 kWh. Eguana’s AC coupled topology is designed for compatibility with any solar PV string or micro inverter. LG Chem’s battery modules with integrated battery management system warrant a 19.2 MWh energy throughput per 6.5 kWh module.

According to Holland, Eguana’s unique selling point is multi-pronged: “We have a number of stackable values that the other products don’t have. One of the reasons we have so much value-add is because our product was originally designed for the aggregation markets. We thought the U.S., which is our home market, would go into aggregation very quickly being led by some of the utilities, so we built the full suite of grid services into the product: frequency regulation, voltage control, aggregation for spinning reserve, etc. A lot of the other products only support backup power and self-consumption, but we had those features already built in. So that’s some of the value that we bring as the market gets more sophisticated.”

Another advantage is the fact that Eguana’s proprietary power controls can handle battery module scale-up without the need to purchase additional power control functionality. For example, the Evolve system can go from 13 kWh to 39 kWh without the need for the customer to make further investments on the power control front. Instead the customer pays only for the additional LG Chem battery modules.

In addition to Marcus Brunner, Eguana is bringing on another Mercedes-Benz Energy executive to lead European sales. Dr. Andreas Rueckemann will serve as Director of Sales Europe after heading European sales for the Mercedes-Benz Energy. In Europe Eguana’s residential solution is the Enduro product, which starts at 6.5 kWh and offers the same unique selling point as the Evolve product. As stated in the company’s October 12 press release, Eguana also “confirmed that its 3-phase commercial system, Elevate, will be certified for European and Australian markets” and expects rollouts to begin in the spring of next year.

For the Calgary-headquartered manufacturer bringing on board these senior Mercedes-Benz Energy executives is a noteworthy coup to bolster their global team and drive further growth around the world. With manufacturing facilities in Europe and North America and two decades of experience delivering grid edge power electronics for fuel cell, PV and battery applications, Eguana Technologies should gain even more traction and visibility in the coming months in a wide range of markets.

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