Latin American Solar Market Insights with Carlos Abad, CPS America | EP279

Today on the Clean Power Hour, Tim Montague sits down with Carlos Abad, the newly appointed head of Latin American markets for CPS America. Recorded at Intersolar San Diego, this conversation offers insights into the growing solar and energy storage markets across Latin America, with a particular focus on Mexico's promising 7-8 gigawatt solar market potential for 2025.

Carlos shares his journey from being an architect caught in the 2008 recession to becoming a solar industry leader. Starting with a self-built solar trailer for a farmers market in Miami to working with companies like Sun Electronics, Tesla, and now returning to CPS America, his career path demonstrates the evolving opportunities in renewable energy. The discussion provides a comprehensive overview of Latin American markets, including Mexico, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, and others, highlighting the unique challenges and opportunities in each region.

This episode is essential listening for anyone interested in international solar markets, energy storage integration, and the future of renewable energy in Latin America. Carlos' expertise in both technical installation (as a NABCEP certified professional) and market strategy offers valuable perspectives for industry professionals and enthusiasts alike.

Episode Highlights:

• Carlos Abad's journey from architecture to solar, including his first off-grid system design and NABCEP certification
• Mexico's renewable energy outlook under new leadership with projected 7-8GW solar market and 700-900 MWh storage market for 2025
• Overview of key Latin American solar markets, including Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Panama, and Colombia
• Discussion of Puerto Rico's energy transformation following Hurricane Maria and current utility restructuring
• Insights into CPS America's product strategy for Latin America, focusing on 250/600V and 350/800V inverters
• The growing importance of integrated solar and energy storage solutions

Listen now to gain valuable insights into one of renewable energy's most dynamic and promising regions from an industry veteran with over 15 years of experience in sustainable energy solutions.

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Carlos Abad

CPS America

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in different programs. You know,they have a centralized energy
product utility in Mexico,because it's, it's a state or

(00:26):
country owned, and so they arepushing renewables, and we see
maybe, like a seven, eightgigawatt market, and maybe 700
to 900 megawatt hour market for2025

intro (00:42):
are you speeding the energy transition here at the
Clean Power Hour, our host, TimMontague, bring you the best in
solar, batteries and cleantechnologies every week. Want to
go deeper into decarbonization.
We do too. We are here to helpyou understand and command the
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industries. So let's get to ittogether. We can speed the

(01:03):
energy transition

Tim Montague (01:08):
today on the Clean Power Hour, we're at inner solar
San Diego, and I'm with CarlosAbad. He's the head of the Latin
American market for CPS America.
Welcome to the show, Carlos,thank

Carlos Abad (01:18):
you. Tim. Nice to meet you and seeing in you in
the show, yeah,

Tim Montague (01:22):
for sure. So tell our listeners a little bit about
yourself. How did Where are youfrom originally, and how did you
get into solar?

Carlos Abad (01:28):
Yes. So my name is Carlos Abad. I'm originally from
Colombia. I'm an architect bytrade. I finished my career and
2008 and there was obviouslythere was something happening in
the market in 2008 forarchitects, and there's not much
construction. And through mycareer, I always designed it

(01:49):
sustainably, conceptually. Butwhen I got out of when I got
into the world and architecturewas not such a career at the
moment, okay, I turned intosustainability, and I started
doing photovoltaics.

Tim Montague (02:05):
What was that they used? First 1006 2007 Okay,

Carlos Abad (02:11):
yeah, pretty early.
The first inter interactiveinverters came out at that time
to connect with the utility inMiami, and so I needed to do
something for, like, what wasgoing to be my my play, because,
you know, architect with no jobsworking in in Best Buy as a
receptionist, didn't, didn'twork out. So I did the first

(02:33):
farmers market in the city ofDoral in Miami. And to get the
permits I needed to have a wayto have electricity,
refrigeration and a place towash your hands. And so I built
in the at FIU, FloridaInternational University. I
built a solar trailer that had252 50 gallon tanks. It had a VR

(02:56):
2424 2400 watts, 24 volts withlead acid batteries. I had a 12
volt refrigerator and four leadacid batteries

Tim Montague (03:14):
when I got that.
This was a small commercialsystem or residential system.

Carlos Abad (03:18):
No, no. This was in a little trailer that you could
move it to different places. Itwas for the farmers market,
gotcha,

Tim Montague (03:24):
gotcha, gotcha.
Yeah, all right. So you weredesigning an off grid system. I
was, it

Carlos Abad (03:28):
was my first off grid system, conceptually
through book. And then I gothired by a company in Miami. The
owner of this company asked me,it's a cool story. So, so, so he
asked me, Hey, now that you didthis and you worked, would you
want to work for me? His namewas James. His name is John
Kimball from Sun electronics.
And I told him, yes, you couldSun electronics, Sun

(03:51):
electronics, okay, do they stillexist? Yeah, they still exist.
Oh, right on. So. So I told him,yeah, you could hire me, if you
hire me and four more people mywife and three architect friends
that came from school, and hesaid, Yes, oh, wow. From there,
I went to Sei. Took a lot ofcourses, solar energy

(04:11):
International. Solar EnergyInternational, yeah, in
Colorado, in Colorado, I went topeonia many times. I got
educated with them.

Tim Montague (04:22):
She got NABCEP certified.

Carlos Abad (04:23):
Yes, I am a Napster, professionally
certified as a professionalinstaller

Tim Montague (04:28):
the PB IP VIP. I'm a big fan of NABCEP
certification. If you're notNABCEP certified, you want to
be. And they have all differentkinds on PB, technical sales.
They have design certification,O and M, all, you know, all
flavors, but the PVI, P is themost technical. Generally, I'm

Carlos Abad (04:47):
also part of their PBA exam committee to translate
into Spanish for the for navsep.
So, so, yeah, I do recommendnavsep. Everybody at NAB said,
Yeah. Much Love you. Saludos elesquere. So fast

Tim Montague (05:02):
forward, what year did you start working for CPS?

Carlos Abad (05:06):
So wait, okay, so I went to Sei studied, and they
were opening the Latin Americandivision to teach in Spanish the
SEI courses. Sure. So I was oneof the first instructors for
them that taught in Chile, thattaught in Colombia, that taught
in Mexico. And I became an seiinstructor.

Tim Montague (05:29):
What year was that? That was 2011

Carlos Abad (05:32):
Wow. So from 2014 years, I started working on
this, and then in 2011 I think Ibecame instructor and and then
we took it from there. Then Igot my naps up. I worked for a
Keiko with new energy nowSiemens. Then went to CPS, where

(05:54):
I started the Latin Americas atthat time, I think that must
have been 2017 did it for threeyears? You know, we did really
well. There is an organizationalready working in this market.

Tim Montague (06:10):
Did you relocate to Texas? Then when you No, I
was out of Texas. We

Carlos Abad (06:13):
opened offices in Mexico and and we structure it
in 2019 I was hired by Tesla. Iworked for Tesla for four years,
mainly on the large batteries,the mega packs, and then the
Tesla solar roof, because I havean architectural background,
yes. And then left CPS and then,and then came back to run the

(06:37):
Latin Americans, once again. Allright, come back. It's been now
three weeks. No way. Yes, holycow, yeah. It's pretty exciting
time. You know, Chint is a verylarge corporation. It has a lot
of products, so it has a fullintegration, which is what I
like,

Tim Montague (06:54):
yeah, inverters, batteries,

Carlos Abad (06:58):
energy storage.

Tim Montague (07:00):
And, you know, in China, they're the GE of China.
So they make transformers, theymake substation equipment. And
if you're doing community scaleor larger solar projects, you
can get the inverter and thetransformer as package. So that
can be a angle to play in termsof supply chain, it can have

(07:24):
lower you can have lower leadtimes for Well, that's

Carlos Abad (07:29):
what I'm purchased, that's what I'm betting on,
right? Like, we have everythingin house, and that integration
also, you know, connects withthe other faces. So you're
really dealing with only onecompany that does the whole
thing right. We could go as faras as far as we It benefits end
user, and that's how we see it.

Tim Montague (07:52):
The Clean Power Hour is brought to you by CPS
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CPS product lineup includesstring inverters ranging from 25
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(08:14):
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(08:35):
call 855-584-7168, to find outmore. Tell us about the Latin
American market. We don't hearmuch about it here in the US,
right? We're, we're, we have abooming solar market. We're
going to do, I think we did 50gigawatts. The word on the
street is we did 50 gigawatts in2024 up from 40 gigawatts the

(08:58):
year before. I don't know whatthe predictions are, or the
projections are for 2025 butanyway, we're on a tear. What is
going on in Latin America?

Carlos Abad (09:07):
Yeah, Latin America is a very interesting market.
Obviously, the head of the solaris the United States, because,
you know, this is where thedollar is produced, and it's
such a great economy, right?
It's a beautiful country, LatinAmerica is kind of like picking
and bagging a little bit in USstandards, which makes the cost

(09:29):
a little bit higher, but it'salso very competitive. So call

Tim Montague (09:35):
out some markets.
What are some markets that areshowing growth in solar because
all markets ebb and flow, as weknow, there is a solar coaster
on a country by country basisand on a market by market basis.
And in a larger country like theUS, it's very regional. But what
do you see happening in LatinAmerica, correct?

Carlos Abad (09:54):
So to me, a strategy is very important, and
Mexico right now has. Apresident that studied in
Stanford, I believe, forsustainability, and she wants to
push more renewable so now we'relooking for solar production
plus energy storage in differentprograms. You know, they have a
centralized energy productutility in Mexico, because it's

(10:19):
a it's a state or country owned,and so they are pushing
renewables. And we see maybelike a seven, eight gigawatt
market, and maybe 700 to 900megawatt hour market for 2025
then we're looking at PuertoRico, and mainly focusing for UL

(10:41):
standard countries right now,because that's the product that
we have here, and then we alsohave the IEC version. But we,
you know, strategically, whatare the products that we want to
benefit the country we'reworking on? They all have
different standards. They allhave different programs. So
let's talk about the top 10, andthen if you have questions, we

(11:02):
can talk about it. So we goMexico, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica,
Dominican Republic, Panama,Ecuador, Colombia, Peru,
Honduras, Guatemala, Salvador.
So those are kind of like themain focus where we see
potential growth, maybe, like a30 to 40 gigawatt in a

(11:24):
conglomeration

Tim Montague (11:29):
as a whole and in the US, one of the driving
forces, as my listeners know,is, for example, the RPS, the
renewable portfolio standard.
Does Latin America use renewableportfolio standards, or how do
they incentivize the adoption ofclean energy?

Carlos Abad (11:45):
Well, you know, in some countries, the high cost of
energy in some other ones, thatthey do have regulations where
you could work with digitalitiesand create programs that that
could benefit. There's sometypes, some tax advantages in,
in in, in some some countries as

Tim Montague (12:01):
well. Let's talk about Mexico. For example, if
I'm a CNI customer in Mexico andI want to reduce my power bill,
so I'm looking at renewableenergy. Is it solar and storage?
Are there any incentives forsolar and batteries? Is it like
an ITC style incentive, a taxincentive. There's,

Carlos Abad (12:23):
there is no ITC incentives, there's higher costs
of energy. Yes, they Well, letme get back. Maybe there are
some tax incentives, but they'renot structure as we see them in
the United States. So theremight be some benefits depending
on the location, where you are,where the benefits if you put in

(12:44):
batteries. How is that? If thereis a grid support program, I
mean, everybody's pilotingdifferent programs with
utilities and Mexico, eventhough it's not part of the
United States, they have apretty sophisticated grid,
especially in the northern sideof Mexico. So and then you have
Cabos, which is notinterconnected to the Mexican

(13:06):
grid. And then you're runningall in micro grids. I

Tim Montague (13:09):
didn't understand that word you used, which one?
And then we have Los

Carlos Abad (13:13):
Cabos. Los Cabos like the going south of Mexico,
yeah, COVID San Lucas, thelittle arm that goes outside of
Mexico, which is Mexican. It'sall microgrids, very wealthy.
Baja Yeah, Baja California.
Okay, cows, Baja California.

(13:33):
Yeah, okay, my English is notvery good looking, so, yeah,

Tim Montague (13:37):
I mean, that is the name of the state there.
It's Baja California. BajaCalifornia. You're right, right,
right. Okay, well, it soundscomplicated. It's

Carlos Abad (13:44):
it's a work in progress. Yeah,

Tim Montague (13:47):
so Mexico, Puerto Rico, I'm curious. I heard that
Puerto Rico is a good solarmarket. Again, we don't hear a
lot about it. We hear more aboutthe bad news that's happening in
Puerto Rico, like the gridoutage that happened not too far
long ago. But what are youseeing in Puerto Rico?

Carlos Abad (14:07):
Puerto Rico is a very interesting market. You
know, the hurricane Maria, whichis what broke the whole utility
then they had a chance. Whatfour years ago now, that was
like, more like seven now. Nowthey went from prePA to Luma,
which is a change of utilitiesand structures. They have the

(14:30):
BPP programs going on forresidential and, I guess more
commercial. You know, they'rerebuilding their grid, finally,
supposedly, now they're gettingthe money that they were
supposed to get about sevenyears ago. So they are
rebuilding, and they are, youknow, there, it's also a tax
haven. So there is a lot ofprojects that I know, a lot of

(14:53):
megawatt hours that are beinginstalled in the market. And us
with the five megawatt hourblock. And or the argon so we
could have a pretty good so

Tim Montague (15:06):
we're standing here in front of the the whole
Chint product lineup, from smallDG three phase string to large,
ground mount, 1500 volt threephase string, right, right.
What? What in terms of LatinAmerican adoption, what are some
of the products that you'reseeing are more popular?

Carlos Abad (15:25):
So I am going to focus on the 250, 600 volt. On
the 350, 800 volt. We're goingto do the CNI ESS, and then
we're very focused on the powerblock, yeah, because, like
places like Ecuador, wherethey're they use a lot of
hydroelectric and they haven'tand they're not functioning

(15:46):
well, they're having a lot ofenergy cut outs. Something like
that will really help them geton their feet and produce with
solar energy like now, thecombination of solar and energy
storage is just like a symbioticthat's

Tim Montague (16:02):
the peanut butter and jelly Exactly,

Carlos Abad (16:04):
exactly

Tim Montague (16:07):
they eat in Latin America. But you tell me, you'll

Carlos Abad (16:10):
be surprised, yeah.
Now we're a global we're allglobal now,

Tim Montague (16:16):
okay, so what else should our listeners know about
the Latin American market?

Carlos Abad (16:22):
You know, CPS is focused. What my focus with,
with the organization in LATAM,is service focused, engineering
focus. We make products thatwill last. I mean, there's a lot
of experience in the US, thechin group, again, it's a very
large corporation, and we havean integration of a lot of

(16:43):
systems. So I think we have theright combination for to
actually make very good wellinstalled, you know, systems in
LA time at a good cost, because,you know, we have to be
competitive

Tim Montague (17:01):
very well. Check out all of our content at Clean
Power hour.com. Please give us arating and a review on Apple or
Spotify. Check out our YouTubechannel. Reach out to me on
LinkedIn. I love hearing from mylisteners on LinkedIn, and with
that, I want to thank CarlosAbad of CPS, head of Latin
American market. Let's growsolar and storage. How can our
listeners find you? Carlos,

Carlos Abad (17:23):
you guys could send me an email, Carlos dot Abad at
Tim power.com it's my email. Oryou could look me up in
LinkedIn. Carlos Abad, CPS, orany, any keywords that you guys,
last time you want to put inprobably find me right away.
Let's

Tim Montague (17:40):
grow solar and storage. I'm Tim Montague, thank
you. Thank you. Bye.