The former CEO of Sunnova is now a leading global solar energy services company Otovo. John Berger licensed the name Otovo earlier this year from the Norwegian startup, and efforts on separate continents have now merged to offer repair services across Europe and the United States.
Berger was appointed CEO of Otovo and Andreas Thorsheim will take on the role of Chief Product Officer.
“Today marks the beginning of a new chapter for Otovo as we complete this transformative combination and create the world’s first global home energy services company,” said Berger. “Over the past two years, more than 200,000 solar and home energy jobs have been lost, leaving home and business owners with unprotected systems. Otovo is here to fill that gap with the industry’s first rapid response service at a reasonable price. We are seeing strong demand for our innovative services and expect our installed base of 45,000 homeowners to grow to 250,000 active by 2028 customers.”
“The new Otovo is strongly positioned to target the more than 30 million homeowners in the US and Europe with installed energy supplies,” said Thorsheim. “By combining our large European customer base and service operations with an AI-native technology platform, we are creating a new Otovo that can serve as the backbone of a resilient energy future. Otovo is here to serve the vast global market of energy consumers who need better service for their home and business solar systems, battery storage, EV chargers and generators.”
Otovo promotes an all-in-one energy partner model that unifies retail electricity, energy services (operations and maintenance) and grid trading through a cloud-connected virtual power plant. The AI-native Endurance platform can assess issues and route the appropriate crew in real-time, connecting technicians, trucks and installed equipment into one responsive network. The live tracking feature closes the loop with customers, while optimized routing increases first-time-fix rates while reducing trips, the company claims.
“As we evolve from an energy partner to an all-home and business partner, scale will make us increasingly faster and AI more accurate,” Berger said. “Otovo’s network of technicians, trucks and connected devices will translate that precision into true uptime at a lower service cost – earning the right to serve a greater share of the home and business markets each year.”
Many of Otovo’s U.S. customers will likely be customers with leased systems from Sunnova. The company filed for bankruptcy in June this year and SunStrong acquired Sunnova’s existing system portfolio. Based on comments about Solar energy in the world At our own location, the transition has not gone well and many Sunnova customers have indicated that they are having difficulty finding support for their solar energy and storage systems.
Otovo presents a subscription-based platform that provides maintenance, monitoring and operation assistance to these “abandoned” systems.
